396 
Seicage- Farming. 
in winter) bj the action of plant-growth, in constantly removing 
the deposited impurities and rebuilding them into wholesome 
organic structures." * 
No one can view the sewage farm at Aldershot and compare 
it with the sterile waste which lies around it without a feeling of 
more than surprise and admiration. Here land of absolutely no 
agricultural value by nature may be found producing its crops 
of rye-grass up to 50 tons per acre per annum, and letting for 
20/. or 25/. Here may be seen land, which in its pristine state 
would not support a sheep, employing the energies of a numerous 
band of labourers, the effect of whose toil is seen in the remark- 
able crops which adorn the fields ; here, in short, may be studied 
the successful solution of the problem of sewage utilization. 
Thousands of acres of such barren soil lie within an hour's 
journey of the metropolis, yet with this fact in view, the strange 
and wilful waste of nearly all the sewage of London continues ; 
whilst the millions who throng the Lancashire towns, and pollute 
its rivers, make but the miserable return of b\d. per head per 
annum to our agricultural resources. 
But though I believe increasing knowledge and practice will 
in time enable us to obtain from diluted sewage far larger returns 
than we have yet acquired, I must not pass lightly over the diffi- 
culties which that dilution brings with it to the cultivator of 
the soil. It is a fact that, though the intrinsic value of ordinary 
town sewage (where 30 gallons are supplied per head of popula- 
tion daily) is 2(1. per ton, no one has been found eager enough 
to pay anything like that sum for it. At the Barking farm the 
return for it is about \d., at Romford Mr. Hope pays about ^d., 
and I believe that the latter figure is as much as at present can 
be obtained for any quantity. Of course the value will vary with 
the dilution and other circumstances. The unit of value will be 
fixed by the population contributing ; but that once obtained, the 
farmer will easily ascertain the actual price he ought to pay for 
his manure, since every grain of ammonia in a gallon of the latter 
represents a theoretical value of \d. per ton. Thus the value of 
man as a producer of manure is at present reduced to about 2s. 
per head per annum, which is, it must be confessed a scarcely 
satisfactory result when a comparison is drawn between him and 
other animals. The remarks by the Rivers Pollution Commis- 
sioners upon this point are so much to the purpose that I may 
perhaps be allowed to quote them here : — 
" It is an established maxim in agriculture that, apart from the 
use of imported and manufactured fertilizers, the maintenance of 
fertlliiy depends very much upon the live stock which the farmer 
* ' First Report of Rivers Pollution Commissioners,' p. 71. 
