Sewage disposal. : Report of a Committee appointed by the President of the Local Government Board to inquire into the several modes of treating town sewage. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty.

  • Great Britain. Local Government Board.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sewage disposal. : Report of a Committee appointed by the President of the Local Government Board to inquire into the several modes of treating town sewage. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    the depth of winter; and for potatoes, turnips, most vegetables, and certainly for all pulse and cereals, the land ought rather to be enriched by frequent irrigation in the preceding season, than treated with sewage when these crops ai-e growing; except in times of great drought, and even then care is requisite. A very limited experience soon teaches us that the purification of a constant flow of sewage, and which is frequently greatest when least wanted on the farm must bring certain difficulties in its train. The cultivation of sewaged land, for instance, requires more than double the amount of manual labour which is usually employed upon arable land, and more horses must be kept than upon an ordinary farm. The amount of capital, even where the produce is sold off as soon as grown, must be greatly in excess of that required for the general ordinary cultivation of the soil; while to properly stock and work a sewage-farm upon which the main produce is consumed, quite five times the usual amount of money will be needed. One of the greatest difficulties is to keep the sewaged land clean, as not only does every seed and the minutest portion of a root-weed grow, but sewage itself often contains the seeds of numerous weeds which have been washed down from the fodder and straw of stables and cowhouses in towns. There can be no doubt now, after the experience of some years, that the land best adapted for sewage irrigation is a warm friable loam. The only instance in which town sewage irrigation is a decided financial success is that of the Craigentinny Meadows, at Edinburgh. These meadows are, however, in reality for the most part only a deposit of sea sand, washed and blown from the adjoin- ing estuary, and the main produce grown is nothing more nor less than luxuriant couch-grass. The enormous amount of coarse forage which is produced from such a naturally sterile soil shows the feiiilizing properties of town-sewage, and also points still more distinctly to the fact that a sewage-farm should consist of land through which the sewage can readily filter. It is strange that although deluges of crude town-sewage have been poured upon portions of these Craigentinny Meadows for 200 years, the dis- coloration of the sandy soil only extends a few inches below the surface, and that at the depth of a foot the sand appears as bright and clean as that upon the adjoining sea shore. It has been contended that if more land is allowed for a given volume of sewage, clay soils, when properly drained, will be equally adapted for town sewage irrigation. No doubt, if similar volumes of sewage are filtered slowly through a large area of well-drained clay, and quickly through a small area of sand or gravel, a more thorough absorption of the manurial elements from the sewage will be made by the clay than by the porous soils. But clay lands are naturally cold, they dislike wet, and^ will be at the best only poor filter-beds; and when sodden with rain-water the added sewage is apt to pond on the surface rather than to soak gradually into the already heavily wetted soil. After heavy dressings of sewage in parching weather 39260.