The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-30 00:00:00

THE TWO WANTS OF AGRICULTURE.

Just now we are all musing on the wondrous
revolution to be wrought in the iron trade by the
beautiful theory which Mr. BESSEMER has so per-
featly reduced to practice. Those marks of genius
—simplicity and boundless applicability—in this
case, compel the admiration even of commercial
companies. No one could be found to sneer ex-
cept the Government officials ; and it is very
pleasant to think how silly they must now feel,
and how much they would give could they get
rid of the provoking fact that their ignorance was
so broadly displayed, and that in their own pro-
vince. Woolwich " authorities" confounded Mr.
NASMYTU'S steam with Mr. BESSEMER'S atmo-
spheric blast ! Mr. NASMYTH was obliged to en-
lighten them amidst the laughter of the public ;
he gives his unenvious and cordial admiration to
the beauty of a process, which, like the egg of
COLUMBUS, all might have thought of, but no one
did ; and even should some practical difficulties
yet occur, and should the invention not, as all
expect, bo of unlimited application, ha cannot push
aside as an " old thing " what will rank among
posterity with the practical discoveries of our
DA.VYS and WATTSES.

When shall we have some equally efficient and
revolutionising suggestion in regard to the two
great wants of the English corn grower ? We
always knew that "dirt" was manure ; every
farmer could tell us that. It is, however, only
since the time of LIEBIG'S discoveries that we
have become fully aware of the extent and bear-
ings of this homely truth. We now know, as au
indisputable fact, that were the entire excremen-
titious matter, and other refuse which pollutes
our towns, capable of being preserved and con-
veyed to the adjacent fields, the increased pro-
duce would almost, perhaps quite, support the
inhabitants. The Registrar-Generals tells us that
here, in London, we are daily wasting 3,000 tons
of guano ! We think it probable that he is not
above the mark. Some million of tons of this pow-
erful manure are yearly thrown away, a quantity
which would certainly, if mingled with our soil,
render Loudon quite independent of supplies from
foreign countries. Its two millions of inha-
bitants could never consume the produce of
half a ton of manure each. The manure is
now all thrown into the Thames ; we might
quite as reasonably throw a million or two quar-
ters of wheat into the river. But here the grand
question arises—how to get this manure away
from the river and on to the land. Mr. THWAITEti
and his engineers seem to propose to themselves
nothing better than the first half of the problem.
They will be content if they save the Thames from
pollution. They will, however, have left a sub-
stratum of poisonous, fever-breeding filth slowly
wending its deadly way along our sewers, killing
us off by cholera and typhus as it goes along ;
and they will have done nothing, positively
nothing, towards converting this agent of death
into the staff of life.

It is here that we want our manure and sewage
BESSEMER. We want, and we shall one day have,
some simple arrangement by which all this manure,
so fatal iu our towns, shall fertilise our fields. We
shall have it perhaps after we have spent millions
of money in wasting what we ought to save. It is
enough to make us, sufferers under sewers rates,
almost rise in insurrection to read that at Ant-
werp the corporation realises a handsome
sum per annum for the very street sweepings
and sewage which we pay so much in every way
to get rid of. There they regularly cart it away
from cesspools, instead of defiling the Scheldt.
To this we, too, shall have to come. We are
wasting our time and money for grand metropoli-
tan schemes, when we might do all in parishes
and districts. Ech small locality could, under
general supervision perhaps, manage its own
sweepings and nightsoil, and, as at Antwerp, sell
theta at a profit. We are not mechanics or engi-
neers, and it is not for us to devise the plan, but
it must be based on one condition, the reverse of
what was formerly the case. The cesspools, whe-
ther snrall and -adapted - to each house, or large
and suited to several, must 1.10 in the otreet„ trap-