AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 441 



other along tlie New Haven, into the rural districts, and be tap- 

 ped at pleasure, through underground pipes, and the liquid sold 

 to farmers at almost any price the company might feel inclined 

 to cliarge. The liquid would be forced from the receiving reser- 

 voirs by means of proper engines, through the main pipes, and 

 from them through the smaller ones on the different farms. 

 Fifteen dollars per acre would furnish an abundance of these, 

 and the pressure would be sufficient without jets. 



I would estimate the value for agricultural purposes of New 

 York sewage, if it could all be saved, at many millions of dol- 

 lars per annum. One great advantage that I have not named, of 

 liquid over solid manure is, that it arrests and conveys ammonia, 

 which dissolves the silica in our soils, and vastly stimulates and 

 increases the production. The total manuring substances, liquid 

 and solid, produced in New York annually, is equal in weight to 

 two tons for each inhabitant, or 1,400,000 tons per annum, each 

 ton of which is more than is absolutely necessary to place upon 

 an acre of laud to obtain an abundant crop every year ; you will 

 therefore readily perceive, that 1,400,000 acres of land could be 

 supplied with all the nitrogen and phosphates that it requires 

 annually. If some of our wealthy citizens would form them- 

 selves into a stock company, and make the necessary arrange- 

 ments, they would not only enrich themselves by declaring forty 

 per cent, dividends, but be of great advantage to the agricultural 

 interests of the country, as their example would soon be followed 

 by every city in the. Union. Think of turning the sewage of 

 New York, now the cause of pestilence and disease, into so great 

 a source of national wealth by its ai^plicatiou to the glorious pur- 

 poses of agriculture. It would even be better to incur the total 

 loss as enriching substances, of urine and excretise, or of vegeta- 

 ble and animal excrejnents in the city, than to permit it to be 

 retained as at present, for occasional removal, during which 

 intervals it decays, and creates noxious impurities amidst our 

 habitations. As yet there have been no successful chemical 

 investigations made of substances as disinfectants and deodori- 

 sers as preventives on a large scale, giving general satisfaction. 

 I fear tlien that our noble Hudson, as well as the air we breathe, 

 will long be polluted by j)utrefying filth. 



Good arable soils must be capable of holding from thirty-nine 

 to sixty-nine per cent, of their weight of moisture ; if less than 

 this I would plant them with pine trees, as they never would 

 yield fine grass. Capillary action is great in light sandy soils, 

 and when these are properb' irrigated they produce re'munerat- 



