74 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No 2 



table marrow-plant, when growing in common 

 mould, has been Ibund to surpass other plants 

 growing in a bed of dung. The London drainage 

 waters always contain the soda in its tluid portion, 

 the soda of some thousand tons of soap, consumed 

 annually in London, all finding their way into 

 the sewers. 



Nature is here again our instructor. The fer- 

 tile fields of Syria, and some of the most profiasely 

 luxuriant lands of the orientalists, abound in car- 

 bonate of soda. This alkali not only enters into 

 the composition of many vegetables, but it pro- 

 motes the growth of all, by preserving the mois- 

 ture of the soil, and by accelerating the decompo- 

 lion of the numerous organic substances found in 

 all cultivated lands. 



To the immense quantity of urine which is 

 mixed with the drainage waters of large cities, 

 one source of their fertilizing powers must be 

 mainly attributed, a fact well known equally to the 

 farmer and to the chemist. "All urine,'" said the 

 late talented Davy, "contains the essential ele- 

 ments of vegetables in a state of solution. Du- 

 ring the.'putrefaction of urine the greatest part of 

 the soluble animal matter that it contains is des- 

 troyed; it should consequently be used as fresh as 

 possible; but if not mixed with solid matter, it 

 should be diluted wilh water; as when pure it con- 

 tains too large a quatity of animal matter to form 

 a proper fluid nourishment, for absorption by the 

 roots of plants. * 



Urine has been subjected to the most careful 

 analysis by M. Berzelius, the great Swedish che- 

 mist, and its constilutents are .determined by him 

 to be as follows. 



Water 933 00 



Nephrin (peculiar to animal matter,) 30 10 



Sulphate of potash, . - - 3 71 



Sulphate of soda, . - . 3 ig 



Muriate of soda (common salt,) - 4 45 



Phosphate of ammonia, - - 165 



Muriate of ammonia, - - - 1 50 



Lactic acid, . . . . ^ 



Lactate of ammonia, - - - [- 17 14 



Animal matter, mixed with nephrin, j 

 Earthy phosphates, (earth of bones,) 



and fluate of lime, ... 1 00 



Uric acid, - - - - , 1 00 



Mucus, 32 



Silica (flint,) . - . . 03 



10 oot 



Well might Davy exclaim after such an analy- 

 sis, that "all urine contains the essential ingre- 

 dients of vegetables;" its magic fertilizing efiects 

 when spread upon the earth, need no longer puz- 

 zle the agriculturist, since there is hardly a single 

 ingredient detected by the analysis of M. Berze- 

 lius, which is not either direct food tor vegetation, 

 or furnishes, by its decomposition, a supply in an- 

 other form. It contains all the ammoniacal salts 

 of the dunghill, the phosphate of lime of bones, 

 and abundance of easily decomposable animal 

 matters. 



On the use of the liquid portion of the Edin- 

 burgh town drainage, a very able report has been 

 made to the Thames Improvement Company, by 



* Agricultural Chemistry, p. 295. 

 X Annals of Philosophy, vol. ii. p. 422. 



Mr. Thomas Oliver, an excellent Scotch farmer, 

 in which he says, " from the elevated position 

 of Edinburgh, there is a considerable extent of 

 ground which can be overflowed by the water 

 Irom the city drains, in its progress to the sea, and 

 of late years it has become an object of attention 

 to the proprietors and occupiers of ground, so sit- 

 uated as to admit of its application; there are, I 

 should think, not less than three hundred imperial 

 acres to which it is regularly applied, and with 

 great advantage." 



"Such ground is annually kept in grass and 

 yields liom three to six cuttings in the season, 

 which is let to dairy-men and others, at rents vary- 

 ing, according to circumstances, from twelve to 

 twenty-four pounds per acre. You will perceive 

 from this statement, that the chief benefit derived 

 from the drainage of Edinburgh, arises from the 

 fluid part; and if we reckon the increased yearly 

 value of the land, above-mentioned, at ten pounds 

 per acre (which I think is under the mark) it 

 yields a clear revenue of three thousand pounds 

 per annum to the proprietors of those grounds 

 through which the drains pass." * 



The history of the adoption of this system of 

 town drainage irrigation at Edinburgh is very in- 

 teresting, and will, therefore, abridge and insert 

 the description given of it by Mr. Stephens, f 

 "Edinburgh," says this intelligent land drainer, 

 "has many advantages over the most of her sis- 

 ter cities; the large supply of excellent spring 

 water is one of the greatest blessings to her nu- 

 merous inhabitants, both in respect to household 

 purposes and keeping her streets clean, as well as 

 irrigating the extensive meadows situated below 

 the town, where the art of man, with the common 

 sewer-waler, has made even sand hillocks pro- 

 duce riches far superior to any thing of the kind 

 in the kingdom, or in any other country. 



" By this sewer- water about two hundred acrea 

 of grass land, (1834) for the most part laid into 

 catchwork meadow, are irrigated ; whereof one 

 hundred and thirty belong to W. H. Miller, Esq., 

 of Craigintinny, and the remainder to the Earls 

 of Haddington and Moray, and other proprietors. 

 The meadows belonging to these noblemen, and 

 part of the Craigintinny meadows, or what are 

 called the old meadows, contain about fifty acres, 

 and have been irrigated for nearly a century. They 

 are by far the most valuable, on account of the 

 long and continual accumulation of the rich sedi- 

 ment left by the water; indeed the water is so 

 very rich, that the tenants of the meadows lying 

 nearest the town have found it advisable to carry 

 the common sewer water through deep ponds, into 

 which the water deposites part of the superfluous 

 manure before it runs over the ground. Although 

 the formation of these meadows is irregular, and 

 the management very imperfect, the effects of 

 the water are astonishing; they produce crops o ' 

 grass not to be equalled, being cut from four to 

 six times a year, and the grass given green to 

 milch cows. 



"The grass is let every year by public sale, in 

 small patches of a quarter of an acre and up- 

 wards, and generally brings yearly from twenty- 

 four to thirty pounds per acre. In 1826 part of 



* Paper of Dr. Granville. Rep. of Committee, p. 75. 

 tPracticai Irrigator — copied at length in Ihe Far- 

 mers' Register, begiuing p, 347, vol. iii. 



