48 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



drinking-water, in their innocence supposing they are drinking the purest and best. &quot;We give 

 a single instance in illustration. A well in Market street, in the city of Newark, standing in 

 front of the office of one of the daily journals of that city, had been so lauded for its cool 

 and sparkling water, that people were wont to stop and refresh themselves with a drink from 

 its pump: nay, instances were frequent of passers-by in the throng of Broad street crossing 

 over and going down to this pump, as if to a favorite soda-fount. It might have been a rival, 

 for aught we know, to some such popular establishment in its vicinity. This well, with two 

 others very much used, was designated by the chief engineer of the water board, to Profes 

 sor Wurtz, as among those of the city most resorted to. Samples were taken; and, on anal 

 ysis, the one we have selected was found to contain, in the words of the professor, about five 

 grains to the gallon of an ingredient which cannot be traced to any other source than the 

 infiltration of urine of man or beast, or both. He further recommended the closing of this 

 well to the public use, and it was done. 



These words require no comment: they speak for themselves.&quot; 



We see from the above that for both sanitary and economic reasons, the night-soil should 

 not go into the sewage of the city. The following will show how the French have utilized the 

 sewage of Paris for agricultural purposes. 



The Sewage of Paris. The benefits of appropriating sewage water to irrigating 

 the land is fully shown in the following account given by Prof. Geo. H. Cook, of New Jersey, 

 in his report on Agriculture and Agricultural Teaching in Europe : 



&quot;The 24th of June was given to an excursion to Gennevilliers, where the sewage water 

 of Paris is used to irrigate and enrich market-garden land. The question of sewage, its 

 removal and purification for sanitary benefits, and its uses for agricultural purposes, have 

 been discussed in Paris much as in other cities. Friends of sanitary improvement, however, 

 have insisted that the first step should be taken and the first expenses incurred in the interests 

 of public health, and, in spite of determined opposition, have carried their point. A very 

 successful beginning has been made. 



In most of the houses of Paris there are two sets of drain-pipes. One of these connects 

 the washing-sinks, bath tubs, etc., with the city sewers ; the other connects the water-closets 

 with cesspools in the house-yards, and these last are pumped out, and the contents are carried 

 off to be used on the land. It is only the sewage from the former kind that have to be 

 attended to, and for this purpose the whole contents of the public sewers are collected in 

 very large conduits from both sides of the Seine, and are conducted down to Asnieres, on 

 the river, and just at the outskirts of the city. Here, by means of powerful pumps, about 

 one-third of all the sewage water is raised high enough to flow by gravity over a large tract 

 of flat land in the bend of the river just below this place. The rest of the sewage is allowed 

 to enter the river here. The amount of sewage carried in the sewers yearly is about one 

 nundred and thirty-three million cubic yards, and as a cubic yard is not far from two hun 

 dred gallons the daily flow of sewage is about seventy-three million gallons. One : third of 

 this, or twenty-four millions, is daily pumped up twenty or thirty feet to distribute it over 

 the peninsula on which Gennevilliers stands, comprising about one thousand acres. 



The sewage is carried to various parts of this plot in closed pipes, and is then let out 

 into open ditches, which are a little above the general surface of the ground. From these it 

 is let out into little irrigating ditches, which are drawn parallel to each other, and about three 

 feet apart, so that the whole ground looks as if laid out in garden beds. The beds are 

 planted, and water in the little ditches soaks through and moistens and feeds the roots of the 

 growing plants without defiling or in any way injuring their leaves or stems, and a most 

 luxuriant growth is produced. Every year the little ditches are changed, and where those 

 of one year are, is the middle of the bed the next year, and the sediment of the ditches is 

 scraped out to mix with the soil as manure. In winter the water can be distributed over the 



