414 APPENDIX. [No. XXXVI.c. 



" The petitioners do not deny that the irrigation as hitherto practised 

 has conferred upon the sewage-grounds a fertility which they did not 

 formerly possess, and which has created some excellent kitchen gardens ; 

 but they beg to observe that the irrigation-grounds have been selected 

 amongst those best adapted for the purpose. The irrigation-grounds on 

 the 1st October, 1874, only comprised 113 hectares, and even then they have 

 only been subjected to the application of 50,000 cubic metres per annum. 



" The petitioners are, therefore, not astonished to find that amongst 

 the cultivators of Gennevilliers there are some who are satisfied with the 

 irrigation and ask for the continuation, and even for the extension, of it. 

 However, the petitioners do not believe that their approval will be con- 

 tinued, for can the grounds continue for ever, and without rest, to imbibe 

 50,000 metres for each hectare for eveiy year putrescent waters which 

 deposit on the surface their offensive and putrid mud, and permeate the 

 ground with a liquid loaded with organic matters and deleterious gas ? 



" The petitioners question the future because the absorption of 50,000 

 metres per hectare is impossible, and is recognized as being exorbitant, as 

 was proved by experience in Lombardy and in England, and so far im- 

 perfectly at Gennevilliers, that a great number of cultivators have declared 

 that they would not use a mode of irrigation which they consider as incon- 

 venient, unhealthy, and prejudicial to their cultivation. 



" The sewage after having penetrated the superficial layers of the soil 

 is but incompletely purified, and does not return to the river, as is wrong- 

 fully asserted in the report of the technical commission to the Minister of 

 Public Works. The sewage water joins the subsoil water which percolates 

 from the Seine, and is added to it, so that since 1872 the level has been 

 raised two metres. In this case the subsoil water has overflowed the wells 

 and corrupted the water. They have overflowed the cellars, which they 

 have rendered wet and unhealthy; they have filled the vaults and the 

 quarries where they are exposed to view, and exhale the noxious effluvia, 

 and the marsh fever heretofore unknown in this country has taken pos- 

 session of it. 



" If such results are already manifested by an irrigation which has 

 only had an existence of three years, and which is limited in extent to 

 113 hectares, what would the result be if that irrigation were extended to 

 2000 hectares, with an amount of sewage amounting to 100,000,000 of 

 cubic metres per annum ? 



" The irrigation-grounds would become an immense marsh, from which 

 the pestilential emanations would evaporate, and not only affect Genne- 

 villiers, Asnieres, Colombes, and the other districts around, but would 

 penetrate to Paris itself." 



The land upon which the irrigation is carried on is naturally barren, 

 and a contrary petition was presented by some cultivators who benefited 

 by the practice. 



It is proper to notice that on a visit to the engineer, he distinctly 

 stated to me that he did not subscribe to the notion that the level of the 

 subsoil water had been raised two metres, but it appears to me that if the 

 sewage flows on to the land more rapidly than it can penetrate through it, 

 then the level of the subsoil must be raised. 



The creation of so large a pestilential swamp must be a source of 

 serious injury, and, according to all known science, may in the future lead 



