1890-91.] A CONSIDERATION OF SEWERAGE SCHEMES. 147 



Coventry, population 50,000. Sludge pressed and sold ; cost of works, 

 ;^i 2,000 ; annual expense over revenue, i^2,8io. 



Birmingham, population 600,000. Farm comprises 1,227 acres. 

 Total cost of the land and works to the present, ^^403,695. The sewage 

 is treated with lime and the sludge trenched into the ground. The loss 

 on one year's working of the farm amounts to about ;f 10,000, besides 

 the interest on first cost. 



I must not close this list without saying something about the disposal 

 of the Edinburgh sewage ; so much has been said about the " irrigated- 

 meadows " as they are called. 



The information from here is to the effect that " the great volume of 

 Edinburgh sewage is discharged into the sea (Firth of Forth) direct. 

 On each of the three sewer outlets there is a sewage farm, or as before 

 stated, irrigated meadows. These meadows are owned by private 

 individuals who have always claimed a right to the use of the water in 

 the burns passing through their respective lands ; which burns have 

 been gradually converted into open sewers." 



They have thus fallen heirs to an almost unlimited amount of sewage ; 

 they have no interest in purifying this sewage, in the ordinary sense of 

 the word ; they use it without stint, and allow the effluent to leave their 

 lands without any regard to its quality or condition. They pay nothing 

 for it, and the crops, chiefly Italian grass, yield good returns 



The corporation has not interfered hitherto with the use or misuse of 

 the sewage. The report goes on to say that it is regrettable that one of 

 the farms, viz., Craigentinny, is not the property of the corporation, as it 

 is remarkably well suited for a sewage farm and adjoins the sea ; a large 

 part of it consisting of ground reclaimed from the beach, and mostly 

 drift sand. 



With the last part of the report I do not feel inclined to agree. If 

 Edinburgh knows when she is well off she will leave that sewage farm 

 alone. While the private owners of these lands no doubt make money 

 out of them, let them once fall into the hands of the civic authorities and 

 they will speedily become a tax on the citizens, or else Scotch aldermen 

 are made of different stuff from the aldermen we read about — in the 

 States. 



The only conclusion which can be drawn from the descriptions of the 

 foregoing sewage disposal works is very concisely summed up in a 

 " report of the Society of Arts " appointed to inquire into the various sub- 

 jects connected with the health of towns, viz.: " It appears further that 

 the sludge, in a manurial point of view, is of low and uncertain commer- 



