94 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



The example of the Campine district, in Belgium, 

 is classical. It was a most unproductive territory mere 

 sand from the sea, blown into irregular mounds which 

 were only kept together by the roots of the heath ; 

 the acre of it used to be sold, not rented, at from 55. to 

 73. (15 to 20 francs per hectare). But now it is capable, 

 thanks to the work of the Flemish peasants and to 

 irrigation, to produce the food of one milch cow per 

 acre the dung of the cattle being utilised for further 

 improvements. 



The irrigated meadows round Milan are another well- 

 known example. Nearly 22,000 acres are irrigated there 

 with water derived from the sewers of the city, and they 

 yield crops of from eight to ten tons of hay as a rule ; 

 occasionally some separate meadows will yield the fabu- 

 lous amount fabulous to-day, but no longer fabulous 

 to-morrow of eighteen tons of hay per acre, that is, 

 the food of nearly four cows to the acre, and nine times 

 the yield of good meadows in this country.* However, 

 English readers need not go so far as Milan for ascer- 

 taining the results of irrigation by sewer water. They 

 have several such examples in this country, in the 

 experiments of Sir John Lawes, and especially at Craig- 

 entinny, near Edinburgh, where, to use Ronna's words, 

 " the growth of rye grass is so activated that it attains 

 its full development in one year instead of in three to 

 four years. Sown in August, it gives a first crop in 

 autumn, and then, beginning with next spring, a crop 

 of four tons to the acre is taken every month; which 



from two tons per hectare (two and a half acres) to eight tons ; in the 

 Vendee, from four tons of bad hay to ten tons of excellent hay. In the 

 Ain, M. Puris, having spent 19,000 francs for irrigating ninety-two and 

 a half hectares (about 2 IDS. per acre), obtained an increase of 207 tons 

 of excellent hay. In the south of France, a net increase of over four 

 bushels of wheat per acre is easily obtained by irrigation; while for 

 market-gardening the increase was found to attain 30 to 40 per acre. 

 (See H. Sagnier, "Irrigation," in BarraPs Dictionnaire d: Agriculture, 

 vol. Hi., p. 339.) 



* Dictionnaire d? Agriculture, same article. See also Appendix I. 



