Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1912-09-26
gyrN1Tc oAPITAL NEws, THURSDAY sEPrEMBER q, 1912

IeAhYDs Nv - ASase ss18S ek0UD BOs0S4vVtyS ss&k&
only In Panama, but In Porto Rico and
compulsory vaccination II ordered. no
back talk awaits. Everybody Il vac
cinated and smallpox IL promptly wiped
| on the map. There, whsn Ill water
containers are ordered covered or over
turned and all garbage receptacles COW
cred. inspectors 20 around to see that
It 10 DONE There, when the health au-
thorities pull the strings the people
move. and one Of the brightest pages in
!! American history has been our success
nually through the enforcement OF san
itary principles in our colonial possess
sions. The canal zone in particular
stands out in this regard. just as did
our work in Cuba. with Colonel w.
c. Gorgas as administrative OFFICER. al
though three fourths Of the population
about sanitation than those Of New Or
leans and Washington, the death rate
has been forced down to perhaps a
have been but for scientific SANTA
ton.
Disposal Of Sewage.
Another line of sanitary activities of
cities has to do with the disposal of
sewage and garbage. There again Eu-
ropean cities show = better average
than American cities, and many promi-
nent sewerage experts from Europe are
in attendance upon the sessions of the
| international Congress OF Hygiene and
Demography to tell how many Of the
problems OF waste disposal have been
solved by them. In Birmingham, Eng
| land, there are extensive oxidation
beds for the publication Of sewage.
but they. like very great proportion
of the other successful methods Of
sewage disposal, had their beginning
in the epochal experiments made at the
Lawrence. Massachusetts,, experiment
station. 1t is gratifying to American
patriotism to hear DIR. Travis, the
British sewage expert. declare that the
conception of the hydrolitic tank and
the oxidizing beds is the result of close
study of the numerous experiments
| made at Lawrence by the Massachu-
sets board of health. DR.. Karl lmhofS
came over from Germany to tell of
| methods Of disposing of sludge, the set
things of sewage. He has a specially
CONSTRUCTED series Of tanks in which
this material is kept for months and
then forced out by sewage pressure for
spreading OH sewage beds and final dis
posal. His idea is modification OF the
Travis idea, which frankly acknowl-
edges its debt to Lawrence.
One of the favorite ways Of .dispos-
ing Of the sewage Of cities is by dis
charging 1t in rivers or tidal waters.
The best experience has demonstrated
that where there Is flow of IS gallons
of water per second for each thousand
Of population, or where there is a tidal
current OF a mile and half an hour,
the conditions created In the rivers may
be unobjectionable. Where other dis
position is necessary the sewage Is
usually run through big settling tanks
where most of the organic material is
deposited. At the same time 1t is
treated with chemicals to partially
purify it. The liquid Is then carried
over extensive gravel beds where 1t is
sprayed out like water from a lawn
sprayer. and permitted to filter through
the prepared beds.
Through Sewage Farming.
Another method Of sewage disposal
is through sewage farming, with an
acre Of land for each hundred of pop
ulation. the sewage deposited daily
varying from 1000 to 10000 gallons per
acre. Land of good absorbing quail
ties must be secured, and the sewage
farm must be laid Off into sections.
Care must be taken not to overtax a
piece of ground. as that binders oxi-
dation and causes the soil to get sew
age sick" 1t must be we'll under
drained, so that the purified water
from which the impurities that have
been filtered out can escape The sew
age is turned into big burrows at reg
ular intervals. and the crops are grown
upon the ridges between these burrows.
1t constitutes a sort Of "fertilized wa
ter irrigation. and at Berlin as much
as five tons Of hay to the acre has been
gathered. Berlin paid $13.000,000 for
it's sewage farm plant. but. notwith-
standing the big interest charge. re-
ceives a profit of $4,000 a year from
its operation. 1t is manned by prison
labor.
Contrary to natural expectations. life
on sewage farms is notably healthy. At
the Paris sewage farms there IL par
ticular freedom from water borne dis
eases, and the death rate is constantly
declining. It is predicted that this ulti-
mately VIII be the method Of sewage
disposal generally adopted. Combining
all the advantages of irrigation and
heavy fertilization, and having demon
strated that 1t need not be injurious to
health. 1t may be employed as method
Of disposal that IL not a financial drain
upon the community.
The evils Of the smoke nuisance and
methods OF overcoming 1t got their
share of attention at the hygiene con-
gress, while the city planning with
view to the promotion of public health,
the tenement house problem rs related
to tuberculosis, and the assistance Of
rural communities In the betterment OF
their sanitary and hygienic conditions
claimed much attention. Other ques-
tons involving state and municipal ny
giene extended even to the problems OF
sex and eugenics. DIR. Charles b. Dav-