398 
Sewage- Farming. 
varies considerably from year to year, they are upon the whole as 
nearly as possible alike in number; and in the month of June, 
when the agricultural returns are made up and when lambs are 
not above half grown, they are also probably very nearly alike in 
weight. The average carcase weight of the sheep sold at Smith- 
field is barely 80 lbs., which would correspond to a live weight 
of 140 lbs., and that may be considered also the average weight 
of the adult man. Comparing, then, their respective rations, 
their relative wastefulness of food, their weight and number, we 
might reasonably expect that Englishmen ought at the very least 
to be as efficient as English sheep in the maintenance of English 
fertility. But what is the fact ? The sheep is the very best live 
stock known to English agriculture, and man is virtually good 
for nothing. What would the English farmer do without his 
flock? Over all the oolitic, chalk, and gravel soils — the light- 
land districts of the country — to be deprived of the assistance of 
the sheep would be ruin to the agriculturist. Man is, on the 
other hand, Ave repeat it, as live stock, virtually useless to him. 
The excrement of a sheep is worth at least 5s. a year to the 
farmer. In South Lancashire the excrement of man does not 
realize bd. per head individually The agricultural worth- 
lessness of the immense stock of man here ' folded on the land ' 
thus becomes a perfect scandal." * 
What, then, is the reason why the sewage cultivator can only 
with safety reckon upon the realisation of one fourth (or some 
such proportion) of the value of the substances which he knows 
to exist in the fertilizer to be applied to his soil? Without doubt, 
the application of such abnormal quantities of liquid to his land. 
The sewage farmer, with corresponding advantages, has difficul- 
ties to deal with unknown to his older-fashioned rival. The 
season, the temperature, the rainfall, must all have his careful 
attention. Who can deny that if the summers of 1868 or 1870, 
with their tropical temperature and protracted drought, offered 
to him special advantages and rare opportunities of profit, a 
wet and cold season, or a frosty spring, would peculiarly try his 
system. As his success will often depend upon a lucky hit or a 
successful pack for market, so will his failure sometime date 
from a little lack of energy, or an unwise or unskilful application 
of the sewage which must be disposed of. 
Land adapted for Sewage-Farming. 
The best authorities are now agreed that the land selected for 
a sewage-farm should be either nearly flat, or upon a gentle slope. 
* ' First Report of Rivers Pollution Commissioners,' p. 72. 
