Sewage disposal : ten years' (now fourteen years) in works of intermittent downward filtration separately and in combination with surface irrigation with notes on the practice and results of sewage farming / by J. Bailey-Denton.

John Bailey Denton

Date:: 1885

Credit: Sewage disposal : ten years' (now fourteen years) in works of intermittent downward filtration separately and in combination with surface irrigation with notes on the practice and results of sewage farming / by J. Bailey-Denton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$lOO certain seasons it is very easy to have too many for market, there is no doubt that in the long run they pay well, particularly if pigs are kept on the farm to consume any unsold surplus. The Enfield Market, Colewort, and Ox-heart cabbages, if they stand through the frost of winter, realise a good return in early summer, while savoys and drumheads—which latter, though more frequently treated as the food of cattle, sell remarkably well to the inhabitants of the manufacturing and mining districts,—are generally very saleable in late autumn and winter. Under good management the two crops of cabbages of summer and winter are grown in the same year on the same land,—that is, the summer cabbages planted in October are cut in May or June, when the land is again prepared for savoy and drumhead cabbages, which may be planted in sufficient time to be cut the following winter and the ground cleared in time for a succession of roots. Mangolds. But on the whole, mangolds (long red, tankard and globe) form the best crop for the sewage farmer if the selected seed is good and it is carefully sown, and advantage is taken of a command of sewage for timely watering to secure a plant. The weight of crop will always vary with the temperature of the summer, but under any circumstances the crop from a sewage farm will, compared with that from an ordinary farm, surpass it in both weight and quahty. It would appear that if the land is well drained so that the liquid readily percolates, mangolds of all roots will flourish best with a superabundance of liquid. This year (1880) the writer has grown on 13 acres of land, forming part of the filtration areas at Hitchin, 400 tons of these roots, which is equal to 31 tons to an acre. These 13 acres have received, perhaps twice a week, 100,000 gallons per acre. These mangolds were raised, carried from the peaty soil, and clamped ready for sale at a cost of £,\S, so that if they should sell in April or May at a ton clear of carriage, they will realise £,2^] 6s. an acre. Carrots and Carrots and parsnips do equally well in a free sandy soil. At Forfar parsnips. ^j^jg ygar (1880) a price equal to £,^(y an acre was gained by the growth of carrots on the filtration areas. On inferior free soils, the Intermediate Red Carrots are best, but on naturally deep sandy loams the Altringham Reds yield the greater weight. White Carrots for cattle pay well in suitable soils, but with them arid all other sorts of carrots—as well as with parsnips—no amount of sewage will make an unsuitable soil productive of heavy crops. Sewage farmers as a rule should avoid the growth of crops which$