Meadows below Edinburgh, and which yield 30 or 40 tons of grass per acre; some parts of these meadows have been recently reclaimed from the sea-shore; near Rugby, where Mr. Lawes found the produce of the soil to be in direct proportion to the quantity of sewage applied; at Mr. Marriage's farm of 300 acres near Croydon, which is almost wholly under sewage and Italian rye-grass (this seems to be the plant to which it has been applied with the greatest success), and where 30 or 40 tons of grass per acre were mown in 1864; upon sea-land below Shoeburyness, where rye-grass having been sown, and manured with sewage, at once became fertile and yielded heavy crops; and the case recently reported in a letter from the secretary of the Metropolitan Sewage Company to the 'Times,' which deserves special notice. The work was done upon "the Lodge Farm" near Barking, and is thus described by Mr. Morgan, the secretary "Notwithstanding the previously severe weather, a crop of Italian rye-grass was cut in the early part of April and weighed 9 tons per acre. The same plot was cut a second time on the 15th May, the crop weighing 12 tons per acre. On May 4 a crop was taken from the adjoining piece of land which weighed 18 tons per acre. are some 70 acres of land under irrigation, which, it is expected, will cut six times during the year." There The Now, it must be quite clear, that with meat, butter, cheese, and milk constantly increasing in value, the enormous additions to our pasture areas which are sure to result from the reclamation of waste lands, cannot fail to be of great public benefit; indeed this new source of supply, coupled with the increasing consumption, by cattle, of artificial food (such as linseed-cake, rape-cake, cotton-cake, and palm-nut meal) will, we hope, in time, arrest the upward tendency in the value of those indispensable human requirements. obstacles to be contended against by the promoters of this great scheme are few, the chief one being that which accompanies all new undertakings, namely, prejudice. Fortunately, however, the diffusion of knowledge amongst the farming community spreads almost as rapidly as in every other class; and whilst such men as Messrs. Lawes, Gilbert, J. Chalmers Morton, J. F. Bateman, and Mr. Robert Neilson, form the front rank, led on by so enthusiastic, but at the same time so judicious a captain as Lord Robert Montague, there is little fear for the ultimate success of the undertaking. The most recent development of the scheme (briefly referred to in our number of last January*) is the one represented in the accompanying plan for utilizing the sewage of Liverpool. This gigantic and philanthropic undertaking will fulfil all the conditions named in the early part of this essay. It will relieve the vast and unhealthy town of Liverpool of one of its chief sources of * Journal of Science,' No. xiii. Agricultural Chronicle. disease; will provide for the conveyance of the right thing to the right place will reclaim whole tracts of sand, on which nothing now thrives but broom and rushes, into rich and fruitful meadows; and will set an example that is sure to be followed by other large communities. From the circular which we have received, it would appear that the promoters of the scheme (and it is already a company incorporated by Act of Parliament) intend to proceed cautiously. At first they mean to collect the sewage, which will become richer and richer every year, in consequence of the changes taking place in the system of defecation at Liverpool, and having first raised it by steam power just outside of the town, to convey it through a system of pipes into the townships of Bootle, Linacre, Litherland, Orrell, Great Crosby, Little Crosby, Ince Blundell, and Altcar, comprising an area of between 18,000 and 20,000 acres, to which the sewage may be profitably applied. "The engineers of the company estimate the cost of delivering 300,000 gallons of sewage daily as far as Little Crosby, and placing it within the reach of the farmers of about 5,000 acres, at about 12,000. If, however, it was deemed advisable to supply the entire area comprised in the above-named townships, the quantity required would be on the average one million gallons per diem, the cost of which would be about 28,000l." "If a branch pipe were carried up towards Maghull, the cost would be increased to 36,0007, and the area would be about 26,000 acres. These would comprise the whole of the engineering expenses, but it will be for the subscribers to the company to determine the extent to which the undertaking should be carried at its commencement. "In the township of Little Crosby, about 2,000 acres of land belong to Major Blundell, who is favourable to the scheme, and has offered to place at the disposal of the company a considerable area intersected by the Liverpool and Southport Railway, on which sewage may be used in order to show the effects produced by its application. The works are designed so as to supply the farmers in the district with such quantities as they may require." The chief promoters of the gigantic undertaking are Lord Robert Montague, Mr. Bateman, C.E., Serjeant Wheeler, LL.D., É. K. Muspratt, Esq., the Borough Engineer, the Water Engineer of Liverpool; the corporation aids the scheme by supplying the sewage, appoints two of its members as Directors of the Company, and, we believe, will participate in the profits when they attain a certain sum. But it is not on account of any anticipated commercial advantages which may accrue that we recommend the public to encourage this great movement (and we refer of course not to one particular scheme, but to the National undertaking). Ever since this Periodical was commenced we have watched it closely, and its development will be found noted from time to time in our Agricultural and Chemical Chronicles. But now it ceases to be an experimental, and becomes a practical National movement, which deserves and will command the sanction and support of every sanitarian, of every agriculturist, and perhaps, before long, of too many needy speculators. Out of evil cometh good, and if the next mania should be for "Utilization of Sewage Company's Shares," and it should even ruin a few here and there, the ultimate result of the periodical attack, should it manifest itself under this aspect, would be beneficial to the great mass of the population. Let us, however, trust that no such means will be resorted to for pushing the national enterprise; let us rather hope that a growing sense of responsibility on the part of the guardians of health in our large towns, and the anxiety to utilize every foot of land and every blade of grass will contribute to bring about so desirable a change as that now commencing in our sanitary and agricultural arrangements. It is hardly necessary to add, that the movement will be watched by us in the future, as it has been in the past, with earnest anxiety for its success, and that whenever or wherever any new development may present itself, it will always be hailed with satisfaction and encouraged to the utmost of our limited powers. VII. THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE ABROAD. 1. Sesion Publica, Aniversario vigesimo-septimo del Instituto Médico Valenciano. Valencia: Imprenta de D. José M. Garin. 2. Geology and Agriculture. By E. St. John Fairman, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., &c. Florence: printed by G. Barbèra. 3. Experimental Investigations connected with the Supply of Water from the Hooghly to Calcutta. By David Waldie, Esq., F.C.S. From the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 4. Intercolonial Exhibition of 1866-Mining and Mineral Statistics. By R. Brough Smyth, F.G.S. Lond., &c. Melbourne: Blundell & Ford. 5. The American Naturalist-a Popular Illustrated Magazine of Natural History. Salem: Essex Institute (Trübner & Co., London). How apt we all are to confine our observations on every subject to the limited sphere in which we are daily accustomed to move. The artist rarely troubles himself about the productions of any pencil but his own, or that of his immediate neighbour; seldom does the littérateur of one country watch and make himself ac VOL. IV. 2 B |