BUREAU OF HIGHLY RESTRICTED AREAS |
| DIRECTOR Maximiliano Gumby |
ABOUT
Four years ago two of his own fields were arranged in plots for experiment; thes« plots were severally watered in different degrees, one plot not being watered at all. That portion which they watered extravagantly, drowning it at one time anil allowing it to become parched up at another, produced very largely at first, but afterwards the grass became very poor. The next plot, which was only less drowned, was slightly less productive, because the parching process had greater prominence ; while a third plot, more parched than drowned, produced still less. Such a mode of application was the cause of the want of success of the experiments of the Commission. It was mentioned in the paper that Mr. Campbell, who rented some land of his, had applied a portion of sewage to that land; but the fact was, that gentleman's land all lay so high that he could get only a small proportion of sewage, as the surrounding country was at a lower level. The arrangement for supplying Mr. Campbell was made at the time when it was supposed that a very small quantity of sewage was sufficient; but now it was shown not to be so. He had two other tenants of land who had also declared themselves dissatisfied w ith the results of sewage irrigation, but in their cases he did not hesitate to say thai the failures were occasioned solely by mismanagement. Moreover, when this plan was first commenced, only the sewage proper was allowed to go down the drains of the town ; but the pipes were so laid that they very soon became choked, and the surface water of the district was employed to flush the sewers out. The consequence was, in dry weather, these surface drains had no effect. Last summer there was not water enough to keep the pumps at work, and in heavy rains they were drowned out; and with hut a small amount of rain there was so great a dilution that the effect of the sewage was very greatly deteriorated. Still he was not less confident than he had ever been that the sewage of towns might be profitably employed to irrigate flat meadows, and he believed also to enrich land for cereal crops. If it was to be done at all, it should be by saturating the ground time after time, allowing it to dry to a reasonable extent before the growing crop was npon it. He would make one other remark with regard to the outfall for London sewage. He thought it to he regretted that the money which was being spent in collecting the sewage at Krith was not spent in erecting a system of steam engines and pipes for collecting it at different points, and making it radiate in various directions—north, east, south, and west; but, as this error had been committed, he thought the scheme for utilising the sewage in Essex was the best thing that conld be done with it.