garden irrigation its advantages and limits. 39 



Discussion. 



Benjamin P. Ware said that the subject of the essay was one of 

 great interest to him. He tried an experiment in irrigation last 

 summer, which though not successful in ever}^ respect, was instruc- 

 tive, as even failures are. He has on the sea-shore a large house 

 for summer boarders, accommodating from one hundred to one 

 hundred and twent\'-five persons, and the question of the disposal 

 of the sewage is a serious one, both from a sanitary and an agri- 

 cultural point of view. He built a cesspool three feet deep, four 

 feet wide, and five or six feet long, into which all the waste water 

 from the kitchen, chambers, and laundry was discharged by a cement 

 pipe of the Bloomingdale pattern. From this a three inch pipe led 

 to the vegetable garden, running along the side of the garden, and 

 opening into lines of drain tiles laid across the garden at intervals 

 of ten feet. It was presumed that through the joints between the 

 tiles the sewage would moisten the soil above, and it was hoped to 

 ascertain the value of sewage as a fertilizer. The apparatus worked 

 very well ; if at an}' opening the flow was too great it was checked 

 by placing a piece of tin over it. The crop was a variety of family 

 vegetables, but Mr. Ware did not find their growth any better 

 along the lines of tiles than elsewhere, and was led to question the 

 value of sewage. The impurities were mostly absorbed by the soil. 

 In the course of the season a large quantity of grease was depos- 

 ited from the sewage, the cesspool being nearly filled, and the 

 openings in the drain tiles where the water soaked out also became 

 choked with grease. He proposed to take up the drain tiles and 

 continue the pipe to a slope of grass ground, and let the sewage 

 flow upon the surface. He had great hopes that in this way it 

 would prove beiieficial. 



Mr. Ware described a method, which he had practised, of mak- 

 ing a pipe, for conducting water or sewage, ver}- cheaply. He pro- 

 vides a pole ten feet long, three and a half inches in diameter at 

 one end and three inches at the other. The material of the pipe is 

 one part cement, and two parts coarse sand or fine gravel. After 

 digging a trench to the required depth, cement is placed in the 

 bottom to the length of the pole, and on this the pole is laid and 

 covered two inches thick with the cement ; in from five to eight 

 minutes the pole should be twisted round, and a few minutes later, 

 after the cement has set, it should be withdrawn, and another length 

 of pipe made. With good cement it takes fifteen or twenty minutes 



