THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



357 



see what can be done towards fitting their meadows for 

 its favourable reception. 



I will not undertake to say that the return will be 

 equal to 10 per cent, upon the cost of the entire work, 

 but I do undertake to say that it will be equal to a good 

 4 per cent. ; and, provided the metropolitanites obtain 

 such a return towards helping them to bear the ruinous 

 expense they are now called upon to incur, with but a 

 small chance of effecting the sanitary improvement ex- 

 pected, men with business heads upon their shoulders 

 will regard that in the light of a very decided advantage. 

 There iias been a great disposition in certain quarters to 

 burke this question of the application of town sewage to 

 the irrigation of the land ; and those who have written 

 and spoken in its favour have been charged with having 

 an eye to the £2,000,000 which the Government is ad- 

 vised to expend in such works. For this purpose all 

 the cases of amateur gentlemen who have been led to 

 the adoption of the "squirt system," as Mr. Hudson 

 calls it, and failed, are adduced as evidence that there is 

 no value in sewage. But the question is not one of a 

 personal character ; and a negative reply to the query. 

 Has such and such a gentleman succeeded in carrying 

 out an independent system of liquid-manuring ? will not 

 settle it. Mr. Mechi himself may, or he may not, have 

 succeeded. Other gentlemen in different parts of the 

 country may, or may not, have succeeded— nay, they 

 may have lost thousands of pounds in their experiments. 

 I can credit it, perceiving here and there circumstances 

 which contributed to the unfortunate result ; and while 

 acknowledging this to be the true state of the case, I 

 can with the most unshaken confidence hold firm my 

 conviction that sewage is invaluable for grass- lands. 

 The evidence with regard to that part of the subject re- 

 mains unimpeached by fact, and we have all come to 

 agree with the conclusions put forth by Mr. Lawes in 

 1855, as the result of careful experiments. 



Mr. Sidney is one of those who would induce us to 

 believe that three millions of tons of solid manure, dis- 



solved in water and ready for use, should be cast away 

 as wanting in the elements of fertility. This gen- 

 tleman, who lives on the repute gained two years 

 back by a creditable compilation of facts on agri- 

 cultural progress for the Quarterly Review, tried 

 hard to bring the meeting assembled on Wednes- 

 day at the rooms of the Society of Arts, to hear 

 Mr. Mechi's paper on the sewage question, to 

 this absurd conclusion. After adducing a variety of 

 somewhat contradictory evidence, which showed that 

 certain applications of sewage under certain circum- 

 stances had not proved favourable, he stigmatized — as 

 only those can who lack faith in their own cause — all 

 those who held different views, and ventured to express 

 them as either humbugs, or humbugged. Well, this is 

 a free and independent country, in which those who 

 have a taste for it can abuse their neighbours with the 

 utmost liberty ; but the practice in time singles out 

 such members of society as objects of indifference. 



I am aware that the farming fraternity hold views 

 upon this question very different to those they did hold 

 some years ago ; and 1 am aware that the experiments 

 of celebrated chemists have led them to place a different 

 value upon sewage than they were disposed to place 

 upon it — to give up all idea of deodorizing it, except 

 by passing it through the pores of the soil, where its 

 fertilizing properties will be very properly arrested. 

 Great has been the change on all sides, by virtue of the 

 additional light let in by science upon the facts adduced 

 by practice ; but all this light has not served to assure 

 us of the valueless character of the excreta from two- 

 and-a-half millions of human beings, &c., but has sur- 

 prised us in the very act of preparing to void this fer- 

 tilizing substance to the sea, to be returned by the tide, 

 and left to breed miasma, exposed upon mud-banks of the 

 river to the sun, at the very time that we are expending 

 £3,133,243 annually in the purchase of the excreta of 

 birds from some islands in the Pacific or the coast of 

 Africa. F. R. S. 



SALE OF SHORTHORNS, AT STOCKWOOD PARK, LUTON, BEDS, 



THE PROPERTY OF JOHN S. CRAWLEY, ESQ., 



By Mr. Strafford, of London, 

 on thursday, march ist. 



