Sewage for Garden Irrigation 409 



gardens, are being established, and sewage water was handled 

 there in 1895 by small gardeners with great skill and profit. 

 The lands are held at $1,000 per acre, and rent at a high price. 

 The sewage for irrigation is carried beneath the surface in 

 closed pipes, which are provided with a system of hydrants for 

 taking out the water where needed, and Fig. 127 shows one of 

 these, while Fig. 128 is taken at the same place, standing at 

 the hydrant and looking down the open ditch leading the 

 water to gardens and orchards, where it is to be used. 

 Flowers, garden vegetables and fruits were growing upon these 

 grounds in great luxuriance for the city markets. If such 

 results as these can be secured in France, why should not the 

 philanthropic zeal of Greater New York join with the capital 

 of that city and lead a portion of the water of the higher 

 lands, together with the sewage of the inland towns and cities, 

 which is now polluting the streams, down upon the flat New 

 Jersey sands and convert them into gardens of industry and 

 plenty, where the unfortunate mothers, with their children now 

 in the dark streets, could be helped to comfortable homes sur- 

 rounded by conditions which make physical, intellectual and 

 moral growth possible. 



CROPS SUITED TO SEWAGE IRRIGATION 



There is no crop more generally grown on sewage farms 

 than grass, which is fed green, as cited in the cities of Leith 

 and Edinburgh and at Milan ; as silage, as has been done at 

 Croyden and Nottingham, or made into hay, as at Preston. At 

 Blackburn and at Croyden, also, the lands are extensively pas- 

 tured, at the latter place by coach and draft horses of the city 

 for a season, to allow their feet to recover from the jar and 

 shock of stone pavements. 



In England and in Italy very heavy crops of grass are 

 grown, yielding all the way from 40 to 70 tons per acre per 

 season. The grass most extensively grown in Europe is the 

 Italian Bye Grass, but it is not permanent, and the land must 

 be plowed and reseeded every three or four years if heavy 



