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Sewage


The great empires of antiquity were doomed to certain decay and

dissolution by a radical vice inherent in their political and social

constitution. Power rapidly built up a great capital, whereto population

was attracted from every quarter; and that capital became a focus of

luxury and consumption. Grain, Meat, and Vegetables--the fat of the land

and the spoils of the sea--were constantly absorbed by it in enormous

quan
ities; while nothing, or, at best, very little, was returned

therefrom to the continually exhausted and impoverished soil. Thus, a

few ages, or at most a few centuries, sufficed to divest a vast

surrounding district, first, of its fertility, ultimately of its

capacity for production. And so Nineveh, Thebes, Babylon, successively

ceased to be capitals, and became ruins amid deserts. Rome impoverished

Italy south of the Apennines; then Sicily; and, at last, Egypt: her

sceptre finally departing, because her millions could no longer be fed

without dispersion.



That some means must be devised whereby to return to the soil those

elements which the removal of crop after crop inevitably exhausts, is a

truth which has but recently begun to be clearly understood. Unluckily,

the difficulty of such restoration is seriously augmented by the fact

that cities, and all considerable aggregations of human beings, tend

strongly in our day to locations by the sea-side, in valleys, and by the

margins of rivers. Anciently, cities and villages were often built on

hill-tops, or at considerable elevations, because foes could be excluded

or repelled from such locations more surely, and with smaller force,

than elsewhere. From such elevations, it need not have been difficult to

diffuse, by means of water, all that could be gladly spared which would

aid to fertilize the adjacent farms and gardens. A kindred distribution

of the exuviae of our modern cities is a far more difficult and costly

undertaking, and involves bold and skillful engineering.



Yet the problem, though difficult, must be solved, or our great cities

will be destroyed by their own physical impurities. The growth and

expansion of cities, throughout the present century, have been wholly

beyond precedent; and thus the difficulty of making a satisfactory

disposition of their offal has been fearfully augmented. The sewerage of

our streets and houses modifies the problem, but does not solve it.

Desolating epidemics, like the Plague, Yellow Fever, and the Cholera,

will often visit our great cities, and decimate their people, unless

means can be found to cleanse them wholly and incessantly of whatever

tends to pollute and render noisome their atmosphere.



SEWAGE is the term used in England to designate water which,

having been slightly impregnated with the feculence and ordure of a city

or village, is diffused over a farm or farms adjacent, in order to

impart at once fertility and moisture to its soil. To secure an equable

and thorough dissemination of Sewage, it is essential that the land to

which it is applied, if not originally level or nearly so, shall be

brought into such condition that the impregnated water may be applied to

its entire surface, and shall thence settle into, moisten, and

fertilize, each cubic inch of the soil. This involves a very

considerable initial outlay; but the luxuriance of the crops unfailingly

produced, under the influence of this vivifying irrigation, abundantly

justifies and rewards that outlay.



As yet, the application of Sewage is in its infancy; since the perfect

and total conversion of all that a great city excretes into the most

available food for plants, requires not only immense mains and

reservoirs, with a costly network of distributing dykes or ditches, but

novel appliances in engineering, and a large investment of time as well

as money. Years must yet elapse before all the excretions of a great

city like London or New-York can thus be transmuted into the means of

fertilizing whole counties in their vicinity. But the work is already

well begun, and another generation will see it all but completed.

Meantime, many smaller cities, more eligibly located for the purpose,

are already enriching by their Sewage the rural districts adjacent,

which they had previously tended strongly to impoverish. Edinburgh, the

capital of Scotland, is among them. The little village of Romford,

England, is one of those which have recently been made to contribute by

Sewage to this beneficent end; and a visit of inspection paid to it, on

the 15th of October last, by the London Board of Works, elicited

accounts of the process and its results, in the London journals, which

afforded hints for and incitement to similar undertakings in this and

other countries--undertakings which may be postponed, but the only

question is one of time. The Daily News of Oct. 17th, says:



"Breton's Farm consists of 121 acres of light and poor gravelly soil;

