356 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



" exported to England from 16,000 to 20,000 tuns of 

 wine when the population was only five millions, the 

 supply had fallen off, partly owing to the prohibitory 

 duties imposed in Great Britain, and partly owing to 

 the prohibitory duties imposed in France on British 

 produce, to 1,800 tuns, whilst the population of the 

 country had in the mean time greatly increased." 



Much as we may felicitate ourselves upon all this ad- 

 vance, and talk boastingly about an enlightened opinion, 

 I am not so very sure that we do not owe this commercial : 

 reform, like many others that have preceded it, to the 

 necessities of the Treasury. Be that as it may, we are 

 informed, as I before stated, that the division of Light 

 Wines is advancing, and that "General Beer" is in full , 

 retreat. It becomes us to look a little into the quality ' 

 o\' this opposing power, and judge how far they are ^ 

 likely to obtain any advantage at Burton, or Romford, ' 



or London. The French wines will certainly succeed 

 in routing the British ; and patriot as I am, I shall be 

 all too glad to witness the dei'eat, together with those vile 

 colonial wines that aggravate our bile. From the cele- 

 brated Cute d'Or the ruby stream is ready to flow down ; 

 from Cette and Frontignac, and Champagne, from the 

 Hermitage and the Madoc, sparkling and effervescing, 

 dry and light, rich and pure, they are flowing towards 

 us, not to inundate, but to irrigate and beautify the. 

 fields of pleasure. Should it please my readers, we 

 will in company take a trip to the South of France, to 

 inspect the vineyards, and thus obtain one phase of the 

 agriculture of the country, while we gratify our curiosity 

 concerning the wines offered for our consumption. I 

 purpose, therefore, to devote a column now and then 

 to the consideration of the vineyards of the South of 

 France. F. R. S. 



THE UTILIZATION OF TOWN SEWAGE. 



The literature of metropolitan drainage grows and 

 accumulates too rapidly for the proper digestion of it 

 in the time allowed by the pressure, itself, of the question 

 of the public health. There seems to be no end to the 

 complications and entanglements of this question. The 

 Board of Works issues reports upon reports, and sub- 

 jects the conclusions contained in those reports to the 

 reports of regularly appointed referees, who do but 

 little towards enlightening the public mind, or showing 

 how the maladies contracted by the inhabitants of towns, 

 by the flowing of sewage matter into the rivers can be 

 stayed, or how the sewage diverted to the lands can be 

 utilized. Nor indeed has the public mind been at all 

 likely to acquire confidence in the reports of certain 

 celebrated chemists, who are quite opposed as to the 

 detriment incurred by the population living in the 

 neighbourhood of open drains, or partaking of water 

 polluted by sewage, &c. 



Mr. Haywood and some others, in evidence given 

 before a Parliamentary Committee, have stated that 

 " great exaggeration, if not total misapprehension, has 

 existed on the subject of the pernicious influence of 

 the chance emanations from gullies;" and that where 

 smell cannot be detected no injury is likely to result. 

 Dr. Letheby, on the other hand, wishes "to dispel the 

 ignorance which can permit so false a faith as that there 

 is no danger from putridity and filth, when they are no 

 longer offensive to the sense of smell ;" and proves that 

 the de- oxygenation of the air by the process of de- 

 odorization, or the de-oxygenation of the water — as the 

 case may be — renders the air or the water so much the 

 less fit to sustain life. At every outbreak of epidemic 

 disease, the badly-drained districts, where there are 

 neglected cesspools, stagnant sewers, and untrapped 

 gullies, are always localities where the disease is most 

 active. It need not be that to produce disease these 

 miasms should be so concentrated as to be unendurable, 

 la many of the cases quoted the gases were in a highly 

 diluted form, and yet their effects were unmistakable. 

 It is, therefore, a fallacy of a most dangerous kind to 

 say that sewer gases are not hurtful when they are no 

 longer offensive to the sense of smell, for there is no 

 necessary connexion between bad odours and zymotic 

 poisons. The philosophy of stink teaches us that the pes- 

 tiferous matter which floats over the coast of Africa, the 

 Sunderbund of India, the plains 'of Algeria, the marshes 

 of Europe, and the fens of England, is not offensive to 

 the nose, though it is deadly enough to the body ; and 



conversely, there are many horrible stinks which are in- 

 capable of producing disease. 



And now, after commission upon commission, en- 

 gineers' reports, reports of gentlemen of the Sanitary 

 Board, and opinions from eminent chemists of antag- 

 onistic schools, and the investigation the entire subject 

 has undergone in the Circumlocution Office, where 

 are we ? 



Why we find out that it is not so much a question for 

 the farmers as for the towns-people. Turn, for instance, 

 to London, where the sewer rates on a moderate house 

 are equivalent to the rent of a respectable tenement in 

 a country town, and yet the stench from the Thames, 

 and the mortality that annually is referable to nothing 

 but the imbibition of its hydro-sulphuretted waters, 

 seem not to be abated, but rather increased. What 

 the rates will be when the present sea-reach outfall is 

 thoroughly adopted and got into working order, might 

 be a question to fill up the spare time of the betting 

 world, but we are assured that they will be something 

 enormous. Some writer has intimated that the fall of 

 Rome was less owing to the barbarian flood from the 

 north-east, than to the C'oaca Maxima, and that cess- 

 pools would have contributed more to her redemption 

 than courage : he says, too, that Dr. Layard has not 

 informed us whether the Ninevites adopted the aque- 

 ous system of sewerage, but that, if they did, of course 

 their career is at once accounted for. 



No doubt the worthy Alderman Mechi, who has 

 during late years brought this question of the utilization 

 of town sewage before the country, has beheld this ruin 

 to London with as much trepidation as he has beheld 

 through the Baron Liebig's prophetic glasses the 

 gradual deterioration of the soil of the country. I am 

 sure he merits the thanks of the corporation and citizens 

 of London for the pertinacious manner in which he is 

 continually crying. What is the good of your being at 

 this ruinous expense to expel the ejecta from the sewers 

 to the sea ? Some towns are getting a profitable return 

 for it : why cannot you ? The Chinese make their 

 privies pay the expenses of hospitality : why do you not 

 seek to make your water-closets defray your sewer- 

 rates ? 



I say, again, that the citizens of London must solve 

 this question for themselves. If they can decide upon 

 any way by which they can offer to their country friends 

 a copious supply of sewage in its liquid state for the 

 irrigation of their grass lands, their country friends will 



