488 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPEDIA. 



There are several methods of utilizing sewage : 



Irrigation is the method which has been most largely practised. It 

 consists in distributing the sewage over the surface of well-drained fields, 

 from reservoirs into which^the sewers empty, or into which their contents 

 are pumped. 



In the dry-earth system* the sewage nuisance is dealt with house by 

 house. Dry pulverized earthen 'movable boxes in privies is made the re- 

 ceptable in which execreta are covered and rendered harmless, being still 

 serviceable for gardens and'fields. The system, fit enough for institutions 

 where discipline prevails^ is hardly applicable to large towns, where it 

 would entail the bringing in dry earth to the amount of from five to ten 

 pounds for each individual daily. 



COMPOSTS may be defined as the collected rubbish of the farm mingled 

 with lime, in the proportion of about five to 1. 



Trimmings and clearings of ditches, garden " rubbish," road scrapings, 

 stinking stuff from pond bottoms, dead animals, anything in short, of vege- 

 table or animal origin, may'be converted into valuable manure. There is 

 no better sign of tidy and thrifty farming than large collections of such 

 like materials on roadsides and vacant spots. 



When composts are formed of dead animals, or of animal matter, such 

 as refuse from slaughter-houses, fisheries, etc., lime should be avoided, and 

 earth alone be used to prevent the escape of ammonia. 



GREEN MANURES. This is the term given to crops which are grown for 

 the purpose of being ploughed in on the land which produced them. This 

 was once a common practice in England, and still is in some parts of 

 America, but the availability of commercial fertilizers, combined with the 

 high prices obtainable for beef and mutton, has rendered the farmer more 

 careless than he once was of the slower and more natural methods of 

 maintaining or increasing fertility. 



By ploughing in a green crop, the surface soil is enriched not only by the 

 eletnents which the crop derives from the air, but also by mineral and 

 vegetable matters which is brought up by it from the subsoil. The green 

 crop thus acts the part of a gatherer of plant food, and makes it easier for 

 any crop sown after this green-manuring to get its supplies from the de- 

 composing vegetation present in the soil. 



The plants best adapted for green-manuring, are those which derive their 

 support principally from the air, which grow rapidly, which cover the 

 ground well, and whose roots penetrate deep, and ramify extensively 

 throughout the soil. 



