West Riding of Yoi'lishirc. 
309 
Ritlinrj of Yorhshire more cspecialh/ presents, a passinu^ notice 
might have been all that was called for in this place. Having^ 
these facilities, however, and knowinj^, as many of us do, not only 
the mechanical means required for the application of the refuse, 
but its great benefit when applied, and the low cost at which by 
this mode an acre of land can be manured, it seems to deserve 
some further attention. The reader may have noticed that Mr. 
W. Holt, in his account of his land at Horbury, having grown 
wheat in succession many years, says, " I have not given this land 
any manure for 25 years, except about 4 dozen of lime and a few 
ashes, and it has averaged 13 or 14 loads of wheat, or 39 and 42 
imperial bushels per acre.'' Now this land adjoins the river 
Calder, the floods from which have proved a sufficient manuring 
to maintain its full fertility and yet grow successive crops of wheat 
year after year ; and this field is by no means a solitary instance 
of the richness of this and many others of the West Riding 
valleys that are watered by its rivers, the fact being that wheat is 
not so much grown in them because, from their fertility, more 
straw than corn is produced; and it would be so with this land 
at Horbury, were it not " let down " by a continued succession of 
the same crop. Whence, then, is this richness ? Unquestionably 
from the numerous blue, red, white, and black tributaries that 
flow from all sides, and from all the manufacturing towns on its 
banks, into the main water, which by floods is in its turn dis- 
tributed over the adjoining lands. Notwithstanding a host of 
such facts that might be adduced, a " discerning public " arrive 
at conviction by a slow, but not less sure, process. They do not 
at once come to the conclusion that it is as practicable, by me- 
chanical means, to convey the sewage-water out of our towns, as it 
is to convey the clean water into them, nothwithstanding that the 
latter is daily practised. The same tardy conviction was ma- 
nifested in the practicability of several other mechanical means 
that are how universally adopted — gasworks, railways, and 
waterworks attest this. The West Riding, however, seems to 
be alive to the benefits which the adoption of sewage application 
would confer ; and I believe that no less than four plans and 
notices were, in accordance with the standing orders, deposited 
last November with the Clei-k of the Peace, viz., from Leeds, 
Halifax, Sheffield, and Wakefield. Thus imaginary difficulties 
seem to be vanishing before the tangible facts of every-day ex- 
perience, and the practical knowledge of Yorkshire mechanics 
and engineers, who, I doubt not, will verify Warren's definition 
of difficulty — " only a word indicating the degree of strength 
requisite for accomplishing particular objects; a notice of the 
necessity for exertion : a bugbear to children and fools ; only a 
mere stimulus to men." 
