630 



SEWAGE. 



down the one main channel, and then distribut- 

 ing it over the various estates. 



Now, with regard to the purely agricultural 

 question of the application of sewage to the 

 soil or crops. Experience has only served to 

 confirm me in iny original opinion, that the 

 proper way of laying out land for sewage is, 

 wherever the fall of the land will at all permit 

 it, to lay it out in rectangular " panes," or lands 

 thrown up to a ridge in the centre, a small car- 

 rier of say 8 inches or 9 inches wide being cut 

 along the top of the ridge, by which to irrigate 

 the land. This system combines many advan- 

 tages, and, so far as I see, presents no draw- 

 backs. First of all, the rectangular form ad- 

 mits of easy and simple cultivation by horse 

 and steam power, without turn-wrest ploughs, 

 or any other special apparatus, and this of it- 

 self is so great an advantage as almost to out- 

 weigh any thing that could be urged in favor of 

 any other system. But this is also the cheapest 

 way of laying out land ; for it is manifest that 

 from the ridge to the furrow there will always 

 be a sufficient fall for the flow of the sewage ; 

 therefore the actual watering of the plants can 

 be done with certainty and regularity, and all 

 that requires to be attended to is the fall to be 

 given to the carrier in the ridge, and to regulate 

 this, unless the land is either very flat or very 

 irregular in formation, very little soil need be 

 shifted, except along the line of the ridge. 

 Moreover, if, during the first year that the land 

 is laid out, there may be a little too much fall 

 from the ridge to the farrow in one place, or 

 rather too little in another, owing to the shift- 

 ing of the land to fill up hollows and level 

 rises in the length of the ridge, this irregularity 

 will be diminished every time that the land is 

 worked, and so, in the course of a few years, 

 will gradually disappear. Last year I laid out 

 a small experimental field, of some nine acres, 

 on this system, under peculiar disadvantages, 

 as the point to which alone I could bring the 

 sewage was slightly lower than most other 

 parts of the field ; and although there was very 

 little difference of level in any part, yet such 

 difference as there was, was against me. The 

 field was also irregularly shaped, one of its 

 sides being more than twice as long as the 

 opposite side, and one of its corner angles very 

 acute,, and another very obtuse ; but, as I ran 

 my lands so as to abut upon or tail off on the 

 side between these two angles, this difficulty 

 vanished; for, of course, it did not the least 

 signify whether the end of each land was 

 square or not. I also laid out the lands of 

 slightly-varying breadths and of an increasing 

 slope, beginning with a very flat land and 

 rising to very steep one the last land having 

 a fall of 1 in 10 from the ridge to the furrow. 

 The most convenient "size of land is 40 feet or 

 45 feet wide from furrow to furrow, with a 

 slope of 1 in 20 from furrow to ridge. The 

 best mode of conducting the work in laying 

 out lands in this way is, after any small amount 

 of cross-ploughing ^r filling-up old furrows, 



and other similar work that may be necessary, 

 has been got through, to plough the land into 

 ridges approximating to the desired height. 

 These ridges should then be rolled very heavily, 

 when it will be seen whether or not their fall 

 is sufficiently continuous to admit of a carrier 

 being dug in them as they are ; and, if it is 

 found that any shifting of earth is required, 

 the rolling of the ridge will have answered 

 the purpose of making the carting lighter. 

 You will observe that the simplicity of this 

 mode of laying out land, as compared with 

 attempting to alter the levels of the entire 

 surface of a field, is very great ; the labor is, 

 in fact, minimized, and, moreover, for the fu- 

 ture cultivation of each individual crop, the 

 form of lands which I have described is, I find, 

 very convenient. Of course, the size of each 

 land is known with accuracy; therefore, all 

 the future cultivation, whether ploughing, or 

 hoeing, or weeding, or harvesting, may be done 

 by piece-work, and the quantities of sewage 

 applied and the bulk of produce obtained can 

 be checked and ascertained with very great 

 ease ; and thus the farmer has a better oppor- 

 tunity of finding out the exact profit that he 

 makes upon any particular crop. 



With regard to the cost of such laying out, 

 this must, of course, depend upon the prior 

 formation of the ground ; but this part of laying 

 out in ridges may practically be done for the 

 cost of, perhaps, one extra ploughing. 



There remains, then, the question over what 

 area and to what crops to apply the sewage ; 

 and, clearly, the area on which it is applied 

 must depend, in some measure, upon the crops 

 selected. One important crop must always be 

 grass ; because this is the only crop that is al- 

 ways on the ground, and always more or less 

 in a growing condition. It is the only crop, 

 therefore, to which sewage can be applied 

 more or less usefully on all days in the year ; 

 and, wherever any large quantity of sewage is 

 to be disposed of, there is always a population 

 to consume grass, whether in the form of 

 meat, or of dairy produce, or of horse-labor. 

 A very considerable quantity of the sewage of 

 any town can, therefore, always be used in the 

 production of grass, without any danger of 

 overstocking the market. The experience that 

 we have had, both at the Lodge Farm, in the 

 occupation of the Metropolis Sewage Com- 

 pany, and on my own experimental field, 

 shows that sewage is equally applicable to 

 cereal crops as to grass, green crops, and vege- 

 tables ; but, no doubt, a greater return per. 

 acre can be obtained by the production of the 

 latter, because a greater quantity of sewage 

 can be utilized by them than by cereals, and, 

 therefore, it is desirable that the bulk of the 

 sewage should be applied to either grass, green 

 crops, or market-garden vegetables. But, in 

 a case where sewage is carried to a consider- 

 able distance from a town, into a purely farm- 

 ing district, experience proves that sewage is 

 quite as applicable to cereal crops as to any 



