town sewage. The question is one of the utmost importance-none the less important that it is not making much headway. The time will come, however, when public weal and profit will result from the utilization of the refuse of cities and villages.

"At last this vexed question is assuming a definite form, and, thanks to the pressure which Earl Manvers, through his agent, Mr Beaumont, is putting upon us, it is likely that we shall continue in the way of well-doing, until one of these fine days, two or three years hence, the Leen may regain its wonted purity, and the sewage of the town be used for the weal instead of for the woe of those who have to draw their water supply from the Trent, after it has received the filth from the town. The report of the committee is such as might be expected from thinking painstaking men, and the conclusion they have arrived at in accordance with the experience of the leading scientific and agricultural authorities. Coming from the land, there is no place so fully entitled to receive the sewage as the land, and so long as the fluid is found to be the richest part of sewage, so long must irrigation be found the best method of utilizing it. The earth is the great natural deodoriser; and it matters not what fetid substance you commit to its keeping, it immediately becomes sweet, and if at the same time the earth be covered with a growing crop, the sweetening process is so much more rapid. These are demonstrative facts which any person may prove for himself, and the filtering power of the earth needs no closer examination than the effluent water of the drains, from which rank sewage will pass pure as the mountain stream. What has become of the colouring, and possibly putrid matter? It has been absorbed first by the soil and then by the plants which grow upon it, and what

sheep and the cattle fold are looked to with a jealousy which the farmer knows is for his own interest; the contents of the manfold, which are so much more valuable, have been allowed to accumulate, until, in thousands of cases, they have become a source of pestilence, instead of profit; and when that has been discovered, we have made drains to convey the offensive matter from our midst, to be again a nuisance to those resident at the outlet of the drain. A system like this could not be expected to prevail for many years— self-preservation forbids that it should; and hence, where corporations or committees have not had the wisdom to take the initiative, the law has stepped in and compelled them to help themselves. For the disposal of sewage we have had, and have now, many schemes, but not one which appeals so directly to the interests of mankind, as sending it directly to the land. The result of that process is such as to be satisfactory to every one who has the knowledge to interpret Nature's secrets in a proper spirit and to use them aright. Those who have gone into the sewage question with spirit, have succeeded in educing profit; those who have approached it with a sort of half-hearted determination to say it cannot, or shall not succeed, have reaped their reward. It is singular, however, that Nottingham should be so backward in this movement, for certainly the county possesses a sewage farm, which, during the last forty years, has produced more beef and mutton than any farm of like size in the country, and that, too, when originally taken in hand only a poor blow-away sand. We need scarcely say that we allude to Clipston Park, the water meadows of the Duke of Portland, which owe their luxuriance almost entirely to the sewage of the town of Mansfield. This has been going on for forty years to our

knowledge, and yet we do not suppose any one ever heard of diseased meat emanating from the farm, nor are they likely to do so. Speaking of diseased meat, "measley" pork was much more prevalent in our market forty years ago than it is at the present time, and that, be it observed, originating with animals not feeding from sewage produce. We can quite believe that the diseases spoken of might originate upon sewage-saturated ground; but, at the same time, we say, where are there proofs that they have done so? Fancies are rife, but until facts stand forth to support them, we may as well regard them as the presage of a storm which may never approach us. So far we have no proof of injury, but, on the contrary, we have the incontrovertible fact that thousands of tons of sewage produce is daily being converted into food for the human family, and that upon land formerly considered worthless. Facts like these should cause the opponents of the irrigation system to pause in their opposition, for though in every case, especially where land is to be acquired at an exorbitant price, it may not be possible to make sewage farming profitable -that, it must be remembered, is the result of the condition of tenure, and not of the system of farming. That some of our town councillors should have gone out of their way to re-hash exploded theories, is quite in accordance with the nature of things; and that others should see danger in the use of sewage is not to be wondered at. The majority of mankind are greater at fault-finding than in discovering perfection, and hence the privilege of the grumbler is more largely exercised than that of the philosopher. Many of our most potent and valuable medicines are rank poison; properly used, they become antidotes to most of the "ills that flesh is

