THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



271 



Visiting Lochend on the 9th of September, just 

 after the great annual meeting of the Highland 

 Society, and in a month of general holiday-making, 

 it was hardly a matter of surprise that so many 

 persons whom I much wished to sec were from 

 home. I found, however, in the absence of Mr. 

 Taylor, the keeper of the water rneads ( William 

 Brunton), who readily gave me all the information 

 in his power. He informed me and my friend 

 and companion that he has had the care of these 

 valuable sewage-irrigated meads for about eleven 

 years j that he spends all his days amidst them ; 

 that he enjoys excellent health — indeed, to use his 

 own words when describing himself, " there is not 

 a healthier man in the world." The meads are 

 situated only about three-quarters of a mile from 

 Edinburgh, are only separated by a road from 

 numerous dwelling-houses, are about forty acres 

 in extent, and are irrigated entirely by the sewage 

 of Edinburgh flowing from the sewers of the city 

 by its own gravity. There are two arable fields, of 

 which I shall presently speak, also irrigated by the 

 sewage, but these require the aid of a pump worked 

 by a water-wheel, to raise the water to the neces- 

 sary elevation; these are about ten acres in 

 extent. 



It will be well, before we examine the mode of 

 irrigation employed, if we first examine the pre- 

 sent money value of these meads. The keeper told 

 us that these meadows are chiefly held, as tenants 

 by the season (which ends on the first of October) 

 by the Edinburgh cow-keepers; that they were 

 annually let by auction, or " rouped ;" that they 

 varied in value, some choice acres fetching nearly 

 £50 per Scotch acre (English acre 4,840 square- 

 yards, the Scotch acre 6,150), but that the average 

 rent is about £28 to £30 per acre ! 



The sewage (it closely resembled, in appearance 

 and in its odour, the sewage of London and 

 Croydon) is used in its normal state ; there are no 

 settUng pits or ponds ; no need of diluting it : they 

 prefer it when it flows to them in dry weather. 

 " The rain," said Brunton, " They makes small- 

 beer of it." The loarmer the weather, the hotter 

 the season, the more grass is produced at Lochend. 



They commence watering in February ; the sew- 

 age is then allowed to flow on to the meads for 

 about a day and a night, and no longer. This 

 watering is repeated every ten or fourteen days, 

 until the 1st of October, even when the grass is 

 growing ; only, when this is the case, care is re- 

 quired, so that the sewage shall percolate gently 

 and thinly through the grass. After the sewage 

 has passed over the Lochend meads, it flows on- 

 wards to the celebrated meads of Craigintinny : 

 there it is again used in irrigating the great grass 

 meads of that place ; but as my informant said, 



" it is there not so good as it is with us, but still 

 they are right glad to have it, and more too of the 

 same sort if they could get it." 



They cut the grass at Lochend four times, and 

 sometimes five times a-year. That which I saw 

 cutting on the 9th of September, 1858, was a capi- 

 tal heavy crop, not more than about twelve or four- 

 teen inches in height ; but it was thickly 

 matted together and laid, and so thick that the 

 lower portion of the stems was rather of the 

 yellow appearance presented by very heavy crops 

 in our own meadows, and as my companion, the 

 occupier of some Surrey grass land, of average 

 quality, remarked, " it was twice as heavy a crop as 

 he could cut at the best season of the year." There 

 were at this time several carts loading with the 

 fresh-cut grass, and carryingof itaway for the soil- 

 ing of the Edinburgh milch cows. It sometimes, 

 it seems, grows " nearly a yard high." I could 

 not but feel, when I saw these things, that Brunton 

 was not far from the truth when he observed of the 

 sewage, " Folks down South don't know the value 

 of it." 



On the north side of these fields the sloping gar- 

 dens of a mansion-house descend to the boundary 

 of the Lochend meadows; an open stream of 

 sewage circulates around its garden wall. On 

 either side of these gardens are situated the arable 

 fields, which are watered by the pump and water- 

 wheel, to which I have already referred. The field 

 nearest to Edinburgh had, when I visited it, a very 

 luxuriant crop of Italian rye-grass, sown this year 

 after a good crop of early potatoes ; this grass was 

 nearly ready for cutting, immediately after which 

 it is irrigated with the sewage, conveyed through 

 iron pipes, furnished with hydrants, and spread 

 about through hose. In 1859 this will yield five 

 good cuttings of rye-grass, and will be immediately 

 and copiously irrigated after every cutting. 



They dung, and give a little guano, it seems, for 

 the potatoes, which the keeper informed us he heard 

 valued this year at £25 an acre ; but they apply 

 nothing but the sewage to the Italian rye-grass. 

 " It needs nought but that," observed Brunton. 

 The rye-grass is grown, and irrigated for two years, 

 after which it is ploughed up for another crop. The 

 rye-grass, we are informed, 'would not continue 

 thus productive for more than two years. 



As the mansion-house, to which I have referred, is 

 in immediate juxtaposition with the Lochend 

 sewage-irrigated meads, which bound its gardens on 

 the S.E. and S., and by the occasionally sewage- 

 irrigated arable lands on the E. and W., I consi- 

 dered it very desirable to ascertain the opinion of 

 its tenant, as to the healthiness or otherwise of the 

 locality. I found that the mansion and its exten- 

 sive gardens had been only recently hired, through 



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