THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



101 



compare the climate of Milan with that of Edin- 

 burgh, where ai'e situated the greatest sewer-irri- 

 gated meads of our island. 



If we place in juxtaposition the recorded obser- 

 vations of the meteorologist, we shall find that the 

 climate of these places hardly differs so widely as 

 we might expect (and in the southern portion of 

 our island the difference would be still less). 



The following table gives— I., the mean tempe- 

 rature; II., the average depth of rain, in inches ; 

 III., the average number of days on which rain falls 

 in Northern Italy and in Scotland : 



Lombardy. 



Scotland. 



But to continue my abridgment of the Com- 

 missioners' Report. It appears that no manure is 

 used on the foul-water-irrigated land, the manure 

 of the cattle fed with its produce being used else- 

 where. On all the lands irrigated with plain water, 

 a large quantity of manure is at all times used. 

 To obtain the same amount of produce from such 

 lands as are here watered by the Vettabia, it is cal- 

 culated, would require an annual amount of well- 

 decomposed manure equal to £4 8s. per acre. The 

 general conclusions to which the Commissioners 

 arrived were seven — 1. That this is the most ex- 

 tensive of applications of diluted sewage to irriga- 

 tion. 2. That the experience of the irrigations 

 around Milan adds a striking additional proof to 

 those already obtained, of the great value to agri- 

 culture of a command of pure water alone, and of 

 the immense increase of that value obtained by the 

 addition of sewage, combined with the higher tem- 

 perature derived by the liquid in its passage 

 through a town. In their third, fourth, and fifth 

 conclusions, they advise the previous deodorization 

 of English sewage, before the clear liquid is used 

 in irrigation. 6. That the risk of injury to the 

 health of the population living immediately in the 

 midst of the Milanese irrigations, is only such as 

 arises elsewhere from the similar use of large bodies 

 of water; that no increase of disease whatever is 

 traceable from the application to the land of the 

 waters of the Vettabia, in which the sewage of Mi- 

 lan is conveyed, notwithstanding the much higher 

 temperature of the climate, and the greater evapo- 



ration than is experienced in this country. And, 

 7th, they express their opinion of our " folly and 

 extravagance" in adopting expensive arrangements 

 for throwing so valuable a material away. 



The right to all running waters, it seems, be- 

 longs, in the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, to the 

 Government, by whom it is regularly leased for the 

 purposes of irrigation. In our country the sewage 

 of our towns, far exceeding in fertilizing effect the 

 waters of the Milanese, is invested by law in the 

 Commissioners of Town Sewers. There is, there- 

 fore, no reason why they should not lease it for 

 similar purposes. Surely it would be well (rather 

 than wastefuUy polluting the Thames with it) if the 

 Metropolitan Commissioners were to cause the 

 collected sewage of (for instance) the northern por- 

 tion of London to be raised from its proposed out- 

 fall on to the side of the Essex slopes, and then 

 directed, by means of partially-covered but gene- 

 rally-open channels, towards the sea. There are 

 thousands of acres of marsh-land on the sea-coast 

 of Essex, near the mouths of the Thames and the 

 Crouch, very admirably adapted to absorb the 

 whole sewage of the Metropolis. As this sewage 

 v/ould be readily leased by the owners of those ex- 

 tensive marsh-lands, a considerable revenue would 

 be raised in this way. And in an affair like this, of 

 national importance, surely, for the construction of 

 the necessary chaninels, &c., a parliamentary ad- 

 vance might be obtained, at a very low rate of in- 

 terest. The expense of pumping on a large scale, 

 with the Cornish engines, is so small that, however 

 large the demand, it could, at a sufficiently low 

 rate, be readily furnished ; and moreover, in need, 

 the great irrigation channels could be flushed, or 

 their contents diluted with the rich waters of the 

 Thames. 



That these rich streams of fertilizing matters 

 cannot be much longer allowed to be wasted, there 

 is no difference of opinion amongst those with 

 whom we have to contend ; and every one appears 

 to believe that it is an effort that must at no very 

 distant day be successfully made. It is one that, 

 in such a case as the pumping of the sewerage of a 

 huge city, can hardly be made by any private indi- 

 vidual. It ought to be accomplished, in the first 

 instance, perhaps, either by a public company or 

 by the Commissioners of Sewers; and in either 

 case, as I have before stated, for that purpose, a 

 parliamentary loan would prove of great public ad- 

 vantage. 



THE HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND. 



General Meetings are taking quite a new tm-n. It 

 is no longer the merely formal cut-and-dried business 

 that was once the etiquette of such assemblies. In 

 those halcyon days half-a-dozen Directors and a Secre- 

 tary made up the show. They passed mutual compli- 

 ments from one to the other, unanimously agreed to 

 the most agreeable of resolutions, and perhaps finished 

 by fishing up some modeBt retiring shareholder or 

 subscriber to propose a YOte of thanks to everj^ody, 



and for everything. But times are terribly changed 

 of late. The shareholder, or subscriber, or ordinary 

 member is by no means so modest or retiring now. 

 He begins to feel it to be quite a positive duty to kick 

 up a row, and to put awkward questions. When evan- 

 gelical secretaries are systematically helping them- 

 selves ; when charitably-disposed bankers are borrow- 

 mg other people's plate ; and when highly-respectable 

 solicitors are maintaining this respectability on their 



