126 
The Paris Seicage Irrigation at Gennevilliers. 
Artichokes, beetroots, carrots, cabbages of all kinds, cucum- 
bers, melons, bulbous chervil, spinach, strawberries, beans, 
turnips, onions, parsnips, leeks, green-peas, potatoes, pumpkins, 
tomatoes, «Scc. — in fact, all the vegetables known to the Paris 
climate are cultivated in turn, each according to its proper season, 
with a success which, as regards size, flavour, and abundance, 
has never been equalled in the neighbourhood of the capital. 
Having an unlimited supply of rich sewage at his command, 
M. JoUiclerc never allows his ground to remain fallow, except 
in the depth of winter, which, in tliat low and porous district, is 
always of exceessive rigour. 
The land is dug up with the spade and laid out in beds, 
about 2 feet 6 inches in width. Each stetch is divided by a 
channel of equal width, which the sewage is allowed to flood 
after each crop, and in summer, several times, whenever the land 
gets dry. 
After each crop, the order of the stetches is inverted, the 
new bed intended to receive the fresh crop being raised where 
the former sewage-channel was laid. By means of this alternate 
rotation, half the space remains in bare fallow, and thus gets fer- 
tilised both from actual rest and direct absorption of sewage- 
water, whilst the crop growing on the adjacent bed derives from 
the right and from the left, all the moisture and nutrition it 
requires for its rapid growth and development. 
With this judicious system, it will be seen that the growing 
plants have no direct communication with the sewage, and no 
contact whatever with it, even through the leaves. 
Taking into consideration the barren nature of the ground 
where M. Joliclerc has laid out his market-garden, the bulk of 
the crops he obtains is considerable. The average quantities 
of various produce harvested from this sewage market-garden 
being as follows per acre : — carrots, 20 tons ; red l^eet-roots 
for salad, 35 tons ; French beans, 6 tons ; cabbages, 30 tons ; 
spinach, 4 tons ; artichokes, about 40,000 heads. 
From 20 acres he had under cultivation at the outset of his 
operations in 1869, M. Jolliclerc has now increased his holding 
to 300 acres, and is making arrangements to further increase 
it to 1000 acres. 
Besides market-gardening, there are also regular farming 
operations carried out at Gennevilliers under the sewage-system. 
From ground of the same description as that of M. Jolliclerc, 
M. Boismal succeeded in harvesting, in 1874, 50 tons of excellent 
mangolds, 32 bushels of wheat, and 56 bushels of oats per acre. 
Industrial crops of unusual bulk and quality liave also been 
obtained from liighly successful experiments. M. Auguste Royer 
has obtained 31 tons of mint out of 5 acres of irrigated land, of a 
