Leicester. 



grass. The lower fields, which were originally arable, 

 have been seeded down, and the total area of the 

 pasture land is 902 acres. By this means the draw- 

 backs of a clay farm are very largely overcome. I 

 should like to say one more word about that. I have 

 had something to do with clay land before, and I 

 have always found that if you do drain it in the 

 ordinary way, as there is only a small depth of 

 humus, you do not get sufficient filtration, and it 

 finds its way down into these drains (not having got 

 its 6 ft. or 7 ft. for filtration) in a foul condition. We 

 expected the same failure at Leicester. It was 

 prophesied that we should fail because of that. 

 Some said : ' Well, you must not drain the land.' 

 Well, we tried that for a little while, and we found 

 that we could not possibly get the horses on. We 



it out to the surface of the next field below as quickly 

 as possible and dealing with each field the same ; so 

 that the foul effluent which gets into the drain at 

 one field is thrown over the surface of the next, and 

 on the next again, if not fit to send away, and when 

 it is fit to send away we can drop it into any one of 

 these dykes, let it go away through the ordinary 

 natural drains of the land, or bring it on to the 

 surface of the land again, and in that way we 

 achieved a very great success." The balk of the 

 sewage " was held up within 1 ft., but of course it 

 would gradually permeate through 2 ft. or 3 ft. more, 

 but extremely slowly, not sufficiently." " And then 

 it concentrated itself over the trenches naturally, 

 and there found its way into the drains. Always in 

 hot weather, after rest of the land, we had the 



have had to wait from twelve to twenty weeks 

 before we could get the horses on to plough after 

 sewaging ; we found that we must drain it, and we 

 got over it in this way, but it was after a great deal 

 of study. The farm, fortunately for us, has good 

 slopes, so that pumping the sewage on to the top of 

 the watershed, part of it falls down to one valley 

 and part to another ; and the idea I conceived was 

 that, instead of having an arterial system of drains 

 and connected up to the main drains, so that when 

 you put the sewage on to a top field it would pass 

 through only 6 in. to 1 ft. of soil, into the system, 

 which was as good as into the river at once ; instead 

 of doing that I have laid a main drain along the 

 bottom of each field to the lowest comer, and taking 

 advantage of the superior slope of the farm, getting 



fissures in the clay to deal with, and it used to run 

 through these and get quickly down that way." 

 Owing to the retention on the surface of the land of 

 the solids left in suspension, a very offensive smell 

 arises in hot weather, but as this occurs in the middle 

 of some 1,700 acres and on comparatively high 

 ground no " nuisance " is occasioned thereby. The 

 sewage is usually applied continuously (night and 

 day) for about fourteen days to the same plots. 

 The Experiment will be dealt with hereafter. 

 Cropping. — The chief crop is rye-grass ; mangold 

 wurzels are also grown, and about 20 acres to 

 30 acres of wheat per annum to provide straw 

 for thatching. At times 1,000 head of cattle 

 are maintained, and the number seldom falls 

 below 500 to 600. 



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