88 
Notes on Market-gardening and Vine-culture 
sewage as a fertilizer, because a mere nominal charge is at 
present made for it, and each farmer is allowed to turn on to 
his land as much or as little as he chooses, and at such times as 
he considers it desirable that his crop should be irrigated. 
Land which, before sewage-irrigation was possible, let at no 
more than from 25^. to 355. per acre, although so near Paris, 
now easily commands from five to seven guineas. The produce 
of the land has changed from a miserable yield of 12 to 16 
bushels of rye or oats, to such enormous receipts as a gross 
money return of from 48Z. to 64Z. per acre from cabbages, and 
of from 80/. to as much even as IGOZ. yielded by cauliflowers. 
Other vegetables, such as carrots, onions, and artichokes, have 
yielded nearly as large a return, as also have peppermint, ab- 
sinthe, and other savoury herbs. 
About one-sixth part of the sewage of Paris is conveyed to 
the pumping-stations at St. Ouen, Clichy, and St. Denis ; but a 
comparatively small portion of this fraction has hitherto been 
utilised, the remainder being still conveyed into the Seine. 
In this respect the sewage-gardeners of Gennevilliers have a 
great advantage over the occupiers of sewage farms who are 
compelled to pass over their land the whole of the sewage con- 
veyed to it at all seasons of the year, whether the crops require 
irrigation or not, and whether the season is wet or dry. There- 
fore, with a view to encourage the application of sewage to the 
land, the authorities have given leases of the sewage for nine 
years to the present concessionaires, the rent being under 5*. 
per acre for the first three years, and the charge to be revised at 
the end of each period of that duration. 
M. de la Trehonnais has already described the sewage gardens 
of Gennevilliers so thoroughly in this 'Journal,'* that it is 
unnecessary to travel over the same ground. Some peculi- 
arities of cultivation may, however, be noticed, more par- 
ticularly in reference to the manner in which the sewage is 
conveyed and applied to the growing crops. 
At the present time the sewage is conveyed from the 
pumping-station to the fields in large closed conduits ; and not 
until it is diverted into the main carriers on the land is it 
exposed to the open air. In this way the nuisance which is 
more or less inseparable from a sewage farm is reduced to a 
minimum. On the land itself there are the usual series of main 
and secondary open carriers, and the latter are placed at right 
angles to the ridges. These ridges, on which the crops are grown, 
are not more than broad enough for two rows of cabbages. The 
sewage is turned out of the small carriers or gulleys into the 
* Stconl Scries, vol. xii. Part I. pp. 109 to 128, 1S7G. 
