THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE 



261 



would fall early and perish, as much has done this luxu- 

 riant year ; but Italian rye grass, tares, ordinary pas- 

 tures, cabbage, mangel wurzel, turnips, &c., will bear 

 an immense supply of food (particularly Italian rye 

 grass), and it is especially to these crops that abundant 

 supplies of sewage should be given. We know that the 

 sewage of Edinburgh flows, or is pumped, in even waste- 

 ful quantities over the meadows. I have heard of 6,000 

 tons per acre, or equal to an additional rain- fall of 60 

 inches. We know that the results are enormous. The 

 annual average letting rental per acre of these (once 

 barren) grass fields is about ,£20 per acre, some of the 

 older ones letting much above that price. The growth 

 is so rapid during summer that the grass is cut and car- 

 ried off" each fortnight or three weeks. Of course sandy 

 land:f< would bear very much more fluid than the stiff 

 clays, although the latter are more able to extract and 

 retain the most valuable elements of the sewage. With 

 respect to the London sewage, I should recommend my 

 brother- farmers to have a portion of their farms laid out 

 or piped for irrigation. By very large applications of 

 sewage to this small portion an enormous quantity of 

 green food would be produced, to be carefully cut and 

 carted to the homestead, and fed out with proper admix- 

 tures. We should then no longer hear complaints of 

 the farmers' " sore place." I mean that on an average 

 of farms five acres are required to keep each farm horse. 

 One acre as highly fertilized as the Edinburgh meadows 

 would suffice for each horse or bullock, or a propor- 

 tionate number of sheep. We should then save four 

 seedings, ploughings, labour, rates, taxes, and rents ; 

 merely adding the interest lor the outlay of piping and 

 payment for the sewage supply. The produce of this 

 portion, when consumed, would furnish manure for 

 other portions of the farm. It is the small acreable re- 

 turns in farming that cause the expenses to trench so 

 largely on the farmer's profits. I have no doubt that, 

 after a moderate trial of the town sewage, many of us 

 should prefer grazing to corn-growing as a better source 

 of profit. It is particularly suited for dairy produce and 

 the rearing of young stock. It adds very much to the 

 richness and quality of the milk, butter, and cheese ; and 

 improves the condition of live stock and poultry. Irri- 

 gation gives us very early and late feed. I have found 

 sewage valuable, directly or indirectly, for all crops ; 

 and this is not surprising, seeing that it contains the 

 elements of every crop. Of course it would be most 

 available for grass lands, but everybody knows that after 

 land has produced fine abundant grasses for a few years 

 it may be cropped year after year with other and various 

 exhausting crops without manure. There, is probably, 

 no point of more importance in agriculture than tliat of 

 increasing in quantity and improving in quality the pro- 

 duce of our poor grass and other meat-making soils. In 

 this we are safe from foreign competition, and our rapidly 

 increasing population outstrips our meat-making powers. 

 The constantly increasing price of meat proves this. In 

 what way, then, can we arrive at this result ? Experi- 

 ence has profitably taught me that sewage irrigation is 

 by far the most available and eft'ectual improver of our 

 pastures. By irrigation v?ith water alone we not only 

 increase the flesh and fat-producing qualities of our 

 grasses lOO per cent, (see Professor Way's paper. Royal 

 Agricultural Society's Journal, vol. xiv. p. 182) ; but 

 we double the number of grass plants on every square 

 foot of ground. Liebig says, page 276 of his recent 

 work on "Modern Agriculture," "very rich natural 

 meadow contains on one square foot 1,000 plants, irri- 

 gated meadow 1,798 plants." Many other instances 

 are quoted by him from " Sinclair on Grasses," show- 

 ing the same comparative advantage in favour of irri- 

 gated grasses. But if irrigation with water only pro- 

 duces such results, how much greater must be the in- 

 crease when excreta are added to the water ! It is to be 



regretted that Professor Way had not an opportunity of 

 comparing sewage-manure grasses with those of water 

 irrigation. 



