18G7.] On the Application of Sewage to the Soil. 359 



Meadows below Edinburgh, and which yield 30 or 40 tons of grass 

 per acre; some parts of these meadows have been recently reclaimed 

 from the sea-shore; near Rugby, where Mr. Lawes found the 

 produce of the soil to be in direct proportion to the quantity of 

 sewage applied ; at Mr. Marriage's farm of 300 acres near 

 Croydon, which is almost wholly under sewage and Italian rye-grass 

 (this seems to be the plant to which it has been applied with the 

 greatest success), and where 30 or 40 tons of grass per acre were 

 mown in 1864 ; upon sea-land below Shoeburyness, where rye-grass 

 having been sown, and manured with sewage, at once became fertile 

 and yielded heavy crops ; and the case recently reported in a letter 

 from the secretary of the Metropolitan Sewage Company to the 

 ' Times,' which deserves special notice. 



The work was done upon " the Lodge Farm " near Barking, and 

 is thus described by Mr. Morgan, the secretary : — 



" Xot withstanding the previously severe weather, a crop of Italian 

 rye-grass was cut in the early part of April and weighed 9 tons per 

 acre The same plot was cut a second time on the 15th May, the 

 crop weighing 12 tons per acre. On May 4 a crop was taken from 

 the adjoining piece of land which weighed 18 tons per acre. There 

 are some 70 acres of land under irrigation, which, it is expected, 

 will cut six times during the year." 



Now, it must be quite clear, that with meat, butter, cheese, and 

 milk constantly increasing in value, the enormous additions to our 

 pasture areas which are sure to result from the reclamation of waste 

 lands, cannot fail to be of great public benefit ; indeed this new 

 source of supply, coupled with the increasing consumption, by cattle, 

 of artificial food (such as linseed-cake, rape-cake, cotton-cake, and 

 palm-nut meal) will, we hope, in time, arrest the upward tendency 

 in the value of those indispensable human requirements. The 

 obstacles to be contended against by the promoters of this great 

 scheme are few, the chief one being that which accompanies all 

 new undertakings, namely, prejudice. Fortunately, however, the 

 diffusion of knowledge amongst the farming community spreads 

 almost as rapidly as in every other class ; ' and whilst such men as 

 Messrs. Lawes, Gilbert, J. Chalmers Morton, J. F. Bateman, and 

 Mr. Robert Neilson, form the front rank, led on by so enthusiastic, 

 but at the same time so judicious a captain as Lord Robert Montague, 

 there is little fear for the ultimate success of the undertaking. 



The most recent development of the scheme (briefly referred to 

 in our number of last January*) is the one represented in the 

 accompanying plan for utilizing the sewage of Liverpool. This 

 gigantic and philanthropic undertaking will fulfil all the con- 

 ditions named in the early part of this essay. It will relieve the 

 vast and unhealthy town of Liverpool of one of its chief sources of 



* ' Journal of Science,' No. xiii. Agricultural Chronicle. 



