m 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



makes him walk amongst them as if they were not ; removed 

 from all the excitement of city life ; eujoying^ a distinctly 



all wnicn maKes iiie sweet ana nonouraoie; living 

 manor-houses, occupied often from father to son for centu- 

 ries, with their quiet country church, and honest invigo- 

 rating recreations, the farmer has the means of being one 



of the most sober-minded, sensible, independent, and happy 

 men in the realm. If he is not this, it is his own fault, or 

 the fault of parents, or clergymen, or of some external cir- 

 cumstances. He might be an anchor and a principle of 

 steadfastness to his country, and more useful, by far, in his 

 quiet circle, than many bustling men in larger spheres, and 

 of greater pretensions. — William Blake, by the Rev. W. E. 

 Heygate. 



UTILISATION OF SEWAGE 



I have read with great interest the letter lately published 

 from Mr. J. J. Mechi, of Tiptree Hall, and Baron Liebig, 

 on the question of the sewerage manures of our large 

 towns. Having been for many years largely engaged iu the 

 manufacture of artificial manures, my attention has been di- 

 rected to the waste of valuable substances washed into the 

 rivers and sea from sewers, I found that sewerage contained all 

 the elements of the very best manure — viz., phosphoric acid, 

 nitrogen, ammonis, soda, potash, magnesia, lime, soluble silica, 

 and sulphate of lime, but only ia very small proportion to an 

 enormous quantity of water, sand, clay, and iron ; and the 

 difficulty and expense of separating the fertilizing substances 

 from the watar, sand, clay, &c., was so great as to make 

 aewerage a most expensive source of supply for the rich ele- 

 ments of a good manure. I entirely agree with Mr. Mechi 

 and Baron Liebig that before many years pass over, other 

 countries will find out their folly in supplying us with bones, and 

 also that at the present rate of consumption, 20 to 30 years 

 will exhaust the deposits of foreign guano, but I by no means 

 agree with these gentlemen that there is any danger whatever 

 that our fields will be barren, and our power of producing 

 food largely at home cease if we are not able to continue to 

 import foreign bones and guano, and apply the sewerage of 

 our towns to the land. 



We have other sources of supply of raw material, which 

 contain all the best elements of bones, guano, and sewerage, 

 and we have them in unlimited quantity, and cheaper than 

 sewerage, and even cheaper than guano at its present high 

 price. We already obtain ammonia in large quantity from gas- 

 water. I cannot but look on the coal fields otherwise than as 

 the ancient vegetable world, rich in nitrogen and ammonia. 

 How immense is the quantity of ammonia lost every year in 

 the counties of Durham and Northumberland in the burning 

 of coal for coke, and which might be obtained much easier and 

 cheaper than the ammonia from town sewerage. In the co- 

 prolite or fossil bones we have the remains of an ancient ani- 

 mal world, and these coprolites are as rich phosphate of lime 

 or bone earth, as bones of the present day, and are also in 

 deposits which will last for ages to come— in fact, are practi- 

 cally inexhaustible ; so we need have no fear for a supply of 

 bones. 



