Seicage- Farming. 
419 
barren sand there fetches 25Z. per acre for this purpose, proves 
the very large return which must be made from the land after 
the settlement of the labour bill. When once the benefits of 
sewage are fully recognized, and the quick growth, early matu- 
rity, and superior quality of vegetables cultivated by its aid 
established, there should be no difficulty in the disposal of a 
portion of the farm in this manner, and, perhaps, no more 
satisfactory course could be followed. 
Onions (of which the consumption — judging from the Essex 
fields — seems unlimited), lettuces of prodigious weight and 
splendid quality, asparagus of great size, celery of the finest 
growth, watercresses, spinach, cucumbers, vegetable-marrows, 
French beans, brocoli, and cauliflower — these are but a few of 
the ordinary sewage-grown vegetables ; whilst, among fruits, 
strawberries, gooseberries, and currants, all seem coming into 
favour. Strawberries at Barking have realized 75/. per acre. 
There seems no reason, moreover, why beauty and usefulness 
should not go hand in hand, and why the florist, as well as the 
gardener, should not seek for aid from sewage. Roses espe- 
cially should repay cultivation remarkably well, considering 
their love of ammoniacal dressings ; and abundant luxuriance 
and bloom would almost certainly reward the florist's efforts in 
this direction. 
Farmers have been accused, without sufficient reason, of being 
indolently regardless of the " question of the day." The persons 
hitherto concerned principally have been the ratepayer and the 
engineer ; but now that sewage-farming is taking its place 
among the money-making expedients of the times, there is little 
fear of this taunt being any longer levelled against the agri- 
culturist. It is quite true that few farmers are possessed of the 
requisite engineering knowledge for the successful application 
of sewage to their land : it is quite true, also, that few engineers 
have entered fully into the practical difficulties which may 
embarrass the agriculturist by the adoption of their theories. 
It is the union of these disqualifications which has hitherto 
operated as a hindrance to success. The removal of these diffi- 
culties, united to the practical skill which distinguishes the 
English farmer, and the perseverance which the difficulties of 
his calling encourages, will reward him in sewage irrigation with 
gains which, if not equal to those of the mercantile man, can 
at least be looked at with as much satisfaction, whilst they do 
not partake of their speculative character. 
Such I believe to be, upon the whole, a fair exposition of the 
present state and prospects of sewage-agriculture. If it does not 
bear out all the high hopes with which it has been heralded 
into being, it at least invites the attention of the sanitary re- 
