ID 
 
 a760 I 
 1b9 
 
Cornell University Library 
 TD 760.B9 
 
 The sewage farms of Berlin; 
 
 3 1924 003 634 502 
 
'HE SEWAGE FARMS OF 
 BERLIN 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT C. BROOKS 
 
 REPRINTED FROM POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY 
 Vol. XX, No. 2 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 PUBLISHED BY GINN k COMPANY 
 
 190S 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003634502 
 
THE SEWAGE FARMS OF 
 BERLIN 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT C. BROOKS 
 
 liEPRINTED FROM POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY 
 Vol. XX., No. 2 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 PUBLISHED BY GINN & COMPANY 
 
 1905 
 
THE SEWAGE FARMS 6f BERLIN 
 
 TO its laurels as capital, metropolis and chief commercial, 
 center, Berlin adds the unusual distinction of being one 
 of the largest landed proprietors and farmers in the Ger- 
 man empire. The agricultural holdings of the municipality,. 
 32,727 acres or 51 square miles in all, are now more than 
 double the area of the city itself.' To say that Berlin is en- 
 gaged in farming to this great extent " for its health " is no 
 merely flippant expression, but the exact truth. A brief com- 
 parison with the conditions of thirty years ago will not only 
 make this plain, but will also serve to show how fully the city 
 has succeeded in its purpose. 
 
 In 1874 the sanitary condition of Berlin was more worthy of 
 the eighteenth than of the nineteenth century. Open gutters, 
 deep enough in places to deserve the name of ditches, were to 
 be found throughout the greater portion of its built-up terri- 
 tory. Through these gutters the liquid filth of houses and 
 streets, or rather such part of it as did not soak into the soil,, 
 found its way sluggishly into the river Spree. At places where 
 danger threatened, rude coverings of timber or stone had been 
 provided, with the result that the ditches beneath were made 
 difficult of access and speedily became the worst plague-spots, 
 in the city.'' As early as i860 the consequences of such un- 
 sanitary conditions had been recognized officially, and during^ 
 the succeeding decade various reform plans were discussed with 
 more vigor than fruitfulness. Then came the Franco-Prussian 
 war, at the end of which Berlin, suddenly elevated to the rank 
 
 ' Venvaltungsbericht des Magistrats zu Berlin fiir das Etatsjahr 1902, no. 41:- 
 Bericht der Deputation fiir die stadtischen Kanalisationswerke und Rieselfelder, p. i. 
 This report covers the operations of the sewerage system and sewage farms for the- 
 year that ended March 31, 1903. Statistics quoted in the present article and not 
 referred to any other source are taken from this or earlier reports of the same com- 
 mission. 
 
 * Henry Vitztelly, Berlin under the New Empire (1879), vol. i, p. 15; Bericht iiber 
 die Gemeindeverwaltung der Stadt Berlin in den Jahren 1861 bis 1876, zweites Heft^, 
 p. 125-128. 
 
 298 
 
THE SEWAGE FARMS OF BERLIN 200 
 
 of a world city, began to grow with Chicago-like rapidity. 
 Under the pressure of increasing population the inadequacy of 
 existing sanitary arrangements became alarmingly manifest. 
 It was generally recognized that nothing short of the most 
 sweeping reforms, speedily carried out, could provide for the 
 magnificent future before the now imperial city. 
 
 At this crisis Berlin was fortunate in the possession of two 
 great masters of sanitary science, Rudolph Virchow and James 
 Hobrecht. Virchow's fame as the foremost pathologist of the 
 century was even then world-wide. In the midst of scientific 
 investigations imposing an almost incredible burden of work he 
 found time to serve his country as legislator in Reichstag and 
 Landtag, and his city in the humbler but no less useful capacity 
 of councilman. His epoch-making report to the Berlin council 
 in 1872 laid bare with unflinching hand the sanitary dangers of 
 the city's- condition and demonstrated the absolute necessity of 
 action. Virchow was able to show, for instance, that in the 
 three periods of five years each preceding his report the general 
 mortality of the city had advanced in the ratio of 5, 7 and 9. 
 Nothing in existing conditions warranted the belief that the com- 
 ing lustrum would not show a death-rate at least twice as great 
 as that of the first period of five years. Indeed, the mortality 
 of children had more than doubled within the preceding period 
 of fifteen years, the ratios being as 5, 7 and 11.' During the 
 years 1870, 1871 and 1872, the general death-rate of the city 
 was 33.16, 40.44 and 33.28 per thousand, and from typhoid 
 fever alone T-"], g and 14 per ten thousand inhabitants.^ These 
 figures fitly reflect what was taking place within the metropolis 
 — an increasing population crowded in unsanitary houses, a 
 growing accumulation of dirt in the streets and squares, an ever 
 greater amount of liquid filth running or soaking through the 
 city's open gutters, a progressive poisoning of the sub-soil, and 
 the defilement of the river Spree to the ultimate pollution of 
 the sources of the city's water supply. 
 
