ABSTRACT
Sewage recycling generated a torrent of hyperbolic pamphlet publication; many authors delight in the fact that human beings create the resources needed to sustain their existence. In West Derby sewage theorists have gained control of the local board. They micromanage or appoint inexperienced personnel, or so Ferme claims. He acknowledges that sewage has value, but he appreciates more clearly than many that the goals of purification and profit are not readily combined. The country is now looking with confidence to people, as an eminent agriculturist, for a valuable opinion on the vexed question of sewage utilisation by irrigation, and the management of farms by local boards. The sewage farming question is indeed a serious one for the country. Large sums have been already lost, and continue to be misapplied by unpractical amateurs, trying to manage land, and to farm for the public.
