86 The Disposal of Seicage by Small Towns and Villages. 
large amounts of food not available to com crops, the effects of 
which we find in the increased fertility of our surface soils. 
I have now attempted to assign to each of the crops its 
respective influence in a rotation, so far as concerns their 
action upon the soil. With the immense amount and variety 
of artificial manures at our disposal, and with the knowledge 
which we now possess regarding the food of our crops, a rotation 
is ' no longer an absolute necessity ; at the same time, I am 
disposed to think that the advantage of a rotation in which both 
root and leguminous crops are grown with more or less frequency 
in conjunction with corn crops, and which practice has so long 
adopted, is confirmed by the evidence I have brought forward, 
as being an economical system, suitable for the agriculture of 
this country. j B Lawes. 
THE DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE BY SMALL 
TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 
Now that the sewage question has run through the wild ex- 
travagance of its early days, and sewage has come to be regarded 
by all sensible people simply as a nuisance to be got rid of, 
rather than being in itself a mine of wealth, the solution of the 
problem has become an easier matter. The primary question is 
no longer how to extract the small amount of fertilising matter 
it contains, with the idea of making a fortune by sewage- 
farming, or a valuable artificial manure, but how to rid our- 
selves of the sewage that it may do the smallest amount of 
harm at the least possible cost. 
Those are on the safe side who regard sewage as an unmiti- 
gated nuisance, from the first moment it leaves the house, until 
it eventually escapes into the sea. To sewer a large town often 
presents grave engineering difficulties; to properly sewer a 
scattered village is frequently an impossibility. Then the 
question arises, Are sewers necessary in our country villages ? 
The sewage may pollute the river or watercourse into which 
it runs, but it is only dangerous when it poisons the water- 
supply of the inhabitants. If the former pollution is extensive, 
riparian owners can put Acts of Parliament in motion to restrain 
it ; if the latter, it rests with the Local Authority of the district 
to remove the evil. 
Now it is manifest that the most serious contamination must 
arise in those localit ies where the drinking-water of the village 
