16 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



are as truly the raw material of an agricultural product, as iron, 

 cotton and wool to the machine-shop and the mill. The spread 

 of cities like Lawrence throughout the land, with different 

 industries adapted to local capabilities, will give to the agricul- 

 ture of the nation the conditions of a self-sustaining, perpetually 

 compensated and lasting fertility. The agriculture of China, 

 that antedates the buried epochs of the Egyptian kings, and 

 to-day flourishes and feeds the swarming millions of that empire, 

 is based upon the principle that seeks from the' city restitution 

 to the farm of what is taken from it by the harvest. Great as 

 is the benefit which agriculture already derives from the neigh- 

 borhood of centres of industry and commerce, it has hardly 

 begun to use the resources which abound in such localities and 

 should be made available. Li a true economy, the city and the 

 town should be regarded by the farmer as a part of his farm 

 domain. They are so by the laws of nature. They should be 

 so in the practice of husbandry and the regulations of their 

 police. 



The problem of utilitizing the sewage of cities, which is so 

 earnestly discussed abroad, has vital relations to the progress of 

 civilized states. Through the sewers of cities draining into 

 rivers and the ocean, the highest properties of the soil are irre- 

 coverably lost. The turbid currents of North River, the Thames 

 and the Seine, .are richer than Pactolus with its sands of gold. 

 For that which is pollution to 'their waters is the touch of magic 

 to the fields, and the power of food for successive generations of 

 men. The value of this material as a fertilizer is obvious, but 

 it has been comparatively estimated and put beyond controversy 

 by the experiments of the Prussian government in reclaiming 

 land with the sewage of Dresden and Berlin. Land, which 

 without any applications yielded but three to one from the seed 

 sown, and seven to one when treated with the ordinary resources 

 of the farm, yielded fourteen to one when fertilized from the 

 sewer. As a mere problem of pecuniary saving it is a momen- 

 tous one. The fertilizing portions of the sewage of the city of 

 New York are computed, on the lowest estimate, to be worth 

 seven million dollars per annum. We have authority for saying 

 that the wasted drainage of the city of Boston is capable of 

 restoring annually to a high condition thirty thousand acres of 

 sterile land. The yearly waste of fertilizing elements in Great 



