90 Notes on Market-gardening and Vine-cidture 
view, and many of the large hotels in Paris regularly obtain 
their supplies from the sewage-gardens of Gennevilliers ; but 
it is found necessary in the case of savoury herbs to avoid 
irrigation for at least a fortnight before gathering the crop. 
With regard to fruit-trees and nursery -plants generally, the Com- 
mission express themselves in equally favourable terms, while 
acknowledging the greater difficulty in bringing these products 
of the soil to so satisfactory a comparative test as can be easily 
done in the case of vegetables, flowers, and herbs. 
The general conclusions arrived at by this Commission were 
formulated as follows : — 
(1.) The application of sewage to horticultural products, 
and particularly to large vegetables, is practical, and 
sanctioned by experience. It presents considerable 
. advantages from three points of view : — 
(a) The abundance and the beauty of the products 
obtained. 
(b) Their quality and their healthiness. 
(c) The money return from their cultivation. 
(2.) Green vegetables, such as cabbages, celery, spinach, 
lettuces, endive, as well as the edible roots and the 
savoury herbs, are all specially adapted for sewage 
irrigation. 
(3.) The quantity of sewage absorbed by one acre cropped 
with vegetables may at present be 21,000 cubic yards 
per annum. That quantity will probably be reduced 
by the effect of improvements in the processes of 
irrigation. 
(4.) The distribution of the sewage by means of irrigating 
furrows is the method which appears most commend- 
able. 
(5.) The irrigation should be moderate, intermittent, and 
frequently renewed. 
(G.) The sewage should not be allowed to come into contact 
with the foliage or stem of the cultivated plants. 
(7.) It is desirable that the position of the furrows should 
be frequently changed. 
It may be asked whether, if so large a measure of success has 
attended the application of sewage to market-gardening at 
Gennevilliers, the system will not be extended so as to flood the 
Paris markets. At present this contingency is so remote that 
it need not be seriously discussed. One circumstance alone 
renders the extension of the sewage-gardens more and more 
difficult, and that is, the cost of labour and the difficulty of 
