64 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



have a much more rapid evaporation because onr average 

 atmosphere is dryer. Our State Secretary of this Board 

 reports, since 1853 the rule is drought in Massachusetts, for 

 whicli he advises the farmers to provide. 



The grease in our sewage is easily eliminated after permit- 

 ting it to accumulate on the surface of a reservoir of deposit. 



In conclusion, I venture to affirm that thus far not a single 

 objection has been raised to the employment of irrigation 

 and agriculture for epuration here, which has not been 

 raised and overcome by actual experience in Europe. 



Capt. Moore. I did not intend to speak on this subject 

 at all, and the reason I now do, is that in the paper which 

 has been read, allusion has been made to the sewage of the 

 Reformatory Prison for Women at Sherborn. The sewage 

 from that prison a few years ago ran into a small brook, and 

 after flowing along one or two miles it emptied into Lake 

 Cochituate. 



The discharge consisted of the sewage of a prison con- 

 taining three hundred persons. Upon complaint of the city 

 of Boston the State w^as put to a great deal of expense to 

 try to purify that sewage. They adopted a plan recom- 

 mended by Mr. Waring. I am not going to endorse Mr. 

 Waring or his system, but I will tell you what it is. The 

 sewage from that prison is gathered into three or four 

 cisterns or covered basins underground. It filters from 

 one to the other through strainers, and then the thin part, 

 the water, flows ofl' through a twelve-inch pipe which is 

 laid down on the middle of about five or six acres of land. 

 That land was graded, under the direction of Mr. Waring, 

 to a level. This pipe is carried along on the surface of 

 that land, and is covered over with a mound of earth. 

 From this pipe, running upon a level the length of this 

 piece, ten rods, six feet apart, and perhaps ten inches under 

 the surface of the ground, two-inch ordinary drain tile is 

 laid level. This water flows into the large pipe, and from 

 there flows into these small pipes, and out of the small 

 pipes percolates through the soil. Then below that is 

 another system of tiles, which are laid somewhere from 

 thirty to forty feet apart, perhaps thirty feet, and about five 



