SE WERA QE MANURE. 1 27 



fish, and wliich have abundance of aquatic plants and luxuriant 

 vegetation upon their borders, are to be relied upon as the most 

 enriching in their deposit. Streams, into which the sewerage 

 of large towns is emptied, are often of the greatest value for 

 agricultural purposes. A stream thus enriched is turned to 

 the most important account near Edinburgh : certain lands, 

 which were formerly barren wastes, being merely the clean, 

 dry sands thrown up by the sea in former times, having been 

 arranged so that they may be flowed by this stream. The 

 expense of the operation was great about one hundred dol 

 lars an acre and the annual cost of flooding is very much 

 greater than usual four or five dollars an acre ; but the crops 

 of hay are so frequent and enormous, (ten cuttings being made 

 in a season,) that some parts of the meadow rent for one hun 

 dred dollars a-year for one acre, and none for less than seventy- 

 five dollars ! 



It is estimated by the distinguished agriculturist, Smith of 

 Deanston, that the sewerage-water of -a town may be con 

 tracted for, to be delivered, (sent by subterranean pipes and 

 branches, so that it may be distributed over any required 

 surface,) eleven miles out of town, for four cents a-ton. Mr. 

 Hawksley, a prudent engineer, offers to convey it five miles, 

 and raise it two hundred feet, for five cents a-ton ; the ex 

 pense of carting it to the same distance and elevation being 

 estimated at about $1. Another estimate makes the expense 

 of conveying and distributing manure, in the solid form, as 

 compared with liquid, at fifteen dollars to seventy-five cents, 

 for equal fertilizing values. Professor Johnston estimates the 

 fertilizing value, per annum, of the sewerage of a town of one 

 thousand inhabitants, as equal to a quantity of guano which, 

 at present American prices, would be worth $13,000. Smith 

 of Deanston estimates the cost of manuring an acre by sew 

 erage, conveyed in aqueducts and distributed by jet-pipes, at 



