THE FAKMER'S MAGAZINE. 



175 



less propitious ? will that bountiful Provider, who has so con- 

 tinuously supplied all their wauta, withdraw His blessings, 

 and frowu upon their endeavours ? and notwithstanding the 

 extension of our colonies, and the race with other nations, is 

 it too much to say that, amid all the explorations which are 

 going on, there will be no further manurial deposits laid bare ? 

 If so, then indeed may we stand aghast at the dreadful pros- 

 pect. But in all that has been advanced on the opposite side, 

 I see no cause for apprehension. We are told that iu the 

 United States population is increasing iu a greater ratio than 

 the capabilities of the soil can supply their wants ; but what 

 do we see in the vast reflux of that population, not only to 

 Ireland, but to other countries? And what does the present 

 prosperous state of Ireland itself demonstrate but the un- 

 erring wisdow of the Almighty in adjusting the equipoise be- 

 tween a population and its requirements, and the adaptation 

 of great means to a merciful snd ? But let us reason a little 

 from analogy. Here is a parent with a numerous offspring — 

 she has expended immense sums on their advancement— she 

 has watched over them with the utmost tenderness, has 

 supported them iu trial, preaerved them in danger, and at 

 last has the satisfaction of seeing them contented, pros- 

 perous, and independent. What has Great Britain done for 

 her colonies? Has she not tended, preserved, and protected 

 them ' Is she not developing their immense resources, and 

 affording them the blessing of civilization and industry >' 

 And is she a whit the poorer or less thought of for all this ? 

 Or would it be too much to expect that in the hour of her 

 extremity (which may she never experience) some one or 

 more of her vast and wealthy colonies would rush to her 

 rescue, and to the supply of her wants ? Or if they should 

 be base enough to requite her with ingratitude, can she not, 

 as hitherto, rely with implicit confidence on the bounty of 

 Him who has caused her corn and her wine to abound ; and 

 who, as in the body exhausted with toil and anxiety, can 

 call in the aid of Nature, " the best physician," who, by rest, 

 can restore her to her wonted health and strength? And 

 do not the spread of religion, civilization, and education, and 

 the gigantic strides of science, and their applicability to the 

 industrial arts warrant me in asserting that, instead of that 

 sterility which has now been so strongly and strangely prog- 

 nosticated, the period shall have arrived when the wilderness 

 and the solitary place shall be made glad, and the desert 

 shall rejoice and blossom as the rose ? John Balfouk. 



In your paper of the 28th December, there is a long letter 

 from Professor Liebig about the sewage of towns. In it he 

 says, " it has been maintained that the recovering of the ma- 



nurial elemeuts out of the sewera of large towns is impracti- 

 cable." No doubt he does not tnink so : there may be con- 

 flicting interests, use and wont, and some other fancies to over- 

 come, but to extract the whole animal, vegetable, and saline 

 substances from the sewage of towns, and leave the water 

 pure and tasteless, is a very simple process. 



When great noise was making about the purification of the 

 Thames, I wrote an article ou the subject recommending the 

 sewage to be conveyed in large cast-iron pipes to a consider- 

 able distance, emptied into tanks built for the purpose, and 

 filled with peat charcoal. The water would pass through it 

 perfectly pure, the charcoal become equal, if not superior to 

 guano ; such sized pipes might have been thought chimerical, 

 but such is not the case ; I have seen pipes used to supply a 

 city in America with water pumped out of the Ohio into a 

 reservoir one hundred yards long and fifty broad, by oue en- 

 gine. That city contains 200,000 inhabitaiits, but then the 

 pipes are so very larg-e that the whole city is a reservoir. In- 

 stead of using iron, they are building brick sewers in Lon- 

 don, which, when once saturated, will diffuse their pestilential 

 effluvia through every part, while old Father Thames will be 

 little better, only the sewage will be carried a little further 

 down. 



