ill the North-west of France. 
87 
•'Journal ' for 1870, the then position of the market-garden ques- 
tion will be made apparent by the paucity of references to 
market-garden crops in the 32 pages of the Journal which that 
paper occupies. On p. 417 it is stated that there were, at 
Heathcote, near Leamington, 7 a. 3 r. 6 p. of market-garden in 
1872, followed by cabbages in 1873. In 1874, there were 
10 a. 1 r. 34 p. of parsnips, potatoes, and carrots ; followed in 
1875 by rhubarb, mangold, and cabbage ; and in 1876 by 
rhubarb, grass, &c. This is out of a total of 400 acres under 
sewage irrigation. In fact, as Mr. Morton observes, " a begin- 
ning has been made at market-gardening" (p. 420). At Don- 
caster rather more had been done, though some little doubt 
appeared to exist as to the value of the sewage for fruit-crops. 
Mr. Morton's statement is as follows : — " Probably the speci- 
ality of the Doncaster sewage farm is its garden ground, which, 
lying admirably for the reception of sewage, will, no doubt, 
ultimately be enormously productive. Besides ordinary garden 
vegetables, there were beds of fruit — strawberries, gooseberries, 
and currants ; all of which had been sewaged, and owed their 
productiveness, in some measure, so it ivas believed, to the 
occasional irrigation which they had received." 
At Bedford, more attention is paid to market-garden crops ; 
as rhubarb, cucumbers, cauliflowers, red-cabbage, asparagus, 
Tegetable marrows, &c., are all grown, in addition to large 
acreages of potatoes, onions, and carrots (see p. 431) ; and " at 
Wrexham, where Colonel A. Jones makes his sewage farm 
profitable, the market-garden plot is one of the most productive 
fields he has" (p. 436). 
In contrast to this brief sketch of the slow-growing germ of 
sewage-gardening in England,* as told incidentally by Mr. 
Morton in 1876, let me trace briefly the rapid extension of this 
means of utilizing sewage, which has taken place on the sandy 
■plain of Gennevilliers. This is a north-western suburb of 
Paris, Avhich I visited under very favourable circumstances, 
owing to the kindness of M. Henri Vilmorin, the reporter of 
the Commission to which allusion will presently be made. 
Commencing in 1869 with less than 18 acres of land under 
irrigation, the area devoted to the utilization of sewage has 
annually increased, until in 1877 it amounted to between 800 
and 900 acres, and in 1878 to nearly 1000 acres, while the rent 
of the land per acre has been augmented four-fold. This in- 
crease of rent is some measure of the value attached to the 
* It is curious that the English sewage farms on which martet-gardening has 
been attempted, viz. Bedford, Wrexham, Leamington, and Doncaster, are those, 
to which prizes have been awarded. Vide the Eeport of the Judges of Sewage 
Farms, passim. 