 1 James Pollard, A Study in Municipal Government : The Corporation of Berlin 
 (1893). p. 35- 
 
 ' Statistisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Berlin. Jahrgang xxvii, p. 88; Erlauterungen 
 z. d. Modell v. d. Rieselfeld-Anlagen d. Stadt Berlin, p. 8. 
 
300 POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY [Vol. XX 
 
 Among the various plans proposed, Virchow's report favored 
 that of the distinguished sanitary engineer, James Hobrecht. 
 As early as 1 860 the latter had been appointed member of a 
 royal commission for the study of Berhn's sewage problem. In 
 this capacity he bad visited France and England as well as 
 many German cities. Upon his return he undertook an ex- 
 haustive investigation of the conditions peculiar to Berlin.' The 
 result was a plan, complete to the minutest detail, for the cre- 
 ation of pumping stations and sewage farms on a scale which 
 made all earlier efforts of a similar character sink to the rank 
 of mere experiments. Early in 1873 the city council accepted 
 this plan, and Hobrecht immediately began to put it into exe- 
 cution. Starting in that year without a mile of what could 
 properly be called underground sewers, before the end of 1876 
 the city had laid pipes connecting with 1000 lots. This num- 
 ber was increased to 7500 in 1880 and to 20,000 in 1890, by 
 which time the whole city had been provided with a fairly com- 
 plete network of sewers. Subsequent additions, due largely to 
 the growth of the city, bring the total number of lots connected 
 up to 28,000. The acreage of the sewage farms was necessarily 
 extended with the growth of the sewerage network, until at 
 present the municipality is in possession of seven large estates 
 forming two fairly compact areas lying to the northeast and 
 southwest of the city. 
 
 Twenty years from the installation of this new system of 
 sewage disposal, Berlin had become one of the healthiest 
 large cities in the world. The high general death-rates of the 
 early seventies had fallen in 1894 to the very moderate figure 
 of 21 per thousand, while typhoid was claiming only one per 
 
 ' The results of the early studies of Hobrecht and other experts, among whom 
 should be mentioned Virchow, Liebreich, MuUer, Roder, Werner, Dunkelberg, Ger- 
 lach, Kunth and Lessen, may be found in the valuable collection entitled Reinigung 
 u. Entwasserung Berlins; Einleitende Verhandlungen u. Berichte iiber mehrere auf 
 Veranlassung d. Magistrats d. kgl. Haupt- u. Residenzstadt Berlin angestellte Versuche 
 u. Untersuchungen (Berlin, A. Hirschwald, 1879). Hobrecht's later work describing 
 the sewerage system after its completion is entitled Die Canalisation von Berlin (Ber- 
 lin, Ernst u. Korn, 1884). It is the great authority on the technical side of the sub- 
 ject, and is supplemented by an atlas in large folio containing 57 tables illustrating 
 the details of the system. 
 
No. 2] THE SEWAGE FARMS OF BERLIN 30 1 
 
 10,000 annually between 1890 and 1893. Not all the vast 
 sanitary improvement indicated by these figures can be attri- 
 buted to the new method of sewage disposal alone. Munici- 
 pal management of the water- works from 1873 on, better 
 methods of street cleaning, the abolition of dark and damp 
 cellar-dwellings and, in general, more vigorous sanitary inspec- 
 tion undoubtedly contributed to the marked betterment of 
 hygienic conditions. It must be admitted, however, that prior 
 to 1 8^3 the chief factor in the improved health of the city was 
 the new sewerage system. M. Durand-Claye is authority for 
 figures published in 1885 and representing the transition 
 period, according to which there was one case of typhoid fever 
 to every 9.3 houses, and one death from that cause to every 43 
 houses in the non-sewered districts of the city. In the sewered 
 sections at the same time there was but one case to every 49.3 
 houses, and one death to every 137.5 houses.^ 
 
