368 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



water-meadows, and they had been carried on some years. 

 Lord Manvers proposed to adopt the same system further 

 down the river, and thus taking the water after the Duke had 

 done with it. The remark which his Grace made was this : 

 " Lord Manvers is quite welcome to my small beer ;" but the 

 fact remained that Lord Manvers' meadows were quite as good 

 as the Duke of Portland's — showing, therefore, that it was not 

 the sewage alone that did the good, but that the oxygen in 

 the water was as useful as the sewage, in that case at any 

 rate. 



Mr. James Thomas (late of Lidlington) : If he could 

 collect anything from the speech of Mr. Cuthbert Johnson, 

 it was that that gentleman seemed, anxious that the Club 

 should assent to the idea that the sewage of large towns 

 conveyed by its own gravity over grass meadows would be 

 useful and valuable. If that were the only conclusion which 

 they were to arrive at, it need hardly have taken Mr. Mechi 

 an hour and a-half to convince them of it, because they all 

 knew how diligent and careful the farmers were, in every 

 parish in every county, to convey water where opportunity 

 served to the tops of the meadows so as to irrigate then- at 

 pleasure ; and no one could doubt that water, so useful in 

 that form, would be none the worse for being mixed with the 

 sewage of towns. However, it was very little better for the 

 admixture, inasmuch as the sewage-water, after having been 

 used by the Duke of Portland for his water-meadows, was 

 found to be equally serviceable by Lord Manvers. Taking, in 

 connection with this fact, the letter of Mr. Hawksley, whiah 

 bftd been read by Mr. Sidney, he could come to no other con- 

 clusion than that where town sewage could be applied in the 

 same way that water was applied to reeadows, it ought not to 

 be wasted ; but that were a large expense to be incurred in 

 the process of pumping, the system must turn out a complete 

 failure. 



Mr. T. CoNGREVE (Leamington, Hastings) had seen his 

 brother on Friday last, and informed him of the subject for 

 discussion this evening. His brother expressed his desire to 

 be present, and his regret at not being able to attend ; but he 

 had requested him to say, with perfect truth, that if Rugby 

 town would give him the sewage, and it would descend by 

 its own gravity over his farm, he would accept it ; but that 

 if it was to be first mixed with a large quantity of water, 

 collected in tanks, and then to be pumped up and distri- 

 buted over the land through pipes, it would be valueless. 

 " In fact," he continued, '• I am losing a considerable sum 

 by the sewage of Rugby every year" (Hear, hear). 



Mr. CoPELAND ( Camden Town) said there was a parish in 

 Essex, on the banks of the Thames, in which there was a 

 farm that was formed entirely of the sediment of the river 

 and was overflown every year. Some years ago he met v/ith 

 a surveyor who was engaged in valuing the tithe upon that 

 farm, and who told him that he valued it at 39s. 6d. the 

 acre ; that he considered it to be worth more than that, but 

 he had long made up his mind never to value any tithe at 

 40s. (a laugh) ; that as he rode through the farm on his 

 cob, he could see nothing but the sky above and the wheat 

 on all sides of him ; and that piece of land had never been 

 cropped with anything but wheat for a great number of 

 years. That statement, he need scarcely say, made a deep 

 impression upon his mind with regard to the value of sewage 

 manure. 



Mr NocKOLD.s (Stanstead, Essex) believed that if town 

 sawage could be supplied to the farmer in a convenient 

 form at a distance from town (the farmers immediately 

 around the metropolis being well supplied with stable dung, 

 and other solid msnure), it would be readily purchased by 

 him if it were found to pay. That was the whole question. 

 The farmer paid immense sums for guano, cake, and other 

 manures, and he would be quite as ready to biiy the sewage 

 of the towns, if it could be produced at a remunerative 

 price. 



The Chairman was of ooinion that a certain value must 

 attach to town sewage in the production of green crops; but 

 ope thing which had escaped notice in the present discus- 

 sion was its effects upon the health of a neighbourhood. 

