Village Sanitary Economy. 
247 
sewage should be applied by irrigation should not be less than 
one acre to every 150 inhabitants contributing the sewage, care 
being taken so to appropriate the land as to leave to each day a 
sufficient available area, and that the irrigated land should not be 
less than a mile distant from the place discharging the sewage. It is 
needless to say, however, that the quantity of land required for irri- 
gation must necessarily depend upon the nature of the soil. Expe- 
rience has gone some way to prove that with land of a free descrip- 
tion the proportion mentioned by the Commissioners may apply, 
but where the land is of a retentive character one acre to 100 
people is the better provision. Beyond the land irrigated, it is 
necessary to have at command some additional land, so as to 
allow of a change or rest, as occasion may require. 
Any digression upon sewage farming, and the return to be 
obtained from it, would be out of place here. It is sufficient to 
state, without quoting the extraordinary returns obtained at Edin- 
burgh and other places, that, by good management, from 15Z. to 
20Z. an acre may be gained from sewage irrigated land. It is, 
therefore, not unlikely, when the practice of sewage farming is 
-better understood, that there will be a competition for the sewage 
itself where it can be applied to land in the occupation of several 
parishioners within the reach of gravitation. This would relieve 
the parish of some difficulty in leasing or purchasing land, but 
it would also deprive the ratepayers of any profit that might 
attend the application. To make the utmost from the sewage of 
small village communities, and to secure the greatest approval 
amongst those most interested, it will probably be found desirable 
to devote it to allotment gardens for the labouring poor, in which 
case, should the soil be of a free and open character, the sewage 
would have a value for Avatering as well as manuring. But 
whatever be the character of the land used as garden allotments, 
it would be necessary to have at command an equal quantity not 
so treated, in order that the garden ground may be periodically 
changed for it. In a village with a population of 400 persons, 
the quantity required to receive the sewage would be four acres, 
and if doubled, eight acres. One moiety would be under irri- 
gation, and the other not ; the former would be applied to the 
growth of grasses and roots, under the management of the local 
authorities, and the other would form the garden allotments, 
which, being cultivated by the spade and used for vegetables for 
three or four years together before the land would be changed, 
would ensure the perfect dissipation of any deleterious matter. 
In cases where dry earth is adopted as a means of removing 
the sewage, wholly or partially, it will be necessary, as already 
intimated, to establish a system of scavenging. The duty of 
the scavenger would be to prepare, or see prepared, a sufficient 
