LORD WARWICK'S SEWAGE FARM.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 176, 31 December 1874, Page 4

LORD WARWICK'S SEWAGE FARM.

A correspondent of the Standard gives the following interesting account of the manner in which the town of Leamington disposes of its sewage:— Whilßt Warwick ranks amongst the oldest of our towns, its larger neighbor, Leamington, is one of the cleanest towns in the United Kingdom. It has grown rapidly on lines well laid out; it has no factories to annoy it, and no foetid accumulations of centuries to deal with. It was amonget the first of towns to adopt modern ideas of sanitary reform, and whilst other towns were thinking of new-fangled notions, Leamington carried out a thorough system of drainage—water closets were attached to nearly every house, and when the system was complete the troubles of the governing body began. They succeeded in draining the town, but the inhabitants on the banks of the river

Leam and of the Avon refused to permit the sewage to flow into those rivers, and the authorities took refuge in deodorisation by what is known as the lime process, with settling tanks, and the usual accompaniments of turbines, hoppers, and depositing canals. The inutility of this process was demonstrated in the Court of Chancery. After an expenditure of over £SOOO in litigation the local board received an injunction from the Court of Chancery to cease putting either sewage or their effluent water into the river. The Native Guano Company then took possession of the works, and tried for some time the ABC process; but the local board were forced to adopt irrigation as their only remedy, and in the midst of their dilemma they were fortunate enough to receive an offer from the Earl of Warwick of £450 per annum, for thirty years, for the whole of the sewage, provided it was pumped on to the highest point of his estate at Heathcote, one mile and a half from the outfall. This offer was accepted, and the local board entered into a contract with Messrs Clayton, of the Soho Foundry, Preston, to erect two pumping engines of 180 indicated horse power each, with suitable boilers, and the sewage is driven by them through a mile and a half of rising main of 18-inch pipe, fitted with eight hydrants, which open on to the farm. at various points. Believing that three years of practical experience of sewage farming on land specially laid out to receive the excreta and refuse of 25,000 people would furnish some data on which to form a judgment, an opportunity was taken to witness the operations on the farm daring a day when the ordinary avocations were in active operation.