Peat charcoal could be manufactured easily in every part 

 of Britain and Ireland ; and in making it, great quantities of 

 land would be recovered, that are now covered with moss and 

 nearly worthless ; besides, the making of the charcoal and 

 the deodorising the sewage would give employment to great 

 numbers of our population ; it would deprive Edinburgh of 

 that beueficial effluvia the east wind furnishes her with from 

 her beautiful meadows. 



Our farmers are called active, enterprising, and ingenious. 

 Most of the improvements we see have to be forced on them ; 

 they have to be forced to leave use and want ; see the sewage 

 from every farm running down ditches, the grass growing in 

 them thrice the length of other grass, and for miles from the 

 farm when it has chance to run such a distance. Let some 

 farmer fry the sewsge of his own farm on peat charcoal — 

 charcoal from wood, ashes, &c. — by constructing a small tank 

 at a convenient distance from his farm, and running all the 

 sewage from house, stables, and byres upon it; one year will 

 convince him he can make a manure equal to what be hsa 

 been paying £10 a ton for. If he has a horse which unfortu- 

 nately dies, bury him in the charcoal mass, he is little worth 

 if not worth £2 as bones and manure. 



J. HoRSEBURGH, Veterinary Surgeon. 



Dalkeith, Jan. 2, I860. 



— North British Agriculturist. 



FARM PRODUCE DESTROYED BY RABBITS, 



SMITH V. ILDERTON. 



This wag an arbitration case of damages, held to be sus- 

 tained by rabbits in the county of Northumberland. It was 

 mutually agreed by the parties interested that the following 

 gentlemen should be appointed arbitrators to assess the dam- 

 age : — Mr. Thomas Forster, of Swaiuwood, ou the part of Mr. 

 Smith, and Mr. Andrew Bell, of Amble Hope House, on the 

 part of the Rev. Mr. Ildertou. Mr. John Hogg was appointed 

 umpire in the usual way. 



The damage took place ou Ilderton Dcd, in the parish of 

 Ildertou, a valuable stock farm situated on the Cheviots. 



Mr. Forster claimed £732 as damages sustained from No- 

 vember, 1857, to November, 1859, and in support of his claim 

 produced the following evidence and calculations founded 

 thereon : — 



Edward Donkin, of Southern Kuowe, said : I have lived 

 20 years with Mr. Smith and his father. I have had the 

 management of Ilderton Dod since 1853, when Mr. Smith 

 took it. I am stocksman on his furms. No greater s'.int has 

 been kept these last two years. The stock has done worse, 

 and more deaths have occurred these few last years. 400 ewes 

 and 300 to 400 hogi were laid on the Uod Hill in the back 

 end of the year. The wool has weighed lighter, particularly 

 the hog wool ; 19 fleeces to the weight of 481h9. This year I 



think they clipped Hibs. less wool. The ewes were sold for 

 less money— 4s. a head less— and a big draught sold at I69. 

 The ewes were from Ss. 6d. to 48. a head less value for want 

 of meat. The hogs, after being clipped, were from 53. to 63. 

 a head less value. Summered on the came place as in former 

 years. This year 280 will be put on turnips or other meat, 

 which I think would have done on the place but for the rab- 

 bits. They will coat this season turnipiug lOs. a head. 200 

 ewes and 460 hogs were put on Heddon Hill at the back end 

 of the year. A dry season suits this place best. Dry seasons 

 did not affect the ineadow. The lambs are fewer in number 

 and very shabby this year. The whole farm keeps 2,000 in 

 general years; it will o'nly keep 1,000 this winter. 



Mr. Andrew Bell said : I have known the place for forty 

 years, and had the management of it when Mr. Howey farmed 

 it. Stock never required any extra keep upon it, excepting 

 sometimes 50 or 60 of the worst wedder lambs. The farm is 

 3-'. to 43. a hcsd worse for sheep. I used to keep 540 ewes, 

 600 hogJ, 540 young sheep, 500 lambs, summered 25 cattle, 

 and 12" horses. I consider the change upon the place to be 

 owing to rabbits. This I Is now from a field of my own. I 

 cousider that the fsrm was to let on Mity-day, and all the 

 rabbits killed, wculd have to be a year without stoi-k to be 



