MANURES. 213 



'* blessing to that filth-accursed town, and in the absence of any 

 " thing better, they might, with advantage, be imitated elsewhere. 

 ^' They have had an excellent effect on the health of the popula- 

 '* tion, by removing a prolific cause of typhoid fever and other 

 *' fatal diseases. As affording needed relief from malaria, they are 

 " of immense importance. Still, they are a great (although neces- 

 " sary) evil, inasmuch as they wash into the sea the manurial 

 " product of 3,000,000 people, to supply whom with food requires 

 " the importation of immense quantities of grain and manure. 



" The wheat-market of one-half the world is regulated by the 

 " demand in England. She draws food from the Black Sea, and 

 " from California ; she uses most of the guano of the Pacific 

 " islands ; she even ransacks the battle-fields of Europe for human 

 '■'■ bones, from which to make fresh bones for her people ; and, in 

 '■'■ spite of all this, her food is scarce and high, and bread-riots 

 " break out in her towns. 



• " An earnest effort is now being made to use the matters dis- 

 '' charged through these sewers for the fertilizing of the lands 

 " toward the eastern coast. For this purpose it is intended to 

 " build a sewer forty miles long, and nine and a half feet in 

 " diameter, which, with the incidental expenses of its construction 

 "and management, will cost about $10,000,000. The Sewage 

 " Company have a farm at Barking, on which they have ex- 

 " perimented very successfully, one acre of their irrigated mead- 

 " ows having produced nine tons of Italian rye grass in twenty- 

 " two days, and fifty tons during the past season up to August 

 " 15, with a prospect that the yield for the whole season will be 

 " at least seventy tons from a single acre. 



" The system of sewage irrigation has earnest adherents, and 

 " eq-ually earnest opposers. It does seem a pity, that for every 

 " pound of excrement given to the land, three or four hundred 

 " pounds of water must go with it, and it is probable that such 

 " highly diluted manure can be used with advantage only on grass 

 " crops. It is further asserted, that as the best results can be 

 " obtained only by the application of from 6,000 to 10,000 tons 

 " of the liquid per acre, the cost of the process must prevent its 



