88 The Disposal of Sewage by Small Towns and Villages. 
of charcoal, iron, ferozone, and such-like substances, which 
receive the effluent water after it has passed through the land, 
may be extremely useful, and probably represent the perfection 
of sewage disposal. 
The idea of small quantities of sewage being utilised for 
growing vegetables or common farm-crops other than grass, has 
been little favoured of late years. It is the curse of most sewage- 
farms that they have to deal with the largest volume of sewage 
when they want it least ; but should the amount of sewage be 
in itself small, when it is most wanted there is scarcely any to 
be had. It is, therefore, found that osiers, or ash-poles, which 
require little attention, and grow away whether the beds are 
flooded a foot deep, or the sewage trickles down the carriers in 
intermittent driblets, are the best crops for sewage-beds. Osiers, 
no doubt, require the rubbish to be kept down when they are 
young plants, and in the early stages of their growth ; but 
ash-poles will grow for years without any expense beyond 
cleansing the carriers and regulating the flow of the sewage— 
and that must be done, not for the benefit of the poles, but; for 
the proper filtration of the sewage. 
One of the evils predicted from the growth of osiers, was the 
certainty that their rootlets would speedily choke the under- 
drains. Although some osier beds have been irrigated with 
crude sewage for many years, the drain-pipes still run as freely 
as when they were first laid down. 
Much difficulty has been experienced in finding out the 
localities in which villages have been sewered. Here and there, 
from more or less remote parts of the kingdom, tidings come 
that a small attempt at dealing with sewage has been most suc- 
cessful ; but it often turns out to be some new chemical or 
mineral substance which is supposed to have done wonders in a 
filter-bed or settling-tank. For the most part, the Rural Sani- 
tary Authorities which have attempted to dispose of seVage 
have followed the main features of the irrigation practised in 
the Brixworth Union, Northamptonshire — a Union which bids 
fair to become as celebrated for the successful removal of village 
sewage as it has long been known for its judicious curtailment 
of outdoor relief, which in twenty years has resulted in a re- 
duction of outdoor paupers from 1,707 to 38, and a decrease of 
its half-yearly expenditure in out-relief from 3,0G4£. to less 
than 200Z. 
As the object of this paper is simply to record the attempts 
to dispose of sewage in villages, and in no way to describe the 
various systems of drainage employed, it will be quite unneces- 
