Sewer manure. Statement of the course of investigation & results of experiments as to the means of removing the refuse of towns in water, and applying it as manure : with suggestions of further trial works (for voluntary adoption) of the practicability of applying sewer water as manures by subterranean channels; prepared for the consideration of the Committee of Works / by Edwin Chadwick, Esq., C.B., with appendices.

  • Chadwick, Edwin, 1800-1890.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sewer manure. Statement of the course of investigation & results of experiments as to the means of removing the refuse of towns in water, and applying it as manure : with suggestions of further trial works (for voluntary adoption) of the practicability of applying sewer water as manures by subterranean channels; prepared for the consideration of the Committee of Works / by Edwin Chadwick, Esq., C.B., with appendices. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/52 (page 7)
    I lie famous Fellenberg reclaimed the bogs of his Hofwyl estate by the application OF SUBTERRANEOUS DRAINS, SO CONTRIVED THAT BY STOPPING THEIR MOUTHS WHEN THE SURFACE OF THE SOIL IS TOO DRY, HE COMPELS THE WATER TO SWELL BACK TO THE ROOTS OF THE GRASS. THIS MODE OF IRRIGATION IS NOT ONLY ADAPTED TO GREASY LANDS AFTER THEY HAVE BEEN DRAINED, BUT TO EVERY OTHER DESCRIPTION OF LIGHT SOILS, ESPECIALLY IN HOT CLIMATES. It WAS common in Persia long ago. “ Subsoil irrigation would not answer, however, when the water is also em¬ ployed to convey manure, for it would lose three-fourths of the fertilising matter before it could reach the roots of the grass.” [Captain Vetch informs me of instances of accidental subterranean irrigation which he observed in South America, where carcases had been buried in large pits. The vegetation in the direction of the sub¬ terranean run of water from these pits was strongly marked for their distances. There aie other facts, which will be subsequently noticed, which tend to show that the Count is here mistaken in his assumption.] “ In this case the irrigation by filtra¬ tion appears the most convenient, as may be seen in the neighbourhood of Milan, where such meadows as are thus irrigated with the waste water of the city let at 870 francs the hectare, which is equal to about 141. an acre. “1 his kind of irrigation has a very beneficial action even with pure water; so that in the territory of Lodi, which about sixty years ago was but a sandy, barren plain, the mar cite* now yield a yearly return of 13,500 kilogrammes of hay per hectare,f besides 16,900 kilogrammes of grass, which, being cut in the depth of winter, enables the cattle of Lombardy to produce a very considerable quantity of exquisite milk in the severest weather. It is, however, necessary to remark, that the abundance of this winter crop proceeds in part from the temperature of the spring water with which the marcite are irrigated, the colder water of rivers never being half so beneficial.” I had learned of other examples of subterranean irrigation with water than the one of which Count Manetti informed me; but although I have never lost sight of the subject, I was unable to carry the investigation further at that time. 1 had derived some information from Mr Oliver, of Lochend, a very able agri¬ culturist, who held some portions of the irrigated meadows at Edinburgh. It appeared that he had drained some of his meadows, from which he obtained a large increase of fertility, showing the comparative loss of produce in the undrained meadows. He complained that the sewer water there was far too highly charged with * This appellation is given to certain meadows, so levelled that during winter they can be covered with a light sheet of running water, which will protect the grass from frost and cold, and enable it to grow—a method of cultivation introduced in Lombardy before the beginning of the 15th century, and forming now one of the principal elements of the wealth of that country. L The hectare is a measure of about 108,000 square feet, corresponding nearly to two acres and a half. As the kilogramme is equivalent to about two pounds, one may assume that these marcite produce 10,000 pounds of hay per acre, besides 14,000 pounds of grass.