256 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



nibus Company, I saw that they had received between 

 £2,000 and £"3,000 for[the manure from their stables for 

 one year. Is this no indication of the agricultural loss ? 

 Watch one of our recently swept thoroughfares, and, 

 ere the sweepers have well departed, see it again covered 

 with animal ordure. Well may our friend Chadwick 

 (to whom we owe so much) say, that the streets of our 

 towns are the horses' waterclosets ; and truly does Mr. 

 Shepherd say, that the first half-hour's heavy rain washes 

 from our streets manurial treasures, organic and inor- 

 ganic. The value of human excreta is further shown by 

 the following letter : — 



"Munich, January 8, 1860. 



" Dear Sir, — I had the pleasure of receiving your favour of 

 the 2nd iust., and am longing for the realization of Mr. Shep- 

 herd's plan, hoping it may receive the support it deserves from 

 the public. 



" I presume Mr. Shepherd has taken into consideration the 

 difficulty of applying the sewage water to the lands and fields 

 at all periods of the year. Consequently very large tanks will 

 be required for retaining stock to apply it when needed. There 

 may be some loss from leakage, but tUis will gradually cease 

 as the matter becomes deposited. The putrid or offensive ex- 

 halations from the sewage in the tanks cannot be avoided 

 during the hot weather, unless your deodorising fluid, the per- 

 chloride of iron, be applied, and with advantage, in order to 

 prevent a nuisance which would otherwise arise. 



" I thank you very sincerely for the support you have given 

 to my ideas in the Standard, but I fear it will cost you all a 

 vast deal of trouble in order to overcome the vi» inertice f the 

 public. 



" The contents of the reservoirs of the fortress of Rastadt, 

 in the Grind Duchy of Baden, which received the deposits oi 

 a garrison of 8,000 men, were sold in 1358 for 8,155 florins. 

 The commune of Oligbeim, near Raatadt, consumed the 

 greater proportion of this sewage, and in the course of a few 

 years they converted the most sandy unproductive soil into 

 flourishing corn-fields.* Now, what can be done with your 

 sewage has been demonstrated by Mr. Mechi, on his farm at 

 Tiptree Hall, 



" Receive, dear sir, the assurance of my esteem, and believe 

 me to be faithfully yours, 



(Signed) " J. Von Liebig. 



"Charles F, EUerman, Esq., London." 



How Farmers loould Benefit by Town Sewage. — If 

 farmers depended entirely on the sewage of towns for the 

 supply of manure, it is quite clear that they might be 

 permitted by their landlords to sell off, without damage 

 to the land, their hay, straw, root and green crops, pro- 

 vided they could find a market for them, or provided it 

 was more advantageous to them than feeding cattle. 

 They might also grow hemp, flax, rape for seed, pota- 

 toes, mustard, and other crops, which would be consi- 

 dered, under our present system, scourging or exhaust- 

 ing. Provided an abundant supply of town sewage were 

 annually used, it would be impossible to exhaust the soil 

 by any cropping ; and our farm leases might be a great 

 deal shorter than they are at present. The generality 

 of farms are now only manured once in four years. Such 

 a system would suit farmers of limited capital. The only 

 excuse for treading our straw under foot, and consum- 

 ing, hay, straw, and green crops on the farm, is to pro- 

 duce manure to grow the cereals. It is quite clear that 

 as sewage manure contains all the elements of every crop 

 that can be grown, we need no longer feed out oilcake 

 at a loss, or pay away our money for guano, bones, 

 blood, and other manures. Those who will read For- 

 tune's, Davis's, and Oliphant's recent books on China 

 will see that it is almost entirely by the use of human 

 excreta that the 412 millions of Chinese can obtain their 



♦ I infer from the Baron's letter that this sewage has been 

 purchased annually, and ueed for several years previous to the 

 above date. 



food. How much is their example in this respect 

 needed by us, under our new sanitary arrangements ! 



Where the Movemont is Taking P/ac<?.— Although 

 farmers and landlords have done little or nothing as re- 

 gards the sewer movement, it is gratifying that several 

 public bodies connected with lunatic and charitable 

 asylums are applying the sewage and waste of the nu- 

 merous inmates to agricultural production. This has 

 been successfully done at the Colaey Hatch Lunatic 

 Asylum, and is proposed for the Royal Victoria Patriotic 

 Asylum, near Claphara Common, and some other insti- 

 tutions. When our prison discipline is connected with 

 agricultural labour (as I trust some day it will be), we 

 may hope to see the "avails" of our criminals applied 

 to the soil. The Messrs. Harvey, of Glasgow, who 

 have over a thousand cows, still continue to force the 

 sewage out of town to their farm, which supplies early 

 and abundant resources of green and root crops. At 

 Mr. Kennedy's and Mr. Telfer's farms, in Scotland, 

 the irrigation is continued. We should never forget 

 that the sewage system at Messrs. Harvey's, of Glas- 

 gow, was suggested and carried into operation by that 

 far-seeing and excellent friend to agriculture, the late 

 Mr. Smith of Deanston, whose views (I know by 

 frequent personal conversation with him) were very 

 early and very strongly in favour of sewage applica- 

 tions. Agriculture owes to his memory a debt of gra- 

 titude. Lord Essex's experience with the Watford 

 sewage is important. The difficulty to which I have 

 just referred has an important bearing 



On the Terms of Contract between Sanitary Boards 

 and Seivage Comjnniies. — It is quite clear that, until 

 a change is effected in the agricultural mind, sewage 

 companies, formed for its general distribution, must 

 be great experiments. As such, they should in the 

 first instance be encouraged, and even probably sub- 

 sidized by the towns for the first few years, no 

 charge being made to them for the sewage. In course 

 of time, when the operation shall have resulted in good 

 dividends to the shareholders, the sum to be paid to the 

 towns might bear an equitable relation to the per-centage 

 of profit realized by the shareholders. Except by such 

 an arrangement, capiial will not be advanced for such 

 companies, for it will take some years to convince agri- 

 culture that she will be benefited by using and paying 

 for town sewage. If landholders desire to prevent the 

 exhaustion of their soil by the restoration of the sewage, 

 they must give practical evidence of that desire, by taking 

 shares in, or giving other facilities to, any public com- 

 panies who shall devote their capital to such an object. 

 Some years ago a company was formed, to pump sewage 

 from the Counter's Creek Sewer to the market gardens 

 at Fulham. This was like " carting coals to Newcastle," 

 for we all know that the soil, naturally very fertile, re- 

 ceives annually, per acre, from 50 to 100 loads of Lon- 

 don stable-dung, which is brought back free of cost for 

 carriage, by the carts that have taken the vegetables to 

 London. It is on the poor soils, beyond this influence, 

 that the water and sewage will be profitable. I foresee 

 that the time will come when the 



Toions tvill derive a large revenue from their sew- 

 age ; but that can only be when agriculturists have 

 tested its value. In order to induce them to do this, 

 every temptation and encouragemant must be offered to 

 them, and to those companies who propose to supply 

 them. 



Influence of Sewage Manure on my Far7n Profits. — 

 I am much indebted to the sewage system on my farm 

 in this respect — for the last six years my gain as landlord 

 and tenant on my little farm of I70acies has been nearly 

 .£"700 per annum. Even this last year, with wheat at 

 42s. per quarter, I have gained £600 after paying every 

 expense. Of course much of this benefit has arisen from 



