46 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



TEMPERATURE OF SEWAGE. 



Our winter climate is often raised as an objection to the 

 employment of sewage in irrigation. The facts do not war- 

 rant this assumption, for at PuHman, 111., epuration takes 

 place as well in winter as in summer. At Dantzic, where 

 the mean winter temperature is about that of our own, 

 where the soil freezes four feet deep, and the Vistula is 

 frozen over from the middle of November to March, the 

 temperature of the sewage at the mouth of the sewer never 

 goes below 37° F. The temperature of sewage is always 

 above the freezing point when underground, and where it 

 comes to the surface it melts the snow and ice so that it finds 

 its way readily into the earth. At times a thin skin of ice 

 forms on the surface of the land underneath which the sewage 

 disappears. 



DILUTION OF SEWAGE. 



The enormous dilution of sewa2:e with water is used as.an 

 argument against its profitable employment, as the land 

 required for so large an amount of water would not be mate- 

 ritilly benefited by the small proportion of fertilizing material. 

 Analyses of drain water, both in Europe and America, show 

 but trifling variation in composition or relative amount of 

 fertilizing matter. Durand-Claye, addressing the Society 

 of Agriculture of France, said that " 34,020 gals, of drain 

 water was about equal to 2,679 lbs. of dunghill, both in 

 nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, and that it is practi- 

 cally a liquid manure," and further, that it is desirable and 

 necessary there should be great dilution in order to insure 

 rapid transit ; and Dr. Carpenter, the celebrated English 

 scientist, says, " the more dilute the better is the sewage 

 for irrigating purposes." The water alone would be found 

 valuable on much of the soil of Massachusetts. Farmers in 

 Arlington pay the town $150 a year for filtered water 

 employed in their gardens, and many, unable to get suffi- 

 cient town water, have erected expensive windmills to raise 

 water for this purpose. The alternate soaking and drying 

 renders the soil lighter, more porous and warmer, and con- 

 sequently will produce earlier crops. The early green 



