THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



259 



with greater force, on account of the abundant rain-fall, 

 which is too precious to be wasted. A capital of two 

 millions would be ample for any company undertaking 

 to distribute the London sewage on an area of 500,000 

 acres. I arrive at this conclusion when I find that the 

 capital of the nine Water Companies which supply the 

 great metropolitan area only employed, in 1849, a 

 capital of ^^4,865,800, now probably increased to 5^ 

 millions. We can understand how much cheaper a 

 single company could be worked than these nine separate 

 establishments ; much of their investments having been 

 made at ancient periods, and at much greater cost than 

 the present state of science and manufacture would 

 justify. The area of water supply in London is 90,000 

 acres, independent of the distant rural pumping engines, 

 and pipes must be carried into every street, square and 

 alley, at an enormous expense ; but the town sewage 

 supply would only touch each farm, over an area of 

 500,000 acres. The farmer's or landlord's cost for 

 piping the farm would, according to the irrigation on 

 my own faim, cost about £2 per acre. It might be 

 worth consideration whether the company should do 

 this, charge a per-centage, raising additional capital for 

 the purpose. 



By b rigation with sewage, our water surply will 

 be preserved, in spite of the great demands made upon 

 it by our numerous steam-engines, by our more perfect 

 agricultural drainage, by our railway cuttings, and, 

 above all, by the enormous requirements of our nefv 

 sanitary and watpr-closet arrangements. The incon- 

 venience of an insufficient water supply has already been 

 very generally and very severely experienced. The re- 

 application of the water to the soil, in the form of sew- 

 age, if judiciously spread over a sufficient area of land, 

 will replenish our springs and rivers. Few people have 

 an idea of the amount of water consumed daily in our 

 fixed manufacturing engines and locomotives. It 

 amounts to four millions of horse-power ; and as each 

 horse-power is represented by the evaporation of 1 

 cubic foot, or 6 gallons of water, per hour, it follows 

 that our total consumption in this way is 24 millions of 

 gallons per hour during working hours I This is inde- 

 pendent of our river steamers, which I have not 

 reckoned. Owing to our improved and increasing agri- 

 cultural drainage, the ground becomes warmer, and, 

 therefore, evaporates the rain-fall much more quickly 

 than it used to do. The same drainage promotes a more 

 abundant and leafy development of plants, with increased 

 evaporating surfaces ; so that we lose our water supply 

 in a variety of ways, to say nothing of the increased 

 consumption and evaporation by an extra twenty mil- 

 lions of people and proportionate number of animals. 

 The removal of our wood and trees is said to materially 

 diminish the rain-fall, and promote the circulation of 

 air, and, consequently, thus increases evaporation. In 

 order to meet the variations of supply by rain-fall, and 

 to suit the demand to the different seasons, it would be 

 desirable to have, by means of the powerful steam- 

 ploughs and subsoilers, an ample acreage of poor hungry 

 upturned subsoil, that would appropriate and gratefully 

 pay for an immense supply of sewage, when, from grow- 

 ing crops and other circumstances, it could not be con- 

 veniently applied to other lands. Such soils would 

 probably pay for 2000 tons per acre, or even more. I 

 speak guardedly on this point from practical experience 

 on my own farm, for I never could make too rich the 

 condition of my soil for Italian ryegrass, root crops, 

 pastures, cabbages, beans, and peas. It is only when 

 the mere ghallow-ploughed crust is over-gorged with 

 manure, as at Vaujours farm, that crops are overdone 

 and fall; but sewage, on deeply-drained land, descends 

 deep into the subsoil, and thus gives length and depth 

 to the roots, with stamina to the plants. From the 1st 



of May to the 20th June, or during the growth of grass 

 for hay, the feeding pastures and meadows would re- 

 ceive the sewage in great abundance, for cows and other 

 stock will feed readily on irrigated grass land, even 

 where, twenty-four hours previously, the strongest 

 sewage has been applied. It is, however, preferable to 

 interpose a few days between the irrigation and feeding. 

 During frosty weather the sewage might flow over open- 

 guttered districts, as the gutta-percha or India-rubber 

 tubing would get frozen. The temperature of sewage, 

 by fermentation, is always warm enough to find its way 

 into the soil by thawing the surface. 



Will the setoage b-s a nuisance after it has passed 

 through the soil ? An unfounded fear exists that we 

 shall poison our brooks, springs, and rivers by the ap- 

 plication of town sewage to the land. Now that depends 

 mainly upon the extent of area to which you apply it. 

 We all ought to know that the only available deodorizer 

 on a large scale is the earth. If I receive a box of grouse 

 or a haunch of venison that is somewhat tainted, I wrap 

 it in a cloth, and bury it in the soil. On exhuming, it 

 will be found perfectly sweet. It is in the soil you must 

 bury your sewage, if you wish to sweeten it. In fact, 

 Baron Liebig has shown us, in his last able work on 

 modern farming, that the soil instantly separates and 

 appropriates, by condensation, on the surface of its 

 granules, all the valuable elements that the sewage con- 

 tains. What becomes now of the manure from the far- 

 mers' 30 millions of sheep, and proportionate number 

 of bullocks and horses, equal in manurial results to 

 double our population ? Is there no smell in farmyard 

 manure ? And are we to forbid its application to the 

 soil ? There are 50 millions of acres under cultivation ; 

 of these, one-fourth are manured annually with 15 tons 

 of farmyard manure per acre, making a total of 187 

 millions of tons ! What was the state of our rivers and 

 brooks when all the night-soil of our towns was applied 

 to the soil ? Where are the washings of the 200,000 

 tons of concentrated bird's-dung (guano) which enter 

 our warehouses, and are then spread broadcast over the 

 land .' Where the tens of thousands of tons of blood, 

 bones, artificial manures, and other abominations, so 

 extensively used by farmers, and so necessary for the 

 production of our food ? In certain districts, within 

 ten to twenty miles from our coast, the fields, at certain 

 seasons, are manured with sprats, starfish, mussels, and 

 other garbage in a state of decomposition, which you 

 may smell for miles j and in August last, when visiting 

 the north of Ireland, the fields were covered with flax, 

 spread out or grassed after steeping, giving off the most dis- 

 agreeable effluvia. We may be more nice than wise, and, in 

 consequence, go without our dinners. Bat what actually 

 takes place now in our rivers, and especially in our noble 

 Thames ? Oxford, Reading, Windsor, and numerous other 

 places pour their excreta into it, by the new sanitar}' arrange- 

 ments ; and when it comes to Hampton, the gigantic pumps 

 of a water company send it to us in London to drink. Man 

 is foolish, but the Almighty is wise. Provision is made in 

 the plants to appropriate these manurial deposits. The water- 

 plants feed on them, and grow strong in consequence.* It 



* I was very much astonished that Mr. Bidder, the Presi- 

 dent, should have made the following remarks in his recent 

 opening address to the Society of Civil Eogineers : "Another 

 feature in the drainage of towns demands attention j that is, 

 the prevailing fashion of subverting the cesspool system and 

 of introducing outfall sewers. One great inducement hitherto 

 held out has been the prospect entertained of employing the 

 sewage for the fertilization of the neighbouring land. Losing 

 sight of the beneficent provisions of Nature for avoiding pes- 

 tilence, it was assumed that the sewage of towns would neces- 

 sarily be of a highly fertihzing character; and it is mainly due 

 to the exertions of our member, Mr. Hawksley, that this delu- 

 sion has been, to a great extent, dispelled. Recent investi- 

 gations have shown that, in towns amply auppUed with water, 