We likewise have in the mineral phosphate of lime or apa- 

 tite of Spain, Norway, and America, immense deposits, far 

 richer in phosphoric acid than either guano, bones, or sewer- 

 age. For nitrogen, independent of native sources, there are 

 the extensive natural deposits of nitrate of soda in South 

 America. For soda we decompose salt, for potash the felspar 

 rock. We have lime and magnesia in unlimited natural de- 

 posits. Soluble silica can be manufactured to any extent from 

 the fusion of soda and sand, sulphate of lime from the natu- 

 ral gypsum rock. Thus do I maintain that the land and the 

 crops can be supplied with all the elements of the best town 

 sewerage in unlimited quantity, and with no prospect of the 

 exhaustion of the supply, at a much cheaper rate than any 

 known practical mode of converting or applying town sewer-, 

 age. In my opinion town sewerage is a question more for the 

 towns than for the country ; as a sanitary measure the towns 

 must be quit of it, and as a matter of expense they endeavour to 

 do this at as little cost as possible. I feel confident that the 

 day is not distant when it will be found cheaper to carry it 

 liquid into the country and irrigate the fields, than to carry it 

 into the rivers, which take it down with the tide to bring it 

 back on the return of the tide and deposit it en the sides and 

 bottoms, as for instance the Thames, The fact is, farmers can 

 buy all the beat elements of sewerage cheaper than have 



sewerage given them for the carriage. The land is the natural 

 receptacle for all town sewerage, and not the rivers ; the towns 

 must be quit of their sewerage, they go to enormous expense 

 to carry it into the river, let them try the effect of an equal 

 expense to carry it liquid into the country ; if it was brought 

 to the farmer he would willingly pay some moderate sum for 

 it — the river never will pay anything. But in the meantime 

 the country is independent of town sewerage, iu all respects 

 both present and future, and the sewerage question is one 

 more for the inhabitants of London and other large cities 

 than it is for the country. S. Langdale. 



Tyne Manure and Chemical Works, 

 Newcastle-on-Tyne, December 31, 1859. 



Gilstoo, by Blackshields, Jan, 4, 1860, 

 When a letter emanates from a great statesman or philoso- 

 pher, propounding views either of political or social economy, 

 which takes the world by surprise, they are too frequently 

 relied upon by many who would have thought otherwise, had 

 they taken the trouble to apply to them the test of mature 

 consideration and serious reflection. Baron Liebig, in writing 

 to Alderman Mechi on the utilisation of sewage and the ulti- 

 mate exhaustion of the soil, has put forth statements sufficient 

 to astound the agricultural world, but which, I am sure, they 

 will not subscribe to, not because he reads them a severe les- 

 son on their piofessional ignorance, but because experience 

 has taught them that his conclusions are hypothetical, and 

 his remarks upon their carelessness and indifference to their 

 best interests unmerited and uncalled for. It is not for a 

 humble individual, as I, to advocate the cause of the farmers 

 of Great Britain, their character for shrewdness, knowledge, 

 indomitable perseverance, patience under misfortune, and the 

 application of all these combined with all that art and science, 

 and the most ungrudging outlay con avail, upon the prosecu- 

 tion and development of their profession, are so well-known, 

 and have been so practically felt even to the utmost ends of 

 the globe, that it were needless to say a word more upon the 

 subject. It has been averred by the greatest agricultural 

 chemist of the day, and one who though he has said some 

 hard things in his letter against the farming community, has 

 their best interests at heart, that, unless the elements of the 

 varied products of our fields which are consumed in our cities 

 and towns, and the sewage of which is entirely wasted and 

 thrown away, be restored, " agriculture must gradually cease." 

 This sewage is therefore to be looked upon as the great 

 panaqea to avert this dire 'calamity. But are we to suppose 

 that even jn ^its collected and judiciously applied state it 

 would be equal to the task of restoring and invigorating the 

 exhausted acres of all the cultivated land in the kingdom? 

 or would it not be more natural to believe that the greatest 

 and most appreciable effects would be apparent chiefly 

 around those manurial emporia, and not at any great 

 distance from them ? Previous to the discovery and applica- 

 tion of guano and artificial manures to the soil, the inhabi- 

 tants of Great Britain were living in comfort, they had an 

 adequate supply both of corn and animal food ; no doubt 

 they imported largely even then, but now that the population 

 is increasing, their wants so much greater, and their tastes 

 and habits so much in advance of what they were at the period 

 referred to, how are they to be supported, how is famine to 

 be averted, and how is the most refined and civilized nation of 

 the world to be prevented from lapsing into a semi-barbarous 

 state if the forebodings of this great man shall hold true ? 

 Ere that period arrive will the agriculturists of the land be- 

 come less assiduous iu their exertions ? will the seasons be 



