Slumming

“ Slugs.—A sharp watch should be kept over all slugs, and constant visits paid to the garden at daybreak for their destruction. If fresh cabbage leaves are strewed about in the evening the slugs will congregate under them, and in the morning they may be gathered up and dropped into strong brine. The ground may also be dusted with fresh lime, which is fatal to them, but in wet weather the lime soon loses its power. ”

“ As soon as the soot gets wet it is no longer a deterrent to slugs. Lime is also recommended to be used in the same way as soot; but it, too, fails to serve its purpose when it has once become damp.
Then have we no way to keep down the ravages of slugs? Yes!—we have one way, a very excellent way, but a most tedious and unpleasant one to carry out. The only effective way of thwarting the ravages of the slugs is to pick off by hand the culprits, while they are gorging themselves in the evening. ”

“ SEA-SLUDGE, or Salt-clod, is the surface, or that part of a saline marsh, which is deposited by the high tides. It is much richer, and less intermixed with sand, than the land which is more regularly overflowed.
Sea-sludge is an excellent manure; and though it be attainable only in a few situations, yet it deserves to be more generally employed. The best sludge is completely covered with grass: it is cut out of the marshes, to the depth of a spade, and, during the summer, is carted upon the land ”

“ He does not believe that under proper treatment sludge is capable of clogging the pores of the land or of injuring vegetation. He advises the laying out of the filtration-beds in ridges and furrows, the sewage only to flow into the furrows and not to be allowed to flood the ridges on which plants and vegetables are growing. As soon as the deposit of sludge on the sides of the furrows is sufficient to prevent infiltration in any great degree, the sewage should be withheld from the areas so affected. ”

“ Cultivation and drainage are now fully understood to be the basis by which a healthy condition of air is to be obtained, next to that, cleanliness and ventilation; if either be neglected a sickly, mouldy, and unwholesome contamination of atmosphere ensues; the odour of a bog is proverbially mouldy, and so is that of an ill-ventilated house or cellar; dryness, or the fresh pleasant scent of clean water, are the antagonists of these; the aromatic odours of vegetation are opponents of putrefaction, and consequently of the development of the lower forms of life. ”

“ But during the winter, when the stream-banks are embossed in snow, and the streams themselves are chilled nearly to the freezing-point, so that the snow falling into them in stormy weather is not wholly dissolved, but forms a thin, blue sludge, thus rendering the current opaque—then he seeks the deeper portions of the main rivers, where he may dive to clear water beneath the sludge. Or he repairs to some open lake or mill-pond, at the bottom of which he feeds in safety. ”

“ An ample stream once held its winding course among them, but becoming choked at the further end with weeds and fallen leaves, and branches broken by the wind, it spread into a marsh, tenanted alike by the slow, creeping blind-worm, and water-newt, the black slug, and frogs of portentous size. ”

“ In a very loose, gravelly, or sandy soil, which has a perfect outlet for water below, all but the heaviest falls of rain will sink at once, while on a heavy clay, no matter [pg 032] how well it is drained, the process of filtration will be much more slow, and if the land be steeply inclined, some of the water of ordinarily heavy rains must flow off over the surface, unless, by horizontal plowing, or catch drains on the surface, its flow be retarded until it has time to enter the soil. ”

“ I kill some things that other things may live. They cannot all have it their own way in my garden, and I must settle which side is to prevail. All the same, I do sometimes try to look at it from the slug's point of view. What does the slug think about it? Let us hope and believe that the slug does not think about it.
With what brutality, too, does the gardener fight against the prolific impulses of nature. The dead flowers must be picked off from the sweet peas; otherwise they give up work early. If you cut down the lupine spikes as soon as the beans have formed, you will get more spikes. ”

“ We have found that about one ton to 2,000 people is produced where a salt of alumina or iron is used with the lime. At Birmingham the sludge is dug into the land adjoining the works, and it is found that one square yard of land will take one ton of sludge with 90 per cent. of moisture once in three years, which results in three yards of land being required to be provided for each ton of sludge. This system of digging in sludge is successfully carried out as regards freedom from nuisance. ”

“ The slug, called Succinea, is not strictly aquatic, but lives in damp places, and may be seen in full activity far from rivers, in meadows, where the grass is wet with rain or dew; but shells of the genera Limnea, Planorbis, Paludina, Cyclas, and others, requiring to be constantly in the water, are extremely exceptional in the loess, occurring only at the bottom of the deposit, where it begins to alternate with ancient river-gravel, on which it usually reposes. ”

“ The slug will devour almost any garden plant, whether it be a flower or a vegetable. They lay lots of eggs in old rubbish heaps. Do you see the good of cleaning up rubbish? The slugs do more harm in the garden than almost any other single insect pest. You can discover them in the following way. There is a trick for bringing them to the surface of the ground in the day time. You see they rest during the day below ground. So just water the soil in which the slugs are supposed to be. How are you to know where they are? They are quite likely to hide near the plants they are feeding on. ”

“ The slugs will desert everything else for Lettuces, and can be caught in numbers on and around them at night. So if you have a sluggy garden you must catch all the slugs you can, and also dust your seedlings with soot or wood-ash. The proper time to do this is after sunset, when the leaves are a little damp with dew. When the Lettuces begin to grow up, the slugs will leave them alone, and then the rain will wash away the slight dust of ash or soot from the outside leaves. ”

“ If the earth's surface were, like iron, impervious to water, the rain-water would come in torrents down the hill-sides, and along the gentle declivities, into the streams, creating freshets and inundations in a few hours. But instead of that, the soft showers fall, often on the open, thirsty soil, and so are gradually absorbed. ”

