150 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



by the first rain that falls, and absorbed by the earth or wasted on the 

 waters of rivers, lakes, or oceans. A small iiortiou of the contained 

 phOvSphorus and sulphur may also oombiue with hydrogen, and thus 

 forming' volatile compounds, may be carried by atmospheric agencies 

 to the fields, where the absorbent power of the soil may retain them for 

 future use. But these natural distributions amount to only a small 

 proportion of the value of these wastes : and, moreover, these distri- 

 butions are made with tlie most rigid impartiality, the fields where we 

 mowst need theui getting no more than the woodlands or the barren 

 r.iouutaiJis. 



The magnitude of this loss, and its relation to the prosperity and 

 stability of nations and countries, are attracting the attention of the 

 best minds beyond the Atlantic, and various methods have been pro- 

 posed loolving to the economizing of these waste values, and at the same 

 time relieving the cities of an intolerable nuisance and a fruitful source 

 of disease. Many of these methods have, at great cost, been submitted 

 to practical tests in the cities of Europe, as well as in most of the 

 larger towns and cities of our own country, but without any very satis- 

 factory results as yet. Most of these methods of purifying cities look 

 more to the sanitary i^hase of the question than to the interests of agri- 

 culture ; but even in the matter of improving the health of cities they 

 have been but little better than failures. 



To carrj' away the waste matter from cities, by means of water, through 

 subterranean sewers is merely hiding the tilth till it can be transported 

 beyond the city limits, to contaminate the streams and pollute the air of 

 other regions. How far this has been carried may be learned by an 

 examination of the several reports of the English " Eiver Pollution Com- 

 mission." Even the cities themselves are by no means free from the 

 lioivSonous inlluence of sewer-gas, which in spite of all precautions will 

 escape to some extent, and to that extent affect unfavorably the health, 

 without the trae cause being even suspected. But where the outfall of 

 sewage is in tide-water, the filth accumulates to such an extent as to be 

 a truitful source of disease, and frequently, as in the harbor of New 

 York, to demand large outlays in dredging to keep the channels of com- 

 merce open. To obviate these effects, attempts have been made to 

 purify sewage by filtration, but as the greater part of the polluting 

 matter is in a state of solution in the water, the remedy has proved very 

 imperfect. The organic matter in this state is subjectto constant changes 

 which may convert it into noxious gases, and these, escaping, pollute the 

 air for miles around ; or it may form combinations which are insoluble 

 and thus be precipitated to fill up the streams or obstruct the harbors 

 into which the sewage is poured. Artificial methods of precipitation 

 have proved hardly more successful than filtration. The fertilizing 

 elements of city wastes, when mixed with the water of sewers, may be 

 regarded as practically lost, so far as the interest of agTiculture is con- 

 cerned. The method of disposing of sewage by carrying it to the coun- 

 try in pijjes, either by the force of gravity, or by aid of powerful pumps, 

 for the imrpose of applying it to the fields in the form of ii'rigation, has 

 been attempte.d. It has been confidently claimed that this method is a 

 success, both in a sanitary and agricultural point of view. But if satu- 

 rating the soil of a city with the contents of cess-p(X)]s and privy-vaults 

 conduces to sickness among the inhabitants, the same results will be 

 likely to follow from sewage irrigation when it has been continued long 

 enough to saturate the soil. The chief difference, probably, will \ye that 

 fewer persons will be affected by it in the country than in the city, be- 

 cause the exposed ix)pulatiou is less. Moreover, the utilization of the 



