The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-24 00:00:00

GARIBALDI and of CAYOIJR are both needed to
counterwork the combined audacity and cunning of
the French EMPEROR.

London seems destined to follow, not to lead, in
the great improvements required in towns by the
progress of science and the increase of population.
Birkenhead has set it the example of street rail-

ways ; one which it must soon follow if our main
streets are to be available for vehicles at all. And
the Mayor of Birmingham has, we observe, just
set an example which the Lord Mayor of London
might also follow with advantage. His Honour
of the local metropolis convened a meeting, not at
Mansion-house, nor to partake of a " splendid en-
a
tertainment," but at the principal inn of the town,
and to share a modest " luncheon ;" but the meet-
ing was for a practical object. It was really
for something better than " civic hospitality !"
The corporation of Birmingham has been desirous
to purify its small river, the' Tame, and has, for
that purpose, provided at great ,expense filtering
tanks, by means of which the grosser part of the
town sewage was stopped in its passage to the
river, and the defecated liquid alone suffered to
flow away into the stream. The town is now in
the same position in which London will shortly be
in regard to its sewerage. They have a system of
sewerage by which the contents of cesspools, the
refuse of slaughter-houses and wash-houses, and
all the various things which the first chemists of
the day say are of vital importance to the agri-
culture of the country, are collected and brought
under control. After, however, the filtered fluid
flows into the river it is so diluted as to be
of little or no value to the farmer; and the object
of the Mayor was to ascertain whether the neigh-
bouring landlords and farmers could not be in-
terested in carrying out a plan for distributing
the purified liquid over the land, thereby enor-
mously increasing its productiveness as far as it
should extend.

Some question was raised at the meeting as to
the loss sustained by filtering the sewerage. But
scientific persons present maintained the now well
ascertained fact that the solid part of the sewage is
of insignificant value. It.was also mentioned that
the Town Council had no wish to free the liquid
from solid matter, if it were desirable that it
should be retained. The truth, however, is, that
the chemical ingredients held in solution
are the chief fertilisers of the soil, and
if the expense of filtering be not heavy, it is pro-
bably advantageous, in the distribution through
pipes, that the fluid should be as little as possible
encumbered with gross particles of little or no
agricultural value. Dr. VOELCKER, consulting
chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society, who
was present, was of course the chief authority on
this point, and he told the meeting that, "As to the
possibility and advantage of applying sewage in a
liquid state there could not be a doubt. The only
question which had been raised that day was, what
is the comparative value of the matters in solution,
and of the matters which subside in the tanks ? In
February last he made a careful examination and
analysis both of the clear liquid and the deposit.
He found that by far the largest amount of the
various fertilising matters were contained in the
sewage in a state of solution ; that a very insignifi-
cant quantity of valuable fertilising matter was re-
moved in the tanks ; and that the clear sewage was
equally well adapted for irrigation as the sewage
before it enters the subsiding tanks, and was indeed
in some respects better on forced grass lands." We
believe, however, that the discoveries of LIEBIG
and his followers have quite set this question at
rest ; and, that every farmer aware of the facts of
the case, would be almost indifferent to that more
offensive portion of the sewage which meets the
eye, and would aim to secure what was till recently
supposed to be of smaller value.
Many facts were adduced at the meeting showing
the proved and high value of what has so long been
suffered to run to waste ; some of them would seem
almost fabulous, were not the evidence so undeni-
able. At Ashburton, in Devonshire, where the
land was so treated, it let at £6 an acre, while the
land not irrigated let for 20s. ; at Malvern, some
meadows bore five times the quantity of hay they
ever had before, and grass for hay was cut three
times in the year instead of once; at Mansfield,
land formerly let at 3s. per acre now let at £l2 ; at
Edinburgh, 400 acres irrigated by one-half the
town sewage let most of it at £3O per acre. One
fact very curiously illustrated the value set on the
sewage by a neighbouring gentleman, for, in proof
of the real value of irrigation in this neighbour-
hood, the Mayor also referred to the legal proceed-
ings taken against the-corporation by Mr. WHEEL-
WRIGHT, of Erdington Hall, who showed that by
being deprived of the irrigation of 55 acres, his loss
on two years' crops was £4OO. This was, of course,
a plaintiff's assessment of his own loss ; yet it is
below what the previous cases would have justified
him in asking. Such a meeting as that at the Hen
and Chickens would of course be incomplete with-
out our old agricultural friend Mr. Mum ; being
unable to be present he contributed, however, his
share of facts ; he wrote thus :—" Could I attend,
I should endeavour to enforce upon the meeting
that a farm of 500 acres near Edinburgh, which
was worth only £5OO per annum, has been so im-
proved by the application of the town sewage of a
portion of Edinburgh, that it now produces an an-
nual revenue of about £9,500. Some portions of
the oldest irrigated meadows were let this year by
public auction at a rental of £35 to £44 per impe-
rial acre, the average of the whole letting being
£27 por imperial aore. The character of the soil
near Birmingham being friable and sandy, renders
it peculiarly eligible for irrigation purposes, and
if it can be purchased at a price not exceeding
£2OO per acre, a great individual profit must
result from flooding it abundantly with town

sewage."
Every Englishman will ask, however, first, hovf
far is the thing generally practicable ? The Mayor
had very wisely anticipated a question so sure to
be asked. The fertilising powers of town sewage
were undeniable—but would not the cost of putting
on the land by tubing like Mr. MEcm's be far too
great ?—and somehow the country farmers will yet
look askance at the worthy agriculturist's balance-
sheets. Mr. SHEPHERD, civil engineer, however,
could tell them the exact cost ; it was fifty shillings
per acre for the requisite works, and thirty shillings
per acre as the annual charge. He was, he said,
" engineer to a company now forming in London, of
which Lord CALTIIOItPE was a director, the object of
which was to apply the sewage of Croydon to some-
thing like 6,000 acres of land. They were ready to do
the same with the sewage of London and Birming-
ham, if the corporation would consent to give them
the requisite concession. To the farmer the first
cost for machinery and apparatus would not exceod
£2 10s. per acre, and the company would undertake
to supply
him with the sewage at 30s. per acre
yearly. They would receive it at all elevations.
After the sewage left the town, it would not be
again seen till it bubbled up in the field where it
was required."

It would seem, therefore, that even Croydon, close
at hand, is about to show us what we are to do
with the contents of our tremendously costly sewers;
and very soon, we apprehend, it will be thought; as