A paper on the agricultural value of sewer and other drainage waters : submitted to the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers, / by Cuthbert W. Johnson.

  • Cuthbert Johnson
Date:
[1849]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A paper on the agricultural value of sewer and other drainage waters : submitted to the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers, / by Cuthbert W. Johnson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    brief glance at wliat more than one great farmer lias, within these last few seasons, been enabled to accomplish successfully in this manner; and let us, for our effort to be the most useful, examine what has recently been done in this way first with some of the sewage-enriched lowland waters, and then see what in other districts has been accomplished with those of even the purest and most upland mountain streams. The detail, for instance, of the great improvements carried on at Clipstone Park, by his Grace the Duke of Portland, is full of interest. As I have in another place remarked, these meadows, which extend over about 300 acres of the naturally poor soil of Selwood Forest, are thus described by Mr J. E. Denison (Jour. Roy. Agric. Soc., vol. i, p. 359): “ The eye, after wandering through the glades of the forest, and resting on the brown carpeting of fern and heather with which it is clothed, is amazed on coming suddenly in view of the rich green meadows extended for miles before it, laid in gentle slopes and artificial terraces, and preserved in perpetual verdure by supplies of water perpetually thrown over their surface. The land immediately occupied by these meadows was, in its wild state, a line of hill-sides, covered with gorse and heather—a rabbit warren, over which a few sheep wandered —and a swampy valley below, thick set with hassocks and rushes, the favourite haunt of wild ducks and snipes, through which the little stream, the Maun, wound its way in its descent from the town of Mansfield. The whole track, both upland and lowland, is of very little value. The valley was in many parts from nine to ten feet deep in bog, and almost worthless : the hill-sides varied in quality, but 80/. a-year would have been a full rent for the 300 acres. Indeed, the whole of the Clipstone Park farm, when taken in hand in the year 1816, containing 1,487 acres, had been let for the sum of 346/. In the year 1819 it occurred to the Duke of Portland that by following the stream up towards its source, and tapping it at a high level, the water might be carried over the surface of the dry and sterile hills, its course through the valley might be straitened, and the bog drained.” It is need¬ less to follow in detail the progress of the works : that they were successful is evinced by the fact of their present high rental as given by Mr Smith. That the sewage matters of the town of Mansfield have materially aided in this great result is proved by the evidence of Mr Tibbett, their intelligent manager; for Mr Denison says in another place—“ The quality of the water is very important; soft water is the best —mineral waters, and waters from peat, mosses, and bogs, are found to be injurious. After strong rains, the washings of the streets and sewers of the town of Mansfield, which discharge themselves into the Maun, give great additional efficacy to the water. It will sometimes deposit a sediment in one watering of the thickness of a sheet of paper.” When Mr James Smith (ofDeanston) was giving his evidence before the Com¬ mittee of the Metropolitan Sewage Company, he said, when speaking of these mea¬ dows, “ I have seen the Duke of Portland’s meadows—the land was very poor sandy land. It cost the Duke, I believe, 30/. per acre to bring the land into a proper form for irrigation ; but it was land, I understood, not worth 4s. 6d. per acre before ;
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