IRRIGATION. 169 



the heap, &quot; it is calculated that, in a city containing 100,000 

 inhabitants, there is produced of human manure 24,440 tons a 

 year, sufficient, according to Liebig, to manure 50,000 acres of 

 land, and, if conveyed to the soil by irrigation, worth at least 

 12,000 a year, [or $60,000,] and probably much more.&quot; If 

 even one half of this could be so saved and applied, it is obvious 

 how much would be gained. 



The subject is now, in England, occupying, to an intense 

 degree, the minds of many of the most distinguished men politi 

 cians, magistrates, agriculturists, and philanthropists in the king 

 dom. A company has been formed, with a capital of one million 

 pounds sterling, and by men who are entirely above any plan 

 of mere speculation, for the purpose of supplying towns with 

 water, and availing of the drainage of large towns for agricul 

 tural purposes. Some of the first engineers in the kingdom are 

 actively engaged in their service. One of them, Mr. James Smith, 

 of Deanston, the eminent agricultural improver, whose system 

 of thorough drainage and subsoiling may be said to constitute 

 an era in agricultural improvement, has laid before the public a 

 plan for conveying the sewerage of towns into the country for 

 agricultural uses, by means of pipes, which is now being carried 

 out in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. His plan is, having col 

 lected the sewerage water of a town into a convenient receptacle, 

 to force it, by means of a pump, to a sufficient altitude to send it 

 into the country through large pipes, to be used for the purpose 

 of irrigation of lands below the level where it is received, or of 

 applying it to other lands by means of a pipe and hose. 



I do not deem it necessary here to give all the elements of his 

 calculation; but the result is that, in supplying an equal amount 

 of the elements and requisites of vegetation, the cost of manuring 

 one acre 



with sewerage water, upon his plan, would be 12s. 9d. 



&quot; guano, 2J cwt. at 8s 10 



&quot; farm-yard manure, 15 tons, at 4 s. ... 3 

 It is added that, &quot; by an experiment made last season on a por 

 tion of meadow in Lancashire, applying at the rate of 15 tons 

 of farm-yard manure per acre, and 3 cwt. of guano to another 

 equal portion, their effects were found to be inferior to the 8 

 tons of sewerage water applied to a similar extent of ground. 

 The amount of fertilizing matters contained in the water was 



VOL. II. 15 



