THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



257 



steam-power, drainage, deep cultivation, and other im- 

 provements ; but the liquefied manure system has greatly 

 contributed to this result. 



How this Sewage is to be got upon the Land. — The 

 engineering difficulties are, I have reason to know, not 

 considerable. There is nothing better known than the 

 cost of delivering water or sewage at certain heights 

 and distances. Our great Cornish pumping engines 

 have their performances most accurately registered. 

 A score of them would make child's play of our 

 London sewage. Some of the;e engines raise a 

 column of water 1,200 feet high. Besides, we know 

 accurately the amount of steam-power used, to supply 

 these 80,000,000 gallons of water daily to the metropo- 

 lis. How erroneous is the supposition that our town 

 sewago cannot be availed of in its present form ! It is 

 already in operation at Watford, Rugby, and other 

 places. Wherever disappointment has arisen, it has been 

 for want of carrying out the machinery and piping in 

 accordance with hydraulic science. The Serpentine, in 

 in IJyde Park, would just hold one day's London sewage 

 without rain-fall. Two tons of coals in a Cornish 

 engine would suffice to empty this Serpentine. One inch 

 depth of water will be 101 tons 5 cwt. 2 qrs. 21 lbs. per 

 imperial acre. Sewage weighs heavier than water, ac- 

 cording to its saturation. The sewage of London taken 

 at 60,000,000 gallons per day would fill a canal 10 feet 

 wide, 4 feet deep, and 45 miles 50O yards in length, 

 every 24 hours. I would commend to your notice a 

 very able pamphlet, by Mr. Shepherd, C.E., published 

 by Effingham Wilson, Royal Exchange, on this question 

 of applying sewage. He is trying to establish a 

 company for this purpose. Mr. Shepherd's plan is 

 to have reservoirs on the highest districts always 

 charged, like our water companies, and main supply 

 pipes under the common roads. The farmer would tnen 

 only have to connect his hose and turn on the tap, and 

 he might at any time apply the fertilizing stream to his 

 fields ; he would require no tank or steam-engine for 

 this purpose, the pressure being always sufficient to give 

 him an ample jet; or he might diffuse it without pipes, 

 over his sloping grounds, like common irrigation. 



The Condition in which Sewage .'Should be Applied. — 

 This question I consider finally settled by Professor 

 Way, in his admirable paper " On the Use of Town 

 Sewage as Manure," published in 1853, in the Jour- 

 nal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, vol. 

 XV., p. 135. Every one interested in this question 

 should carefully study that comprehensive and convinc- 

 ing paper. He says — " I feel that no other than the 

 liquid method can finally satisfy all the necessities of the 

 case ;" and he says, " but there are always two parties 

 to a bargain ; and until the agricultural community is 

 prepared to use liquid sewage, it is of no avail to off'er 

 it." Again he says — " Each individual of a population 

 will, in the course of 2^ hours, contribute to the sewage 

 of a town ^Ib. ,of solid, and 31bs. of liquid excrement." 

 In addition to the valuable human and animal excrement, 

 the rains wash from our granite and other pavements 

 salts of potash, magnesia, lime and soda, also sulphuric 

 acid in the form of sulphates — all exceedingly valuable 

 to vegetation. Professor Way continues, " The appear- 

 ance of London sewage water, as it issues from the 

 mouths of the sewers into the Thames, is very different 

 from what most people imagine, and by no means so 

 repulsive. The great distance which it has, on the 

 average, to flow, over a rough surface, the angles it has 

 to turn, and the immense friction and agitation derived 

 from these circumstances, form together the most per- 

 fect means of its disintegration ; so that on its arrival at 

 the mouth of the sewers no visible trace of its origin is 

 to be detected. A glass jar of London sewage at the 

 outfall is only a slightly turbid liquid, with a flocculent, 



slimy, fibrous matter floating through it. It has a 

 putrid smell, but by no means so bad as would be ex- 

 pected, the chief odour being that of sulphuerted hydro- 

 gen. The great nuisance of all sewage, when thrown 

 into rivers and water courses, is the accumulation of the 

 solid matter which takes place on the banks of such 

 streams, and which in its decomposition is always giving 

 out noxious exhalations ; the liquid itself, when mixed 

 with a large body of water, is too diluted to give off" any 

 great smell." The important soluble manures are con- 

 veyed to every portion of the soil and subsoil, and 

 become condensed on the surface of each granule of soil 

 ready for the rootlets of plants. [See Liebig's recent 

 discovery]. In grass lands the ex:;retions from the 

 growing plants are removed or decomposed by sewage 

 irrigation, much to the advantage of the growing plants. 

 [See Liebig on Modern Farming]. There is no waiting 

 for a shower, thus avoiding loss of growth at the critical 

 season. As a rain-fall of 1 inch is 100 tons per acre, 

 the London sewage would add considerably to the 

 annual supply of moisture. Everybody can see the L^ffect 

 of a rain-fall of even a quarter of an inch, or '25 tons 

 per acre, on a warm day in the growing season. I have 

 seen farm-yard manure undissolved in the soil even 12 

 months after its application. 



The Extraction, in a dry condition, of the valuable 

 elements from the sewnge has not yet been satisfacto- 

 rily accomplished, farmers declining to purchase the 

 residuum at a remunciative price. Recent experiments 

 with per-chloride of iron have been reported upon by 

 Dr. Hoffmann to the Metropolitan Board of Works, 

 as being more successful than former experiments 

 with other substances ; but if Dr. Letheby's table 

 of deodorizing cost is correct, we must give up all 

 hope of getting London excreta in a solid form. 

 My own opinion is decidedly in favour of its ap- 

 plication as sewage, as a matter of economy and pro- 

 fit. Water has a natural and powerful affinity for the 

 soluble and best portions of manure ; hence the ineffi- 

 ciency of costly deodorizers to abstract them from 

 sewage. But earth has a stronger attraction than water 

 for those soluble treasures ; therefore it acts the part of 

 a great fixative filter, which robs the liquor of its fertiliz- 

 ing ingredients, and stores them up for the growth of 

 vegetation as food for man and beast. This is well 

 known to Baron Liebig and other chemists, and has also 

 been recently proved by Professor Voelcker's experi- 

 ments with my own stiff clay and my liquid or sewage 

 manure, [see lastnumberof Royal Agricultural Society's 

 Journal.] Those who believe, as I do, in Baron Liebig's 

 great mineral theory, will easily comprehend that the 

 lar^^e quantities of soluble alkalies, and earthy phos- 

 phates and sulphates, detached from our granite and 

 other pavements by frictional trafic, must be, when 

 separated from the sewage by earthy filtration, necessary 

 and beneficial to vegetation. 



How much dry solid Matter is there in the daily 

 Excreta of 2,500,000 People ? (the Population of 

 London.) — As very exaggerated and erroneous notions 

 prevail, even amongst engineers on this subject, I must 

 again refer to Professor Way's statistics, " Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society's Journal," Vol. 15, p. 135. By those 

 vou will see that 



Tons. 



The fsecal discharge of a quarter of a pound 

 per day for each individual is 277 



Deduct moisture, 75 per cent 208 



Dry solid matter from the solid manure of 

 2,500,000 people 69 



The urine of 2,500,000 people, at 3 pints or Slbs. per 

 day each, will be 3,348 tons of fluid daily ; but as this 