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heir to." Much the same is it with sewage manure—that is, it requires to be used with "brains," for to send it broadcast over the land would be something like sowing the wind in order to reap the whirlwind. Sewage in a dripping season may be so poor as to be used week by week without injury to the crop; in dry weather, so rich, as, used in excess, to become a positive poison to vegetable life. To discriminate the potency of the sewage, then, becomes the secret of successful management-knowledge requiring careful forethought and accurate observation. A man who does not possess this, who, in fact, is not en rapport at all times with the plants he cultivates, will not succeed as a sewage farmer. A few tons extra of farmyard manure may be put upon the land without injury; but an extra hour's irrigation with the sewage at a certain strength, may be ruin to the entire crop for that season. Here, then, is the danger of sewage irrigation—the danger of abuse, or rather of ignorant use. To guard against this, then, is the secret of success, and those who expect to succeed in sewage farming by rule of thumb, are almost sure to fail. Of this we become daily more convinced, and if the problem could be worked out, it is more than likely it would be found that more sewage farms have failed from incompetent management than from any positive defect in the system itself. Gardeners know full well the immediate consequence of the abuse of liquid manure, they know that to the unhealthy plant it is death, and that to healthy ones it must be used with caution. Equally so will it be with farm crops, and until the farmer is able to realize that fact, his success must be to a great extent a matter of chance. Educate him up to the proper standard, and success becomes certain."

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WE

E are indebted for the following interesting article to the Aberdeen

Free Press:

One of the most frequently recurring, and not least important of social questions in this region, is that which concerns the moral character and physical accommodation of agricultural labourers. The prominent phase under which the question has of late found somewhat hopeful discussion, has been that of the Feeing Market system, as opposed to a more rational and commendable mode of forming engagements between employers and employed. The movement in this direction, which is now supported by the influence of the Royal Northern Agricultural Society, will, we trust, prove increasingly successful; but the problem, like every problem affecting the welfare of an entire class in society, is a complex one; and the evil to be uprooted needs to be assailed, not at one point, but at many points.

And in any comprehensive view of the question, it is impossible to overlook the domestic arrangements of the farm. The prevailing system in this particular is unquestionably chargeable with serious defects, whether we have regard to the paucity of house accommodation for married agricultural labourers in most localities of Aberdeenshire, or to the nature of the accommodation provided for the young unmarried men, who are indispensable on every farm. We have no intention at present of making any further reference to the first of these two points; nor shall we, in offering a suggestion anent the latter, institute any kind of comparison between the bothy, pure and simple, and the farm kitchen, further than to say that while the former is certainly not the best conceivable arrangement, it may, under proper regulations, be made much more satisfactory in a moral point of view than many an ill regulated farm kitchen is at this day.

The suggestion, for which we are indebted to a very intelligent friend who has had ample opportunities of seeing farm life in all its phases, bears chiefly upon the better ordering of the farm kitchen. A radical evil in the existing system where several unmarried men, ploughmen, and others, live on the farm is, that while the kitchen is the place where the female servants must not only do the cooking, but much other domestic work, it is also the place where the male servants both eat their food and spend such leisure time as they have thereafter in the evening, and at other times. As a consequence, they come, perforce, in the way of the female servants doing their work. Sometimes, it may be, the two parties go on harmoniously enough—pretty frequently it is the reverse. In any case, the men feel that the place in which they pass so much of their spare time is not their own, nor at their own control; and this feeling fosters the desire to escape elsewhere-to potter about in the "cham'er" perhaps, or quite as likely, to "stravaige" from home. On the other hand, where the men servants are disposed to make themselves disagreeable, the arrangements of the kitchen put the female servants so much at their mercy as regards their own comfort, that the only way of getting on is to row in the same boat with the lads as regards the view they may take of their master or mistress' treatment of them and that whether such view happens to be just and reasonable, or the very reverse. A very great improvement on the existing state of things, then, would be at once effected, if, in place of the present kitchen arrangement, as indicated, a very plainly furnished hall, with table, chairs, and fireplace, were built in connexion with the kitchens of all our larger farm houses. This hall would be recognized as the special and exclusive domain of the male servants, for the purpose of taking their

meals in, and spending their time after hours. There would thus be no excuse, as there ought to be no permission, for their entering the kitchen, without special cause. The arrangement would tend greatly to add to the comfort of the male servants; and it would be scarcely less a boon to the female domestics in carrying through their work

and keeping the place orderly. The carrying out of it is, moreover, quite practicable, and indeed could be done, especially where new farm houses are being erected, at a very trifling additional cost-a cost which we are persuaded would be amply repaid in improved comfort and more pleasant service to those who might incur it.