What is the mere water supply of London worth for 

 irrigating purposes ? For ten years all the human ex- 

 creta of my house, and much of that of my animals, 

 has found its way by irrigation to my land ; and it is 

 only those who practise this who can appreciate the 

 progressive advantages of such a practice. It has been 

 invariably applied mixed with much water, without 

 which, in our dry climate, its effects would fail to be so 

 satisfactory. Many farmers have no idea of the value 

 of the river of water (without the manure) daily flowing 

 from the London sewers as a source of farm profit ; and 

 I would recommend them to find out and examine the 

 various irrigations with pure water, which are going 

 on in various parts of the country. Considerable sums 

 per acre are expended in putting land into proper form 

 to receive the water. I have noticed this particularly 

 in the neighbourhood of pellucid trout streams in Hamp- 

 shire. The effect of only a moderate amount of house- 

 sewage or slops is to solten the water, and render even 

 bad bog-water valuable for irrigati(m. 



Wliij the Sewage Form of Application is the most Profilahle. 

 — BaroD Liebig, in his last work, page 267, lays down this 

 great principle, that " the actioa of a manuriug ageut in a 

 given time must increase iu proportion as its surface increases." 

 Now you have, in town sewage, a perfect practical ilhistratiou 

 of this principle. The food has been converted into its ori- 

 ginal elements by mastication and digestion, and it comes to 

 your field dissolved by water, and comminuted or separated by 

 frictional action in the sewers. It sinks into the soil and sub- 

 soil iu the only condition in which its elements can be seized 

 upon, and condensed on its surface, by each granule of a well- 

 cultivated soil. Compare this with the clumsy dung-heap, 

 where unseparated masses inaccessible to the soil show them- 

 selves for years, to the farmer's great loss, thus preventing the 

 quick return so essential to farminej profit. 



Quantity of Iron Piping required per Acre. — On my farm 

 I find five lengths of 9 feet each sufficient for one acre, say 

 15 yards of 3-inch iron pipe, weighing about 5^ cwt. per acre. 

 Unless the lines of piping are carefully laid out by some one 

 who understands it, much more piping may be wasteiuUy used 

 Having had experience in this matter, 1 em willing, on public 

 grounds, to grant permission to examine the process of irri- 

 gation on my farm to those interested in this matter. 



Soils that would he most benefited hy Town Seivoge.— 

 Although well-drained clays have the greatest fixing powers, 

 and would pay handsomely for the sewage, still the porouj 

 chalks, sands, and gravels would absorb, or rather filtrate, 

 much larger quantities. I believe the Edinburgh meadows, 

 that make so large a rsturn for the sewage, were once sandy 

 wastes. 



Sewage Irrigation would necessitate the Drainage and 

 deeper Cultivation of our «<i/r C/a?/s, 15-1 Gths o( which are 

 still uudrained. The mere drainage would largely pay the 

 farmer, after deducting interest on the outlay. Irrigation does 

 not benefit undraiued clays. Where large supplies of rich 

 sewage or other manures are applied, it is necessary, by deep 

 cultivation, to mix a portion of the poor subsoil with the 

 upper soil, to prevent the laying of the crops. Shallow 

 ploughing, combined with high manuring and over-seeding, 

 have cost the country more than a million this last fertile sea- 

 son, by laid crops, lean kernels, and diminished produce. 



French Use of Sewage, — The sewage question has not 

 escaped the vigilance of our able friends on the other side of 

 the channel. So anxious is the goverument that it should 

 succeed, that it has granted an annual subsidy of £160 to the 

 Vaujours undertaking. By favour of Monsieur Trehonnaia, I 

 have r(o^ived a long and able report of the system of sewage 

 manuri 14 practised on the farm of Vaujours, about 12 miles 

 from Pd. is, once forming part of the forest of Boudy. The 

 extent 0' the farm is about 220 acres, managed by a Joint 

 Stock Cmpany for the express purpose of manuring with the 

 sewage 1 om Paris. The urine or night-soil is brought in a 

 barge, aL 1 distributed by portable steam-engine, subterranean 

 pipes (male of iron bitumenized) and jet, at the following coat 

 jer cubic metre (about 178 gallons) :— . 



