THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



163 



of the value of nearly £60,000,000 ! But these are, 

 after all, mere vague calculations, and do not include 

 the other manures, animal and mineral, now so largely 

 applied for the improvement of our soils. 



Manure is as essential to a farm as daily food is to 

 an animal ; both must be procured at any cost. And 

 it is the careful husbanding or purchase, and proper 

 application in due season of suitable fertilizers, which 

 distinctly proves the skill and judgment of the culti- 

 vator ; for on these additions the produce of his land 



will mainly depend. To sum up, in the words of a 

 correspondent a week or two ago : " To render the 

 present refined state of chemical analysis subs;crvient 

 to the daily operations of practical husbandry, it is not 

 only necessary that the farmer sliould know the nature 

 of the mineral and saline ingredients extracted from the 

 soil by the crops raised, but that he should have the 

 means of restoring to the laud any of those ingredients 

 indispensable to the proper development of a crop, of 

 which it may be deficient." 



THE SEWAGE OF TOWNS. 

 BARON LIEBIG AND ALDERMAN MECHI. 



Sir, — I trust that the great importance of the subject 

 may induce you to give insertion to the accompanying 

 communication, which I have received from Baron 

 Liebig. 



I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 



J. J. Mechi. 

 Tiptree Hall, Kelvedon, Essex. 



Munich, Nov. 17. 



Dear Sir, — Your letter, of the 7th of November, to the 

 Times furnishes me an occasion to express to you my siucere 

 thanks for the views to which jou there give utterance, aud 

 which I have laboured many years to impress. I am sorry 

 not to be able to say that raj' efforts have been attended with 

 any perceptible results, and I regard it as a fortunate event 

 that a man of so eminently practical a character as yourself 

 has now for the first time, in the interests of agriculture, and 

 the national welfare, taken up the question of the " sewerage 

 of towns" with warmth, aud in language adapted to produce 

 conviction. 



It is my ardent wish that you may succeed in awakening 

 the English people to your own convictions ; for in that case 

 the ways and means for setting aside the difBculties which 

 stand in the way of procuring manure from the " sewerage of 

 towns" will certainly be found, aud a future generation will 

 look upon those men who have devoted their energies to the 

 attainment of this end as the greatest benefactors of their 

 country. 



The ground of my small success lies clearly in the fact that 

 the majority of farmers do not know the extent to which their 

 own interests are concerned in this matter, and because the 

 views and conceptions of most men in regard to the circuit of 

 life and the laws which govern the preservation of the race do 

 not generally rise above those of C. Fourrier, the inventor of 

 the phalanstery. He proposed, as you know, to supply the 

 wants of the occupants of his phalanstery by means of eggs. 

 He supposed it was only necessary to procure a couple of 

 hundred thousand hena, each of which would lay thirty-six 

 eggs a year, making as many million eggs, which, sold in 

 England, would produce an immense income. Fourrier knew 

 very well that hens lay eggs, but he seemed not to know that 

 in order to lay an egg they must eat an amount of corn its 

 equal in weight; and so most men do not know that the 

 fields, in order to yield their harvests, must either contain or 

 else receive from the bands of man certain conditions which 

 stand in the same relation to the products of the field as the 

 hen's food does to the eggs she lays. They think that diligent 

 tillage aud good weather are sufficient to produce a good har- 

 vest; they therefore regard this question as one in which they 

 are wholly unconcerned, and look forward carelessly and with 

 indifference to the future. 



As physicians who in the apparent signs of a young man's 

 blooming health discern the fatal worm which threatens to 

 undermine his organic frame, so in this case should those dis- 

 cerning men who are capable of comprehending the range of 

 the question raise the earlier the voice of warning. 



It is true that the diligent tillage of the fields, sunshine, 

 and timely rain are the outward conditions, perceptible to all 

 men, of good harvests ; but these are perfectly without effect 



upon the productiveness of the field, unless certain things, 

 not so easy of perception by the senses, are present in the soil, 

 and these are the elements which serve for nourishment, for 

 the production of roots, leaves, seeds, and which are present ia 

 the soil always in very small quantity, in proportion to the 

 mass of the soil itself. 



These elements are taken from the soil in the products of 

 the field — in the corn or in the flesh of the animals nourished 

 by these products, and daily experience shows that even the 

 most fruitful field ceases, after a certain aeries of harvests, to 

 produce these crops. 



A child can comprehend that under these circumstances a 

 very productive field, in order to remain very productive, or 

 even simply productive, must have the elements which bad been 

 withdrawn in the harvests perfectly restored ; that the aggre- 

 gate of the conditions must remain, in order to produce the 

 aggregate results, and that a well, however deep it may be, 

 ryhich receives no supply of water, must, in the end, become 

 empty, if its water is constantly pumped out. 



Our fields are like this well of water. For centuries those 

 elements which are indispensable to the reproduction of the 

 crops have been taken from the soil in those crops, and that, 

 too, without being restored. It has only recently been ascer- 

 tained how small a supply of these elements the soil really 

 has. A beginning has been made to restore to the fields the 

 losses which they sustain through the annual harvests, by 

 introducing from external sources manures containing the 

 same elements. Only a very few of the better informed farmers 

 perceive the necessity of this restoration, and those of them 

 who have the means have zealously endeavoured to increase 

 the amount of these elements in their fields : but by far the 

 greater part of them know nothing of such restoration. They 

 think that they may continue to take from the field as long as 

 there is anything left, and that it will be time enough to pro- 

 vide for this necessity when it knocks at their doors. They do 

 not, of course, know how large their stock on hand is, nor are 

 they aware that when the necessity shows itself there will be 

 no means to correct it ; they know not that what they have 

 wasted is irretrievable. 



The loss of these elements is brought about by the " sew- 

 erage system of towns." Of all the elements of the field 

 which, in their products, in the shape of corn and meat, are 

 carried into the cities, and there consumed, nothing, or aa 

 good aa nothing, returns to the fields. It is clear that if these 

 elements were collected without loss, and every year restored 

 to the fields, these would then retain the power to furnish 

 erery year to the cities the same quantity of corn and meat ; 

 aud it is equally clear that if the fields do not receive back 

 these elements agriculture must gradually cease. In regard 

 to the utility of the avails of the " sewerage of towns" as ma- 

 nures, no farmer, aud scarcely an intelligent man, has any 

 doubt; but as to their necessity opinions ate very various. 



Many are of the opinion that corn, meat, and manure are 

 w&res, which, like other wares, can be purchased in the market ; 

 that with the demand the price may, perhaps, rise ; but this 

 will also stimulate the production, and that all turns upon 

 having the means to purchase; and so loug as England has 

 coal and iron, she can exchange the products of her industry 

 for the corn, meat, and manure which she has not. In this 

 respect I tbmk it would be wise not to be too confident of the 



