176 THE POSSIBILITIES 



The irrigated meadows round Milan are another 

 well-known example. Nearly 22,000 acres are 

 irrigated there with water derived from the sewers 

 of the city, and they yield crops of from eight 

 to ten tons of hay as a rule ; occasionally some 

 separate meadows will yield the fabulous amount 

 fabulous to-day, but no longer fabulous to- 

 morrow of eighteen tons of hay per acre, that 

 is, the food of nearly four cows to the acre, 

 and nine times the yield of good meadows in this 

 country.* However, English readers need not 

 go so far as Milan for ascertaining the results 

 of irrigation by sewer water. They have several 

 such examples in this country, in the experiments 

 of Sir John Lawes, and especially at Craigentinny, 

 near Edinburgh, where, to use Ronna's words, 

 " the growth of rye grass is so activated that it 

 attains its full development in one year instead 

 of hi three to four years. Sown in August, it 

 gives a first crop in autumn, and then, beginning 

 with next spring, a crop of four tons to the acre 

 is taken every month ; which represents in the 

 fourteen months more than fifty-six tons (of 

 green fodder) to the acre." f At Lodge Farm 

 they grow forty to fifty-two tons of green crops 

 per acre, after the cereals, without new manur- 



* Dictionnaire d 1 Agriculture, same article. See also Appen- 

 dix M. 



t Ronna, Les Irrigations, vol. ill., p. 67. Paris, 1890. 



