Morning journal and courier., 1883-10-13
The Sewage Problem.


 After spending several millions of dollars in constr ructing an immense intercepting sew
 CT to carry the drainage of their city to the
 ocean, some of the people of Boston seem
 to be inclined to doubt the wisdom of the
 whole proceeding. and the Transcript, one of
 the most influential as well as conservative
 journals in the city, publishes an editorial
 calling attention to the rapid spread of the
 practice of sewage disposal by irrigation in
 Europe, and suggesting that it might be prac-
 ticable and desirable to utilize the drainage
 matters discharged from the new sewer by
 irrigeting some of the barren islands in the
 neighborhood of It's outfall. It is not un.
 likely that something of the kind may be
 necessary in the future, to judge from exper-
 iments made few years ago, which showed
 that chips of wood thrown into the harbor
 at the intended sewer outfall were in great
 part carried back and deposited on the shore
 of an inlet which washes one of the most
 beautiful and popular suburbs, but for the present it may be regarded as certain that no application of the modern system will be st- tempted in Boston, or, indeed, in any of our large seaboard cities.
 At the same time, the undoubted fact that
 Boston has just paid four or five million dol lars for g tube through which to throw $500, 900 worth of fertili2ing matters every year into the sea certainly offers material for serious reflection; and although it Is true that no method has yet been discovered for recovering the whole of the valuable ingre dients in sewage so greatly diluted as that or our modern cities, this does not make 1t any the less to be regretted that so vast sum should be annually thrown away, without the slightest benefit to any person whatever, and perhaps with much future injury to the ] commerce and health of the city.
 There would be great benefit in setting aside in such towns as Boston, New York or Philadelphia, experimental tracts in the city parks, where the most efficient and least of fensive methods of applying sewage as fez- 1 tilizing agent to land could be studied, and observations made to determine the kind of crops best suited for cultivation under such circumstances, with the details of their man agement. No one can read the accounts Of the English and French sewage farming without feeling the lack ot scientific study of these points. In nearly all cases the mu- nicipal engineers seem to have made the best contract they could for getting rid of tho sewage, and then to have turned the flood of drainage over the tract specified in the con tract, without troubling themselves further about what became Of 1t, while the unfortu- nate lessees or managers of the sewage farm, overwhelmed every day with foul lnunds- ton which must be disposed of In aonle way, seem also to have been compelled, for want of opportunity to try anything else, to limit their experiments to small range of crops, not perhaps the most profitable tn the end, but the most available for their immediate and pressing needs. In addition to these in vestigetions, which, in view Of the variations of climate and circumstances in different States, ought to be carried on simultaneously in all our large cities, large amount of most valuable information might be gained by en- couraging private individuals to make experi- ments on their own grounds ln growing crops by sewage fertilization on very limit ed scale. Every householder who owns 8 cesspool and cheap pump, or even bucket tied to rope, has all the materials for nak ing observations of the greatest value. The amount of oesspool or sewer liquid that given plant will bear the length of time that elapses before the smell of the sewage disappears in various soils the depth to which the roots of different crops will pene- trate in search of the fertilizing stream the comparative effect in promoting the growth of certain crops of surface or ssb-surface IT. rigation, or combination of both, as well as the amount of sewage purified in eSch way ths best plan for subsoil drainage of irrigated land; the behavior of plants in winter in gardens irrigated above or below the surface, CT both the effect of the warm soaksge about the roots in enabling plants to resist the winters cold; the comparative utility, both in respect to the publication of the SC wage and the growth of the plants, of intermittent or continuous irrigation, both above and below the surface; together with the character of the peculiar lnsects, II an y, which might be found to be attracted to the sewage-fed crops. would all form subjects of l the greatest interest and importance, upon which the humblest might coatribute Vaiua' ble information, while every one, rich or l poor, farmer, gardener or amateur, would have something new and interesting to tell. Ths horticultural and agricultural societies, or, still better, the town and village improve ment societies now so common, might, with muck advantage, offer premiums for the best specimens of sewage-manrTed gardens, as we'll as for accounts of careful experiments of the kind, and the public authority could l second the good work by the regular distri-
 button, to all whs wished them, of printed slips containing reports from the experts em- ploJ ed in the official Investigations. In this
 way, together with the appreciation of the 1 loss which the community sustains in the waste of sewage manure would come the
 practical knowledge and experiencefnocessary | for using it successfully, and, this once gained, the utilization of the liquid refuse of
 the largest cities would become mere mat l ter of detail.