422 
Half-a-dozen English Sewage Farms. 
and strawy crop, much beaten about by the weather. About 20* 
acres were in clover, and this, too, is a crop which does not readily 
lend itself to the work of the irrigator. Ten acres were in 
swedes, giving a splendid promise in August ; but swedes,, 
too, I have not found a very suitable crop for sewage husbandry. 
Only 20 acres were in Italian rye-grass, of which a portion was^ 
being cut a fifth time that season ; and a large area was covered 
with grass in swathe or cock, in an attempt to make hay — an 
attempt generally very unpromising, and always undesirable on 
sewage-farms. And there was a considerable area in fallow, in 
very rough plight indeed. At the old farm-buildings and in the 
lower grass-field, to which access is obtained by a good road 
across the farm, enabling the conveyance of the crops both thither 
and from the farm, I saw a herd of 11 good milking cows, a 
number of calves, and three good horses. In addition to these, 
sheep are bought in autumn for the consumption of the turnips, 
clover, &c. The sales of the farm include milk, clover, and 
rye-grass hay, a certain quantity of mutton and pork, gene- 
rally a large crop of oats, and a good deal of straw. And in 
addition to all this there is a considerable receipt for Italian 
rye-grass, sold as dear as 20s. a ton in early spring, and from 
IO5. to 12s. a ton during summer. The whole receipts have 
varied from 600/. to 980Z. a year, or from 11. to 12/. an acre, 
not nearly so much beyond the mere grass-lettings of the larger 
Cheltenham farm as to recoup the enormously greater annual 
expenditure in its production. Italian rye-grass is kept down 
generally two years, and is sown at the rate of as much as 5 
bushels an acre, in sowings crossing one another on a well-worked 
oat-stubl)le in early autumn. 
The mode of cropping the Chorley farm is, I think, consider- 
ing its small extent, mistaken. The whole land should be made 
available for irrigation, instead of the small portion to Avhich 
the application of the sewage is at present limited. Instead of 
oats and swedes and clover, which are rarely sewaged, except, 
indeed, in the fallow condition of the land before the seed is 
sown, the whole should be devoted to such succulent crops as 
are especially adapted to sewage treatment. Italian rye-grass 
should be more extensively cultivated, and cabbages, and per- 
haps mangel-wurzel, might be grown on part of the land — though 
whether the climate would be perfectly suitable for the last-named 
crop is questionable. And if a market for these crops cannot be 
obtained in the neighbouring towns, a larger quantity of stock 
should be reared and fed upon the farm, either store-stock or 
milch-cows, increasing the number of them as a market can be 
obtained for their produce. 