and it now receives the whole available sewage of the town of

Romford--that is, of about 7,000 persons. This is conveyed to the land

by an iron pipe of 18 inches in diameter, which is laid under ground,

and discharges its contents into an open tank. From this tank, the

sewage is pumped to a height of 20 feet, and is then distributed over

the land by iron or concrete troughs, or 'carriers,' fitted with sluices

and taps, so that the amount of sewage applied to any given portion of

the field can be regulated with the greatest facility and nicety. To

insure the regular and even flow of the sewage when discharged from the

carriers, it was necessary to lay out the land with mathematical

accuracy; and it has been leveled and formed by the theodolite into

rectilinear beds of uniform width of thirty feet, slightly inclining

from the centres, along which the sewage is applied. The carriers or

open troughs, by which the sewage is conveyed, run along the top of each

series of these beds or strikes; and at the bottom there is in every

case a good road, by means of which free access is provided for a horse

and cart, or for the steam plow--the use of which is in

contemplation--to every bed and crop. These arrangements--the carrying

out of which involved the removal of six hundred trees and a great

length of heavy fences, the filling up of a number of ditches and no

less than nine ponds, as well as the complete underdraining of the whole

farm--were mainly effected last year; but it was not until the middle of

April, 1870, that Mr. Hope received any of this sewage from the town of

Romford, and not until the following month that he obtained both the day

and night supply. Satisfactory, therefore, as have been the results of

the present season's operations, they have been obtained under

disadvantageous circumstances, and cannot be regarded as affording

complete evidence of the benefits which may be derived from the

application of sewage to even a poor and thin soil, which had already

ruined more than one of those who had attempted to cultivate it. To

mention only one drawback which arose from the lateness of the period at

which the sewage was first received, Mr. Hope had not the advantage of

being able to apply it to his seed-beds: and thus many, if not all his

plants were not ready for setting out so early as they would be in a

future year, and some of the crops have suffered in consequence--that is

to say, have suffered in a comparative sense. Speaking positively, they

have in all instances been much larger, not only than any that could

have been grown upon the same land without the use of sewage, but than

any which have been raised from much superior land in the immediate

neighborhood. The crops which have been or are being raised on different

parts of the firm, are of diverse character; but, with all, the method

of cultivation adopted has been attended with almost equal success.

Italian rye-grass, beans, peas, mangolds, carrots, broccoli, cabbages,

savoys, beet-root, Batavia yams, Jersey cabbages, and Indian corn, have

all grown with wonderful rapidity and yielded abundant harvests under

the stimulating and nourishing influence of the Romford sewage. The

visitors of Saturday last, as they tramped over the farm under the

guidance of its energetic proprietor, had an opportunity of witnessing

the abundance and excellence of many of these crops. Even where the

mangolds, from being planted late, had not attained any extraordinary

size, it was noticeable that the plants were especially vigorous, and

that there was not a vacant space in any of the rows. All the plants

which had been placed in the ground had thriven, and would give a good

return. Where this crop had been specially treated with a view to

forthcoming shows, the roots had attained an enormous size, and, like

some of the cabbages, had assumed almost gigantic proportions. The

carrots were very fine and well-grown, and the heads of the Walcheren

broccoli were as white, and firm, and crispy, as the finest

cauliflowers; while the savoys, of unusual size and weight, were as

round and hard as cannon balls; and some of the drumhead cabbages,

although equally distinguished for closeness and firmness, were large

enough in the heart to hold a good-sized child, and might, as was

suggested upon the ground, very well be introduced into some pantomimic

scene representing the kingdom of Brobdingnag. The Indian corn had

reached the respectable height of some eight feet, and, with few

exceptions, each stalk carried a good-sized and well-filled cob or ear.

These, unless we should have another spell of exceptionally hot weather,

will not ripen; but in their green state they are readily eaten by

horses and cattle, and prove excellent fodder.



In the course of their peregrinations, Mr. Hope's guests of course paid

a visit to the tank in which the sewage is received before it is pumped

on the land. We need hardly say that the appearance of this miniature

lake of nastiness was anything but agreeable; but its odor was by no

means overpowering, nor, indeed, very offensive. The rill of bright,

clear water which flowed in at one corner, and some of which was handed

about in tumblers, looking as pure as the limpid stream which flows from

the most effective filters that are to be seen in the windows of London

dealers, had only a short time before flowed out of this hideous

reservoir in a very different state. We had met it in the "carriers"

flowing along in a dark, inky stream, not smelling much, but covered

with an ugly gray froth which reminded one of some of the most

disagreeable details in the manufacture of sugar and rum, or suggested

the idea that it had been used for a very foul wash indeed. With these

reminiscences fresh in one's memory, it required some courage to comply

with the pressing invitations to taste this 'effluent water.' There

were, however, many of the party who braved the attempt; and, by all who

tasted it, the water was pronounced to be destitute of any except a

slightly mineral flavor. In dry weather, this effluent water, which has

passed through the land and been collected by the drains, after mixing

with the sewage, is again pumped over the fields; in wet weather, it can

be turned into the brook which is dignified with the name of the river

Rom. * * * We have omitted to mention that the rent paid by Mr. Hope is

L3 per acre, and the cost of the sewage (at 2s. per head) L6 more."



--I think few thoughtful readers will doubt that here is the germ of a

great movement in advance for the Agriculture of all old and densely

peopled communities, and that our youngest cities and manufacturing

villages may wisely consider it deeply, with a view to its ultimate if

not early imitation. That we are not prepared to incur the inevitable

expense of a thorough system of sewerage with reference to the

application to the soil of all the fertilizing elements that a city

would gladly spare, by no means proves that we should not consider and

plan with a view to the ultimate creation and utilization of Sewage.



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