“ Some special care is taken in puddling the bottom and sides to prevent leakage, and a layer of soot is usually employed to repel boring grubs or worms which would otherwise make their holes through and let the water soak into the thirsty chalk beneath. In wet weather the pond quickly fills; once full, it is afterwards kept up by the condensation of the thick, damp mists, the dew and cloud-like vapours, that even in the early mornings of the hot summer days so frequently cling about the downs. These more than supply the waste from evaporation, so that the basin may be called a dew-pond. ”

“ After the height of the flood the stream clears itself by the flowing away of the turbid water much more rapidly than the water clears itself by sedimentation in the reservoir. That is to say, if at the time of maximum turbidity we take a certain quantity of water from the stream and put it aside to settle, at no time will the improvement by settling equal the improvement which has taken place in the stream from natural causes. ”

“ Spread over a large area of land, well cropped, evaporation is very active—especially during the summer months, when the flow of water in the brook that takes the effluent is as a rule at its lowest; and, in addition to this, the growing plants further abstract a considerable amount of the liquid that finds its way into the soil, so that the quantity of the effluent may not be more than from 30 [Pg 68] to 50 per cent. ”

“ The slugs, which commit their depredations in the night, creep under the leaves in the morning, and by turning up the leaves you come at the slugs, and crush them, or carry them away. But besides the immense daily labour attending this, the slug, in a field sowed with wheat, has a clod to creep under at every foot, and will not go five feet to get under a cabbage-leaf. ”

“ In October, or after, draw the sluice of the first made pond, and lay it as dry as possible you can. It may be the sluice, especially if the pond be many acres, will not vent the water suddenly. That is of no great import, because, as the waters fall, you will have opportunity of fishing with nets, and so clear the fish by degrees; which left to the last, will be too great a burden to clear, and will not be done without damage; besides, the hurry will disorder every thing. If the sluice will not vent all the water from the pan, a labourer or two will soon throw it out with scuppets. ”

“ The sludge which settles out of the liquor into the sedimentation tank is then pumped back and discharged into the raw sewage as it enters, or while passing into the beginning of the aerating tank. The surplus sludge which settles in the sedimentation tanks is treated otherwise, which I will describe later. The process is one of aeration and nitrification practically. The sewage does absorb a great deal of oxygen from the air which is [Pg 100] forced into it through these diffusing methods. ”

“ Composition.—Activated sludge is the material obtained by agitating ordinary sewage with air until the sludge has assumed a flocculent appearance, will settle quickly, and contain aërobic and facultative bacteria in such numbers that similar characteristics can be readily imparted to ordinary sewage sludge when agitated with air in the presence of activated sludge. ”

“ During the period of standing in the lagoon the moisture drains out and evaporates and the organic matter putrefies, giving off gases and foul odors. In the course of three to six months, biological action ceases and the sludge has become humified and reduced to about 75 per cent moisture. In the utilization of this method of disposal the lagoons must be removed from settled districts and should occupy land of little value for other purposes. The odors created at the lagoons may be intense and offensive. The land so used is rendered unfit for other purposes for many years. ”

“ Sludge consists of a stratum of detached ice crystals, or of snow, or of the smaller fragments of brash-ice, floating on the surface of the sea.
A stream is an oblong collection of drift or bay-ice, the pieces of which are continuous. It is called a sea-stream when it is exposed on one side to the ocean, and affords shelter from the sea to whatever is within it. ”

“ Where, on the ebb of ordinary years, the crow has been able to find one fresh-water clam, he may now feed till he can hold no more, for the drought has been long and severe, and the pond has been drained to the very dregs. ”

“ It is standing water which purifies itself, if anything, for in stagnation there is much more chance for the disease germs to die out. Better than either a pond or stream, unless you can carry out a rather careful exploration of their surroundings, is ground water from a well or spring ”

“ When town sewage is pumped through a long rising main, it can often be spread on the land in its really crude state, and if the soil is clay ploughed up to receive it the sludge is most beneficial to its texture. ”

“ Very often a larger supply from a spring may be obtained by collecting into one basin a number of separate and smaller springs. A swampy or boggy piece of ground is often the result of the existence of a number of springs, and if drains are laid to some convenient corner of the field, and a well dug there, into which the drains will discharge, not only will the swamp be drained, but an ample supply of water in this way be obtained. ”

“ Every sewer which we construct pollutes some stream, every stream flows into some river, and every river sends up a pestilential exhalation, which decimates our population, by zymotic diseases, and sows the seed of future maladies in thousands who are unconscious of its immediate effects. ”

“ It is generally understood that the clearing away of the forests has the effect of causing low water during the summer season, and the reasons given for it are, the more rapid evaporation of water from the soil, on account of the greater exposure to the sun in cleared than in timbered land, and to this may be added the more rapid drainage, particularly in sandy soils, after the rotten logs, leaves, and other absorbents, have been removed ”

“ Of the manures which are applied to the land, those of a mineral character are affected by draining, in the same manner as the minerals which are native to the soil; [pg 044] while organic, or animal and vegetable, manures, (especially when applied, as is usual, in an incompletely fermented condition,) absolutely require fresh supplies of atmospheric air, to continue the decomposition which alone can prepare them for their proper effect on vegetation. ”

“ At the beginning of summer perhaps a rank growth of grass starts up vigorously in the vicinity, and the path of the surface drain can be traced by the heavy vegetation along the line of the drain. If the slope of the surface away from the house is considerable, no other effect may be noticed through the season, since the surface slope carries away the sewage, spreading it out over the ground so that the soil really has a chance to breathe between successive doses. ”