SEWERAGE MANURE. 299 



aquatic plants and luxuriant vegetation upon their borders, are 

 to be relied upon as the most enriching in their deposit. 

 Streams into which the sewerage of large towns is emptied, are 

 often of the greatest value for agricultural purposes. A stream 

 thus enriched is turned to important account near Edinburg : cer- 

 tain lands, which were formerly barren wastes, being merely the 

 clean, dry sands thrown up by the sea in former times, having 

 been arranged so that they may be flowed. The expense of the 

 operation was great about one hundred dollars an acre and 

 the annual cost of flooding is very much greater than usual 

 four or five dollars an acre ; but the crops of hay are so frequent 

 and enormous (ten cuttings being made in a season), that some 

 parts of the meadow rent for one hundred dollars a-year for one 

 acre, and none for less than seventy-five dollars ! 



It is estimated by the distinguished agriculturist, Smith of 

 Deanston, that the sewerage-water of a town may be contracted 

 for, to be delivered, (sent by subterranean pipes and branches, 

 so that it may be distributed over any required surface,) eleven 

 miles out of town, for four cents a ton. Mr. Hawksley, a pru- 

 dent engineer, offers to convey it five miles, and raise it two hun- 

 dred feet, for five cents a ton ; the expense of carting it to the 

 same distance and elevation being estimated at about $1. An- 

 other estimate makes the expense of conveying and distributing 

 manure, in the solid form, as compared with liquid, at fifteen dol- 

 lars to seventy-five cents, for equal fertilizing values. Professor 

 Johnston estimates the annual fertilizing value of the sewerage 

 of a town of one thousand inhabitants, as equal to a quantity 

 of guano which, at present American prices, would be worth 

 $13,000. Smith of Deanston estimates the cost of manuring an 

 acre by sewerage, conveyed in aqueducts and distributed by jet- 

 pipes, at three dollars an acre, and that of fertilizing it to an 

 equal degree, in the usual way, by farm-yard manure, at fifteen 



