The Paris Sewage Irrigation at Gennevilliers. 
125 
assimilating under some form or other, whether organic or 
mineral, all the fertilising matter contained in the sewage ; there- 
fore, if the purifying process by vegetable absorption be left out, 
and that duty exclusively apportioned to the action of the soil, 
at a time when it is saturated with the winter rainfall, it is obvious 
that failure must be the result. There can be no doubt that the 
comparative break-down of the system, as applied to Genne- 
villiers, must be ascribed to that cause, and that the adverse 
petition to the Legislative Assembly by some of the inhabitants 
rests upon some legitimate foundation. 
So far as agriculture is concerned, there is no gainsaying the 
fact that extraordinary success has been achieved at Gennevilliers. 
The principal crops grown under sewage-irrigation naturally 
belong more especially to market- and nursery-gardening than 
to ordinary farm-culture ; but it may be asserted that in no 
; instance of sewage-irrigation has the application of the system 
I been attended with greater success. 
I Last year a Committee was appointed by the Central Agri- 
cultural Society of France, at the request of the civic authorities, 
to examine the various plots of ground under sewage-treatment, 
with the view to determine the merits of the respective occupiers, 
and award prizes accordingly. 
The first prize, consisting of a work of art, was presented to 
M. Jolliclerc, whose plot of 20 acres deserves a special notice, 
owing to the great skill displayed in its management, and the 
systematic care with which all the operations connected with the 
application of sewage, in season and out of season, are carried 
out upon it. 
It was about the close of the year 1869 that JNL Jolliclerc took 
a lease of about 20 acres of ground, which had been utterly 
abandoned owing to its barren nature. It was only in the month 
of June 1870, that sewage could be brought to it, so extensive 
had been the preparatory works of levelling the land for the 
proper distribution of the sewage and the construction of the 
canal connected with the main. Seeds of various vegetables, 
suited to the Paris market, were then sown, and the first crops 
were so abundant and so beautiful, that M. Jolliclerc succeeded 
in obtaining most favourable contracts to supply the ' Grand 
Hotel,' several hospitals, barracks, and other large establish- 
ments in the metropolis. 
The unfortunate events of the year 1870 and 1871 interrupted 
■ M. Jolliclerc's cultivation ; but at the termination of the Com- 
mune Civil War, his operations were actively resumed, and a visit 
to his sewage market-garden will amply repay the trouble of the 
journey. It is, indeed, difficult to imagine a more interesting 
picture of active and luxuriant vegetation. 
