160 



This land has been cleared of trees, brush and stones. 

 Probably no piece of land in tlu county, more densely cov- 

 ered with large and small stones, was ever cleared for til- 

 lage purposes. 



The stones removed and piled up weigh 7000 tons. 

 However the committee have seen this field and appreciate 

 how near completion is the work of clearing. It 

 seems certain that the whole will be cultivated another 

 season. In connection with this labor of reclaiming, another 

 plan has been decided upon, namely a Sewage and 

 Irrigation System. 



SEWAGE. 



Sewage disposal has been a vexed question at Dan vers 

 from the time the hospital was located. 



The original plan to discharge all the hospital sewage 

 through a direct main into the Ipswich river, one mile west 

 of the buildings, was forbidden by a special act of the legis- 

 lature before the hospital was opened for patients. 



A plan for downward filtration was then adopted. About 

 one acre of land near the barn was thoroughly under- 

 di-ained by tile. 



Upon this irrigation bed the sewage was discharged in- 

 termittingly b}^ an elaborate system of tanks, sluice cham- 

 bers, and wooden troughs. After a few months use the 

 scheme became a failure, partly for the reason, no doubt, 

 that the bed was not large enough. 



However that may have been, the plan was not consid- 

 ered feasible and the wooden troughs were removed to 

 the brow of the hospital hill and joined end to end making a 

 continuous line about one mile long. 



By the use of simple gates, sewage could be made to 

 flow over the top at any point upon the sloping fields 

 below. In this way surface irrigation could be applied to 

 about forty acres of land. The proper management of 

 this system required pretty constant attention and while 

 for short periods, liquid thus distributed improved the f er- 



