58 IEEIGATION. 



But in these instances, by reason of the abundance 

 and cheapness of labor and the high value of the crops 

 raised, rude and cumbersome methods of gathering, pre- 

 paring, and applying these fertilizers are in use. It is very 

 rarely that one can see even in England, in a small way, 

 the thoroughly economic system of using liquid manures 

 that are made use of in a large way for irrigating farms 

 with the liquid waste or "sewage" of towns and cities. 

 Their usual cumbersome methods are not adapted to our 

 uses, yet we may gather from them some ideas applicable 

 to our circumstances. There is, however, an arrangement 

 of house drainage combined with garden irrigation recent- 

 ly introduced that has been tested with satisfactory re- 

 sults, and that is full of promise for its future general 

 adoption. This grew out of the successful application of 

 the system of earth closets to some cottages in a village 

 in the county of Essex. The vast superiority of these 

 over the common filthy cesspool, made more conspicuous 

 than ever the inconvenience, insalubrity and waste of the 

 usual slop holes where the liquid waste of the house was 

 disposed of. For sanitary purposes a method was devis- 

 ed to dispose of this waste, and for economic purposes a 

 plan of utilizing it was adopted. 



From the sink of the kitchen a pipe, furnished with an 

 air-trap, is made to discharge into a tank built of cement 

 concrete outside of the wall of the house. The water from 

 the roof is carried to the tank by a pipe, which also serves 

 for ventilation. The tank is simply an above-ground 

 cistern made water-tight and lined with hydraulic cement. 

 The overflow from the tank is made intermittent by the 

 ingenious use of a siphon, or bent pipe. The operation 

 of this overflow is simple. "When the cistern is filled to 

 the movable cover, the water then trickles over the 

 bend of the siphon into the drain. When this occurs 

 the discharge of a pailful of water into the sink and 

 through the pipe into the tank suddenly fills the pipe, 