A fine day, a goodly company, spirited biddings, and well- 

 bred stock, all couduced to the full success of this sale. As 

 will be seen, soDie of the first shorthorn breeders were 

 present, and the stock was very widely distributed. 

 Amongst the company were Lord Braybrook, Lord 

 Chesham, Lord Ducie, Hon. William Cavendish, M. P. ; E. 

 Holland, Esq., M.P. ; Sir William Miles ; W. Macintosh, 

 Esq.; Colonel Ames; Richard Oakley, Esq.; W.Hubbard, 

 Esq., Hurstpierrepont, Sussex ; W. Long, Esq., East Sutton, 

 near Staplehurst, Kent; M. Parkinson, Esq., Leyfields, New- 

 ark, Notts ; H. Mitchell, Esq., Alloa, Scotland ; Mr. Cotton, 

 Saffron Waldon, Essex ; Mr. Beasley, Chapel Brompton, 

 Northamptonshire; Mr. E. W. Tracey, Eaton Bridge, Kent; 

 Mr. Upton, Witham, Essex; Mr. Carr, Stoclthouse, Settle, 

 Yorkshire; Mr. Aylmer, Dereham, Norfolk; Mr. Wise, 

 Ravensden, Beds ; Mr. Topham, Welford, Northamptonshire ; 

 Mr. Claydon, Littlebury, Saffron Waldon ; Mr. B. B. Colvin, 

 Mr. Samuel Jonas; Mr. Sheldon, Brailes House, Shipton-on- 

 Stour; Mr. Surtees, Dane End, Ware, Herts; Mr. Christy, 

 Pomton Hall, Chelmsford, Essex; Mr. Hales, Hadlow, Kent ; 

 Messrs. Cnwleys, Luton, Beds ; Mr. J. Robinson, Clifton 

 Pastures ; Mr. Charles Howard, Biddenham ; Mr. W. 

 Ladds ; Mr. Atkins, Milcote ; J. H. Downes; Mr. Hopper, 

 Beaumont Grange, Lancashire ; Mr. Macintosh, Avery Park, 

 Romford, Essex; Mr. Overman, Redbourne, Herts, &c., &c. 



COWS AND HEIFERS. 



THE FIGURES REFER TO " COATES'S HERD BOOK." 



Baroness, calved January 28, 1847; by Baron Warlaby (7813), 



dam (Clematis) by Clemenii (3899).— Sold to Mr. Carr, Stack- 

 house, Settle, Yorkshire, £52 1( s. 

 Gem, roan, calved in July, 1850; by Sweet William (7o71), dam 



(Juniper) by Maliomed (6170).— Mr. Aylmer, Dereham, Nor- 

 folk, £ii 128. 

 Tragedy, roan, calved May 8, 1851 ; by John of Weathamstead 



(7113), dam (Tiresome) by Walter Bucban (7692). — Mr. 



Symonds, £42. 

 Jane, red and white, calved July 26, 1851 ; by Third Duke of 



Oxford (9047), dam (Janetta) by Lycurgus (7180).— Mr. Low- 



der, £4S Is. 

 Laura, roan, calved September 28, 1851; by Chilton (10054), dam 



(Lady Juno) by Augustus (8848).— Sir William Miles, Leigh 



Court, Bristol, ^£31 lOs. 

 Trinket, roan, calved May 10, 1852 ; by John of Weathamstead 



(7113), dam (Tiresome) by Walter Buchan (7692).— Mr. Upton, 



Witham, Essex, £.39 18s. 

 Flirt, roan, calved August 21, 1852; by Kirklevington (11639), 



dam (Flounce) by Broughton Hero (6811), — Mr. Claydon, 



Littlebury, Saffron Waldon, Essex, £38 17s. 

 Hebe, roan, calved Augubt 24, 1-53; by Kirklevington (11639), 



dam (Young Heroine) by Brennus (890^). — Mr. Brown, £47 Ss. 

 Sprightly, roan, calved in February, 1854; by Monk (11824), 



dam (Splendour) by His Highness (U580).— Sir William Miles, 



£52 108. 



