44 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



than 300 or 400 yards from the irrigated meadow. A large 

 vohune would be required to collect all the evidence in this 

 direction. 



Dr. Frankland, the prince of chemists, wrote in May, 1881 : 

 "There are in nature powerful agents for the destruction of 

 disease. It cannot be doubted ; otherwise the human race 

 would long ago have been exterminated. The problem is 

 not entirely solved, but experience appears to demonstrate 

 this action on sewage employed in irrigation ; for when 

 known to be infected by cholera and typhoid fever in Eng- 

 land it has never produced these diseases in the inhabitants 

 living on the sewage farms and consuming the produce." 



A system endorsed and advocated by such men as Virchow 

 and Liebig, Pasteur, Schloessing and Marie-Davy, Frank- 

 land and Carpenter possesses a guarantee unquestionable. 



TRANSPORTATION. 



In constructing a sewerage system, the town or city pays 

 the costs of transportation ; for, of necessity, it must be 

 built to discharge somewhere, and ordinarily it would be no 

 more expensive to discharge on neighboring f\u'ms than into 

 a river or bay. Many pla(*BS are obliged to elevate their 

 sewage with pumps before it is finally disposed of. It would 

 be just as cheap to pump it on the land. 



A commission appointed some time since by the Parisian 

 government stated that "irrigation is the most economic and 

 efficacious means of conveying directly to plants the fertil- 

 izing matter of sewage." 



Delivered at a favorable point, no elaborate system is 

 necessary for its utilization. A cemented reservoir, with 

 Akron pi[)es which will sustain the pressure of two atmos- 

 pheres, and gates to govern and divert the flow to the open 

 ditches, is all that is necessary. Hose might be substituted 

 for the Akron pipe. On a light sandy soil, subsoil drains 

 for the effluent water are unnecessary. The sewage is best 

 carried in shalloAV ditches a few inches deep, and elevated 

 slightly above the level of the field. A plough will do the 

 entire construction, making Avhat is known as the donkey- 

 back system, — elevated open ditches, having a fall of about 



