Half-a-dozen English Sewage Farms. 
429 
the separation of its heavier mud. From this point it is taken in 
a bricked conduit along one side of the valley, and in a syphon 
to a corresponding but somewhat smaller conduit on the other 
side. This, as having to feed the larger area of land, should have 
received the larger portion of the sewage, and the syphon, an 
18-inch pipe, should have been capable of taking a larger flow. 
From these conduits, as on the other farm, the land receives the 
water at successive points, being distributed from contoured 
carriers made by plough and spade over successive areas of 
Italian rye-grass, mangel-wurzel, and occasionally summer and 
winter fallow. The land is drained, and the drainage-water of 
the higher levels is taken up for re-use on the lower ; but here, 
too, complaint is made that the drainage is not altogether satis- 
factory. There is less demand for Italian rye-grass here than 
at the northern farm, which is one-half nearer the town ; and one 
shilling a rod is here the maximum price. Of the 39 acres of 
Italian rye-grass on the farm last ]\lay, 9 acres had been sown in 
the spring of 1876, about 15 acres in the spring of 1875, and' 
15 acres in the spring of 1874 ; and a large extent was in a 
comparatively unproductive and unprofitable state, and has no 
doubt been ploughed up before this and received a good summer 
fallow for wheat next year. A great deal of the land, formerly 
a heathy sandy moor, is only now being brought into use ; and it 
is so admirably adapted for dealing with the sewage nuisance, if 
not of producing the maximum agricultural produce by its use, 
that it seems a pity that the whole of the town sewage could not, 
whether by tunnel or otherwise, have been discharged at the 
southern outfall, and thus have been avoided one-half the 
management and other expenses connected with the provision 
of a double quantity of land. 
The cropping of the southern farm includes no less than. 
17 acres of hop-ground, nearly 50 acres of wheat, barley, oatSy 
and beans, 30 acres of permanent pasture, and a good deal of bare 
fallow ; for some of the land is only in process of being got 
out of the wilderness condition in which it has hitherto lain. 
Accommodation has been provided for a large herd of cattle, 
which, with other stock, are maintained here for the consump- 
tion of the grass. A good deal of expenditure has been incurred 
in the management and equipment of the hop-grounds, which are 
no part of a sewage farm, and to this, to a considerable extent, is 
due the large amount of farm capital which is here invested. 
A gradually diminishing balance of return has hitherto been 
realised towards the enormous rent which this, like the other farm, 
has to bear. The following figures represent the annual expendi- 
ture and receipt. 
