French Experimental Farm at Vaiijours. 
207 
"plant" falling less licavilj on each acre in proportion as their 
number was increased. 
Various considerations caused the work to go no I'artlier ; 
expense, the irregularity of the outline of the estate, and, lastly, 
the improvement made in our distribution from the cart by the 
use of the " hydraulic crane " affixed to the portable tube. The 
cart is still generally inferior to the distributor ; but if it can be 
filled at a short distance from the point of application to small 
outlying fields, and favourable moments be seized for work,, 
it may be managed on a small scale. Such cases are (pite 
exceptional. 
By an improvement introduced at Vaujours in the arrangement 
of the main pipe, its length does not exceed 22 vards per acre ; 
in England 2-i to 28 yards are commonly required. 
Mode of applying Liquid Manure. 
The amount of liquid manure to be applied should not 
generallv exceed 20 tons per acre for cereals ; but for lorage 
crops, when one dressing is laid on in winter and two in summer^ 
tliis quantity may be exceeded. 
Summer dressings should be diluted three or four fold with 
water, of which an adequate supply has been procured, which 
the drainage-water will still further increase. 
Perfection in the admixture and application of the two con- 
stituents has not vet been attained, and the course of action was 
much interrupted and intermitted. 
First, a qivcn quantity of sewage is lifted from the barge inta 
the reservoir, which is then filled up with water. The contents 
are well stirred, and then distributed. Whilst the distribution 
goes on both engine and pump are idle, and the workmen are 
unemployed while the reservoir is being filled ; but neverthe- 
less the suction of the pump is so much improved, and the 
service-pipe works so well with this admixture, that the reservoir 
is emptied three times in a day, and 160 tons of dilute sewage 
applied, — a sufficient dressing for from 3j to 5 acres. Various, 
neighbours now come to buy sewage at the cisterns for the 
adjacent fields, and the corporation of Paris have sanctioned 
the sale on the payment of a royalty of 2^(7. per ton. 
The Course of Events. 
We shall, perhaps, best describe the general career of the 
farm up to the end of i860 by stating that times and events 
seem, for the most part, to have been sadly out of joint for this 
enterprise. The seasons fluctuated between the extremes of cold 
and wet. At first, for want of water and the use of the pumping- 
apparatus, sewage was applied undiluted from the barrels late in 
