THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



233 



MORE TALK ON TOWN SEWAGE. 



Whatever may be the actual virtues of town sewage 

 it is certahily prolific enough in one way. It afi"ords 

 a positively endless topic for conversation. As with 

 the man wlio has a crochet about the currency, or who 

 is knowing in horseflesh, or has a turn for the stage, 

 these modern Tarquins never tire o( their theme. They 

 never can have enough to say about it. No one yet 

 ever heard or i-ead of a debate on the sewage question, 

 without knowing that it must be a long one. The 

 common rules and observances of society give way be- 

 fore so dire a necessity. Editors succumb ; Chairmen 

 of meetings resign themselves to their inevitable fate ; 

 and Reporters gird up their loins for double 

 duty. There must be more space and more 

 time allowed. It is still the same overflow as ever. 

 Mr. Alderman Mechi is announced to read another 

 paper on sewage — or sewerage — at the Central Farmers' 

 Club. Just a week or so before the day of meeting, a 

 brother- member, Mr. Halkett, favours us with "a few 

 words" by way of prologue to what is comingon. Noone 

 will have been surprised to find this little letter running 

 to four or five columns of closely printed matter. 

 But then it was " all about sewage." Mr. Mechi him- 

 self, although it is by no means the first time he lias 

 introduced the subject here, arrives armed with a 

 goodly volume, of which, however, he is considerate 

 enougb not to read much more tlian half. The re- 

 mainder is in appendix, that such as choose can refer to 

 hereafter. Let us say he took something like an hour 

 and a-half out of the evening to demonstrate how town 

 sewerage really affects British agriculture. Having 

 done so, the introducer of the question sits down, and 

 the discussion begins. IVow there is a wholesome by- 

 law a?so(.'iated with the proceedings of the Club, that 

 noone but the first speaker shall occupy more than 

 ten minutes or a quarter of an hour in what he has to 

 say. But as it was " all about sewage," laws or by- 

 laws stood alike for nought. Mr. Sidney, who followed 

 Mr. Mechi, spoke for an hour and a quarter at least. 

 He admitted to having "prepared" himself, and peo- 

 ple appeared to think it a pity to stop him, even if 

 they had any inclination to do so. And so for nearly 

 three hours the promoters of promising companies, and 

 other disinterested persons in an unusually large audi- 

 ence, were anxiously awaiting an opportunity that was 

 unfortunately never allowed them. The Club has an- 

 other sound rule, that none but members shall address 

 the meeting, and this was with some difficulty better 

 observed. Mr. Mechi and Mr. Sidney had it, in fact, 

 pretty much to themselves. Such as have paid any at- 

 tention to the point will scarcely require to be told 

 that all the Alderman advanced the other contradicted. 

 The sewage of towns was " the finest thing in the 

 world for the farmers," and " the biggest humbug out." 

 At the close of the evening the use of town sewage had 

 not been forwarded one iota. For a choice of phrase, 

 the question had been not so much advanced as set- 

 tled. 



Still it was well handled, and will do no discredit 

 to the society. If, as usual, Mr. Mechi evinced 

 a little too much of the spirit of the en- 

 thusiast, he had nevertheless got up his paper 

 with great care, and perhaps said as much for the 

 question as was possible. Mr. Sidney came equally well 

 armed. As a specimen of gladiatorial display, of 

 avowed and eifective attack, his was no doubt a very 

 successful performance. He first knocked Mr. Chad- 



wick down, and then fought the Alderman over the 

 body ; retiring every now and then to the British 

 farmer for " a knee," but coming again and again very 

 resolutely to the scratch. It would be ditiicult to 

 describe the set-to in less classical language. With the 

 meeting, however, he had clearly the best of it, and 

 had any formal resolution been carried, it would have 

 been very much to some such a purport as this — That 

 town-sewage might be useful enougli in its way for ir- 

 rigation, but that it would never pay for the farmer to 

 put himself to any great trouble or expense in procuring 

 it. 



But whatever the farmers themselves may think, 

 some great authorities maintain the direct converse of 

 such a proposition. The very discussion at the Central 

 Club arose in this way. Towards the close of last year, 

 Mr. Mechi wrote a letter of remonstrance to the Times, 

 in which he said : " It is for our landlords and agri- 

 culturists to associate their will and means to convey 

 to the land those precious streams which now exhaust 

 our soil, contaminate our rivers, and impoverish our 

 agriculturists, and those dependent upon them." And 

 he backed this up by a quotation from Baron Liebig, 

 on modern agriculture. The Baron was grateful. In 

 due course he wrote a letter, that also went into the 

 Times, very complimentary in its tone towards the 

 Alderman, but somewhat hard upon the iarmer. 

 As, for instance : — " The majoi-ity of farmers do not 

 know the extent to which their own interests 

 are concerned in thismatter." And, again : — "They 

 think that diligent tillage and good weather are suffi- 

 cient to produce a good harvest ; they therefore regard 

 this question as one in which they are wholly uncon- 

 cerned, and look forward carelessly and with indiffer- 

 ence to the future." That is the kind of thing pre- 

 cisely. The farmer does not know what is good for 

 him. There the ignorant, obstinate lout stands j and 

 they squirt sewage in his face — they pelt him with 

 monster cabbages — they throw tons of Italian rye-grass 

 at his head— they let loose* the flood-gates of Edin- 

 burgh upon him — they tell him to go to Rugby to get 

 educated, or they will stait him for China at once. The 

 Committee of the Central Farmers' Club rather ob- 

 jected to this sort of greeting. At any rate, however 

 little they might actually study their own interest, it 

 should not be said they ever treated the matter with 

 indifference, and Mr. Mechi's proposition was the first 

 they determined upon. 



It is pretty generally conceded that if the English 

 farmer was only to do all he was advised, he might 

 soon succeed in making himself eligible for a berth in 

 the Benevolent College. Mr. Mechi then had to meet 

 the matter in this wise. He had to show how sewage 

 might be employed to a profit, and this in the face 

 of a whole succession of failures that have attended 

 our experiments. Chemists seem to agree that 

 in its present diluted state sewage is only a 

 little better than mere water— for the purpose of irriga- 

 tion, and for that only. How far, then, will the farmer 

 be justified in troubling himself about it? Or, how 

 should landlords and agriculturists associate to secure 

 these "precious streams" ? The answer is still want- 

 ing. As nearly all the speakers said on Monday 

 evening, irrigation no doubt does a deal of good; but 

 what more than this says Mr. Berry Congreve, who 

 has the sewage of Rugby ? — " If that town would give 

 him the sewage, and it would descend by its own 



