217 



the crops experimented upon were wheat, oats, mangold wurtzel, sugar beet, 

 cabbage, onions, lucerne, kohl-rabi, potatoes, flax, leeks, celery, asparagus, 

 strawberries, etc., but principally Italian rye-grass, a patch of Bromus Schrcederi, 

 or prairie grass, and ordinary old pasture. Upon its arrival at the farm the 

 sewage was allowed to flow from the measuring tank into another considerably 

 larger, whose top was truly level, thus allowing the liquid of the sewage to 

 flow over its lips, and retaining a greater part of the sediment. This was done 

 to facilitate the labour of cleaning the carriers, but the porous nature of the 

 ground, and the large quantity of sewage absorbed by the carriers, rendered it 

 advisable to allow the sewage to flow, at first, direct into the carriers, which 

 were gradually puddled by the deposit. The farm was pipe-drained, which was 

 also an unnecessary expense with land of so light a character, and with a deep 

 gravel subsoil. So far as experiments have gone, subsoil drainage has been 

 found of little value in sewage irrigation, as in the extreme case of Croydon, 

 where the soil is a stiff clay, the subsoil drains were taken up by the pro- 

 prietor, who said the grass was better where they had not been laid down. 

 This fact is ojjposed to the general opinion of the agricultural world, but 

 there is little doubt that a gravel subsoil will carry away a very great addi- 

 tional increase to the rainfall of a tolerably dry country. 



The fifty-five and a half acres of Italian rye-grass supported from 200 to 

 300 milch cows, which were fed upon 2500 tons of grass, 1 cwt. to 1^ cwt. each 

 per day, the produce of 250,000 tons of sewage. 



This is taking the whole, and striking an average, but taking that 

 acreage, which at the same time was producing its full and proper yield of 

 grass, it was found that 61 tons per acre was the actual crop carried. 

 Therefore, supposing that all the fifty -five and a half acres had been of equal 

 standing, and sown at the same time, the total yield would have been 3250 

 tons of grass, or about 1 ton of grass for every 100 tons of sewage, and supposing 

 750 tons are deducted as the natural yield of the same land under ordinary 

 circumstances. Cow feeders, and others, give 15s. to 20s. for this grass cut 

 and bound, so that the produce of each acre would be from .£40 to =£60. 

 The laying out and drainage costs from £5 to £15 per acre, thus, 

 inclusive of very heavy charges for labour and machinery, there remains a 

 large margin for profit. 



The mangold was sown in May, and taken up in October, having been 

 sewaged at the rate of 1100 tons per acre. The crop averaged fifty tons per 

 acre, doubling the yield on another part of the farm where the land was equally 

 good, and had received twenty tons cow-house dung and five hundred weight 

 of mixed guano, superphosphate, and common salt, per acre. All the other 

 crops mentioned turned out very well, many carrying off prizes at the Royal 

 Agricul. Inst. Christmas Show at Islington. The sugar beet had a higher 

 saccharine value than any produced in England ; the strawberries took the 

 second prize at the Royal Hort. Society Show in June, 1867 : the three or four 

 acres thus planted were a wonderful sight, the berries being of enormous size 

 and in the utmost profusion. In wheat, a dressing of 500 tons per acre pro- 

 duced a crop of forty-three bushels per acre, with four and a half loads of straw, 

 whilst contiguous land under ordinary conditions bore twenty-nine bushels 

 with three loads of straw. The cabbages also did well, being planted in 

 August and sold in October, at £10 per acre, on the ground. 



The author is indebted to Mr. J. C. Morton, the eminent agriculturalist, 

 who had the general supervision of the farm, for some of the above figures. 



Sewage irrigation carried on under the circumstances above mentioned 

 was therefore a decided success, but it would be a mistake to suppose that all 

 these results were due exclusively to the manurial properties contained in the 

 sewage. It has been proved in many parts of the world, that pure water used 



