When we know that we possess these treasures which now lie festering beneath our feet, the next question is, how to transfer them to the land. As long as it could not be proved to be a commodity that farmers could afford to pay for, neither they nor the rate-payers could be expected to have much interest in the question; but now we have conclusive proof that the sewage of our towns is no longer a nuisance to be got rid of, but a commodity to be sold, the whole community must feel a lively interest in the manner in which it is to be disposed of. There can be no question that, if municipal authorities had the power to distribute the sewage over large areas, a very large reduction in the rates would result from its sale; but these powers are at present wholly wanting, and the fact is referred to by the committee as a stumbling-block in the way of a relief to local taxation which has yet to be provided.
There seems to be a general impression that, as far as municipal experiments are concerned, those towns which lie high are sure of the most successful results, inasmuch as they possess the power of distributing the sewage by gravitation, thus getting rid of the cost of the pumping expenses and the fixed machinery. There are several such towns admirably situated. Thus Launceston, in Cornwall, could command a flow to at least 1,000,000 acres, from its high level; Malvern, again, overlooks the valley of the Severn, and has a gentle fall to that river for miles. The best portions of Bath are built upon the hills overlooking the Avon; and a very large population is located on the hills on which Bristol is built, much of the sewage of which flows into the stagnant floating harbour, rendering it one of the most unhealthy places in the kingdom, according to the returns of the Registrar-General. In all these places, and indeed in many towns where a flow of the sewage as small as 1 in 300 could be obtained, would be sufficient to command the agricultural district in their neighbourhood. But there is ample evidence to show that, by the use of the pump, cities lying low in valleys or on the coast could utilise their sewage with a profit. It has been proposed that the experiment should be tried at Brighton, where many elements of success are to be found. The drainage of this growing town is not yet accomplished. This is a great feature, inasmuch as a complete system of double drainage could be carried out—one that would allow a flow of the rainfall to the sea; and of the pipe water, or house refuse, being gathered by itself into some tank, and thence pumped up in its concentrated state to the surrounding estates and farms. We are told that a hundred tons of sewage can be thus lifted 100 feet for a penny. A hundred tons of Brighton sewage undiluted with the rainfall would be worth three or four times the value of the ordinary mixed town drainage; and we are told that the noble proprietors in the neighbourhood of the town would be willing to receive it on their land. Lord Essex, for example, would be too glad of it; and we should say that the ladies, who now bathe in the sewage which empties itself not far from the beach, would be equally glad of its absence—for here it is clearly “matter in the wrong place.” Lord Essex has given it in evidence that he applied 134 tons of sewage to two acres of wheat, and that on each he obtained an increase of produce worth 3l. 1s. 6d. over and above that of other unsewaged fields; and this, remember, with the sewage diluted with the rainfall. What his increase of produce would have been if he had used it in its concentrated state we scarce dare mention; but we feel not the slightest doubt that it would have been more than amply sufficient to pay his lordship and others who used it a sum sufficient to defray the plant and labour of pumping, and to go some way towards lowering the local rates.
At all events, we may feel quite certain that the enormous value of the liquid refuse of our houses is now ascertained beyond the slightest doubt; and there can be as little doubt, we think, that means will speedily be found to transport it from towns where it is a nuisance to fields where it will be a benefit, to the satisfaction of the tax-lightened rate-payer, the officer of health, and the agriculturist; and if not, we may reasonably ask the reason why not, as we are now spending annually many millions of money to bring the inferior fertiliser, guano, many thousands of miles to our fields.
Moreover, we may say that we must have this question answered at once, for it will not admit of delay. Agriculturists have been dreaming that the accumulations of guano are inexhaustible, and that thousands of years will elapse before the stores heaped on the islands off the coast of Peru will be consumed. Mr. Markham, however, who has made a careful estimate of the amount remaining in 1861, considers there was not more than 9,538,735 tons remaining at that date, which, at the present rate of consumption, will only last until the year 1883. Think of this, ye farmers who pin your faith on guano: in twenty years’ time, if you do not manage to utilise the sewage at your own doors, the foreign article will fail, and the predicted exhaustion of the vegetable mould of the country will really begin!
And have our agriculturists for a moment considered of what the home-made sewage manure consists? China manages to keep up the fertility of her soil by simply returning to it the elements that have been taken from it, in the shape of the excreta of the population; but it must be remembered that we import as well as produce, fruits of the earth, and that our imports of food alone amount annually to 75,000,000l.—in other words, our own home-made guano contains the fertilising elements not only of our own soil, but of that of all countries on the earth which pour out their cornucopias into our island to the yearly amount we have stated, and the whole of which is now allowed to run to waste.
We trust, in conclusion, that our “exhausted vegetable mould” will speedily give the lie to the prognostications of the philosophical agricultural chemists who have so frightened our land-owners, and that the picture of England returning to its aboriginal condition of marsh and forest only dwells in their own too vivid imaginations.