Four years have now elapsed since Mr David Tough, who had previously had some experience in the sewage farm of Barking, was put in charge of the farm at Heathcote. At that time it had not so much as a foik upon it in the way of agricultural implements. It is now replete with the most improved machines and implements of the most approved construction. Thus, Howard's reaping machines, Ransome and Sims's ploughs, Priest and Woolnot's drills, Garratt's horse hoes, and a steam engine by Clayton, tell of high cultivation and laborsaving machines. The year that elapsed between the coming of Mr Tough and the sewage being received was devoted to laying down the carrying pipes of earthenware into each field in connection with the rising main. These pipes are two feet below the surface, and vary from nine to fifteen inches in diameter, and are connected with brick chambers, into which the sewage is forced by the pumps through the various hydrants. The carrying pipes are connected with open gutters or carriers, which intersect the fields at distances varying from forty to fifty feet, where the ground is levelled ; but which, when the ground is steep, are taken along the contour of the ground. Each morning the engine commences to pump, and in dry weather drives half a million gallons of sewage on to the farm in the course of six hours. In wet weather nearly a million gallons have to be received, and this quantity naturally taxes the ingenuity and skill of the manager to dispose of it. He has the power of communicating with the pumping station by telegraph, and thus any hitch is prevented, or made known when it occurs. The traps and shutters by which the sewage is diverted in the open carriers are light, and of the simplest construction, but answer the purpose perfectly. Those who look upon a sewage farm as a swamp upon which Italian rye grass alone grows would be surprised to find how little and yet how much rye grass enters into the arrangements at Heathcote. Twenty-five acres of rye grass are sown every year, and twenty-five broken up, so that there are fifty acres of rye grass constantly on the farm. Already the rye grass has been mown seven times this year, and is now being cut for the eighth time. It finds a ready sale at from 15s to 25s a ton amongst the cattle keepers of Leamington and the country round. Take ten tons to the acre cut ten times at £1 per ton gives, of course, £IOO per acre ; but at extreme rates it is possible to get £l5O per annum for the rye grass. On. some farms the rye grass is sown in August, and thus a crop is lost. Mr Tough sows it with the spring corn in April, and thus saves a crop ; for the moment the wheat is garnered the grass is irrigated, and is ready to cut in November and have a good plant early in the following year. After Italian rye grass winter beans and cabbages are generally planted, but wheat has been tried, and, contrary to general anticipation, proved successful: The ground was carefully prepared by being pressed with a presser, and the result was from sixteen to eighteen bags to the acre, and not the slightest sign of the prognosticated mildew was observable. The harvest was all gathered in September, and the result is shown in a fill of thirteen large stacks of wheat at the homestead, and nine stacks of barley and beans at the barn-yard. The farm this year has been thus cropped:—Fifty acres of rye grass, eighty acres of wheat, twenty-four acres of oats, twenty acres of barley, thirtysix acres of beans, of which six were winter beans after rye grass, thirty acres of turnips, twenty acres of mangolds, five acres of potatoes, four acres of parsnips and carrots, twenty acres of cabbage during the year, half an acre of rhubarb ; the rest is in permanent pasture, save some isolated pieces of land kept for experimental crops in different corners. At the present time a small portion of sewage has trickled over the rhubarb, and shows by contrast the great improvement it makes in the appearance of the crops. The great feature of the farm is its power of self-consumption and meat production. A dairy of forty cows are kept. The calves are all reared on the premises, and all the milk, except what is necessary for the rearing of the calves, is sold at the rate of lid per gallon of four quarts. A large number of two-year-old stock is also kept, and there are twenty-six fat cattle getting ready for the Christmas market. It is astonishing to see the avidity with which the horses and cattle devour the sewage grown rye grass, even on the ground, for no sewage is applied for some time before the grass is mown, and is therefore perfectly sweet and free from the slightest taint of sewage. The milk has been analysed by Dr Swete, of Leamington, who finds it extraordinarily rich and free from a taint of sewage infection. At first the neighbouring farmers viewed the irrigating process with suspicion, but now many of them are trying it on their farms, for which they pay £1 10s per acre; and. though they say it costs much in labor, they are satisfied with the results obtained. At one of the homesteads you may taste excellent cheese made from the milk of cows fed with sewage grass, and excellent celery manured by ta«s same efficacious means,

The farm itself lies on the first undulation of the champagne country south of the river Leam, known as the Feldon, and the terminal reservoir is situated between the picturesque village of Whitnash and Tachbrooke, intimately connected with the Landor family. The reservoir is l;j miles from the pumping station. The farm consists of 375 acres, and has a varying surface with a somewhat porous subsoil, it is the centre of attraction to sanitary engineers, for here come Royal Engineers, sewage arbitrators, and civic authorities, and fail to find one fault, either with the sweetness of the air or with the condition of the plentiful crops. With respect to the economic working of the farm no one out of Lord Warwick's office can tell the amount of profit or the cost of laying out the farm, but we have some data on which we can calculate the profit and loss to the town of Leamington. From the statistics furnished by Mr R. Davidson, the engineer to the Leamington local board, under whose superintendence the main was laid and the works carried out, the cost of the pumping works was : Engines and boilers £5383 18 3 Buildings and tank' 4940 4 6 Rising main and laying ... 5059 2 4 Incidentals, compensation, telegraph, clerk of workSj&c. 856 7 0 Making a total of ... £16,239 11 1 From the published accounts of the local board it may be seen that the cost of the old deodorising lime process varied according to the attention paid to its working from £350 to £SOO per annum. The cost of pumping at the present time is roughly estimated at £IOOO per annum. In dry weather the consumption of coal is about ten tons a week, in wet weather fourteen tons, the average consumption being 650 tons a year. The variation in the price of fuel, and the dryness or wetness of the soason, of course affects this estimate of the yearly expenditure. This is reduced by the rental paid by Lord Warwick for the sewage, to the 'sum representing the maximum cost of the lime process, but the town has to pay the interest of the capital expended on the station and works, and the proportionate repayment. It is, however, free from Chancery suits and their heavy expenses, as well as the sewage difficulty, for the present generation.