 Tiiey mijjht increase their produce, but might they not do 

 it at a risk of pestilence (Hear hear) ? He regretted to say 

 that he could speak feelingly upon the subject, and had this 

 year suffered in his family and in his cattle entirely in con- 

 sequence of the outscourings and filth of the camp at Alder- 



shott being laid on a farm adjoining 'to his own. In one 

 instance the manure was placed within 20 or 30 yards of his 

 milkman's bedroom window, one of whose children sickened 

 of the scarlet fever, which was soon after brought into his 

 (Mr. Coussmaker's) own house. Upon the pastures in that 

 part of the farm, he could not venture to walk, the stench 

 was so overpowering ; his cattle were attacked with pleuro- 

 pneumonia, and out of a herd of 56 he had only 18 re- 

 maining. 



Mr. Mechi : Was the manure in a liquid or solid shape ? 



The Chairman : Exactly as it came from the camp. 

 'There used to be a manufactory in the neighbourhood, 

 where it was deodorized ; but it proved such a nuisance, 

 that it had to be done away with, and the camp was glad to 

 get rid of the manure at any price. When the manufac- 

 tory was in operation, he had tried some of the manure in a 

 deodorized state for turnips and mangold wurtzel against 

 guano, which being double the price, he only used half the 

 quantity, viz., 4 tons of Aldershot, against 2 tons of guano ; 

 the guano beat it in every instance. 



Mr. Mechi, in reply, said they were all agreed, except in 

 one instance, that either water alone, or sewage, applied to 

 grasses would produce an abundant crop. That being so, 

 they need not concern themselves about the question of 

 corn ; for a good crop of corn, beans, or anything else could 

 always be grown upon a good piece of grass land after it 

 had been broken up. He begged them to receive with con- 

 siderable caution the statements which had been made by 

 Mr. Sidney. To suppose that water would injure manure 

 was absurd, the fact being that without water manure was 

 worthless. The rainfall was 24 inches per acre, or 2,400 

 tons every year, and this fell upon all their crops, and if it 

 did not, lie very much feared that they would have little 

 chance of a harvest (Hear, hear.) The question of the 

 proportion of water to the sewage was dependent upon 

 various circumstances ; but plenty of water they must have 

 if they would have a harvest in this country. 



Thanks to Mr. Mechi for his paper, and to Mr. Couss- 

 maker for presiding, terminated the proceedings. 



A meeting of the Committee was held at the Club House, 

 New Bridge-street, Blackfriars, on Monday, February 6 — L. 

 A. Coussmaker, Esq., in the chair. There were also present, 

 Messrs. R. Bond, C. J. Brickwell, W. Cheffins, T. Congreve, 

 J. Cressiugham, W. Fisher Hobbs, C. W. Johnson, J. G. 

 King, J. J. Mechi, T. Owen, T. E. Pawlett, B. P. Shearer, 

 James Thomas, John Thomas, J. Tyler, W. Bullock Webster, 

 J. A. Williams, and James Wood. 



The minutes of last meeting were read, and the usual 

 monthly statement of accounts received. 



The following members were elected: 



S. Copeland, Camden Town. 



H. Harlock, Hills Rood, Cambridge. 



J. S. Jordan, Eastham, Driffield. 



R. Solly, Mayland, Maldon. 



J. Withiugton, Rosedale, Leominster. 



The names of thirteen other candidates were read for the 

 first time. 



Mr. Henry Trethewy, of Silsoe, was elected a Trustee of the 

 Club, subject to the appointment being confirmed at the next 

 general meeting, in the place of the late Mr. Robert Baker, of 

 Writtle. 



A letter was read from Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, undertaking 

 to bring the Club resolution on the subject of the dinner in 

 the Show week before the next General Meeting of the mem- 

 bers of the Smithfield Club. 



A letter was read from Mr. Penthland, of Black Hall, 

 Drogheda, Ireland, on the necessity for some further inquiry 

 into the system of steam cultivation, and calling the attention 

 of the club to the subject. The Committee directed that in 

 answer a discussion card of the year should be forwarded to Mr. 

 Penthland, from which he would find that the question would 

 come on for discussion at the June Meeting of the Club. 



The Committee heard with regret of the death of Mr. 

 Joseph Pain, of Felmersham, Bedford, one of the oldest mem- 

 bers of the Club, and who twice filled the office of Chairman, 

 for the year 1850, and again in 1854. 