 In 1893 Berlin secured new sources and began the installa- 
 tion of a greatly improved water supply system. The subse- 
 quent considerable decrease of the general death-rate and the 
 reduction of the typhoid death-rate until at present it is only 
 one-half of what it was ten years ago are more clearly attribut- 
 able to this cause than to accompanying improvements and 
 extensions in the sewage-disposal plant. Both causes, how- 
 ever, are undoubtedly operative to-day in keeping Berlin in the 
 front rank, if not at the head, of metropolitan cities so far as 
 sanitary conditions are concerned. Comparisons are proverbi- 
 ally odious, yet Chicago may perhaps forgive one to her dis- 
 advantage in exchange for an admission that she will probably 
 soon outstrip Berlin in the race for population. In 1900 Chi- 
 cago was in full enjoyment of the sanitary advantages accruing 
 from the construction of the drainage canal and the disposal by 
 this means of a large part of the city's sewage. How great 
 these advantages were may be inferred from the fact that her 
 typhoid death-rate for the years 1900, 1901 and 1902 was about 
 one-fourth what it had been ten years earlier. Nevertheless 
 Chicago's deaths from typhoid fever in these three years num- 
 
 ^ En^neerin^ News, vol. xiv, p. 241 (Oct. 17, 1885). 
 
302 POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY [Vol. XX 
 
 bered 337, 509 and 801 respectively. For the same years 
 Berlin lost only 109, 88 and 52 lives by this disease.' 
 
 The sewage-disposal plant, which thus stands a monument 
 to the beneficent genius of Virchow and Hobrecht, is divided 
 into two parts= — the so-called radial systems in the city and the 
 Rieselfelder, or sewage farms, lying at a distance of from two 
 to eight miles from its periphery. Berlin, it should be ex- 
 plained, is located in the midst of an extensive sandy plain, a 
 fact favorable enough so far as sewage cultivation itself is con- 
 cerned, but presenting certain difficulties in the earlier stages 
 of the work. The monotonous level of the city's floor necessi- 
 tated its division into numerous districts, in order that the col- 
 lection of sewage by gravity might be possible. There are some 
 countervailing advantages in this arrangement, chief among 
 which is that an accident in one radial system affects only a 
 small part of the city. The cost of operation, however, is 
 materially enhanced by the necessity of duplicating pumping- 
 stations to force the sewage to the farms through pipes 
 "radiating" from each district. There are at present twelve 
 such districts or radial systems. Parts of three of these, how- 
 ever, represent territory lying in Charlottenburg and other 
 suburbs, the sewage of which is disposed of at a fixed rate by 
 the Berlin plant. 
 
 At approximately the lowest point of each of the twelve 
 radial systems a pumping-station is located, to which pipes 
 converge from all the baths, sinks, closets, drains, gutters and 
 factories of the district. A visitor to one of these pumping- 
 stations, expecting to find it the sink of all the abominations of 
 a great city, will be most agreeably surprised. Instead, he will 
 see prim walks, every brick of which might be used forthwith for 
 scouring; tiny, well-kept flower beds bordering bits of close- 
 cropped lawn ; a neat cottage which serves as the official resi- 
 dence of the chief engineer of the station, and other smaller 
 buildings containing lockers, baths, eating-rooms and rooms 
 for the drying of clothes — everything in fact that can contribute 
 to the comfort and cleanliness of the workmen. Towering 
 
 ' Statistisches Jahrbuch d. Stadt Berlin, Jahrgang xxvii, pp. 103-1 1 1 ; Statistics of 
 Cities, Bulletin of the Department of Labor, nos. 30, 36 and 42. 
 
No. 2] THE SEWAGE I<ARMS OF BERLIN 303 
 
 over all else in the enclosure is the massive structure sheltering 
 the boilers, engines and pumps. 
 
 Descending into the sand-tank, the contrast with the clean- 
 liness above strikes one forcibly enough. This is an enormous 
 circular cistern nearly forty feet in diameter, into which the 
 grand trunk sewer of the district empties its volume of gray, 
 heavy, dully glistening fluid. The sand-tank is divided into 
 two equal parts by an iron grating, the bars of which are 
 separated by spaces of three-fifths of an inch. Owing to the 
 size of this cistern the velocity of the flow of sewage is lessened 
 on entering it, which permits the deposit of sand held in sus- 
 pension. The bars of the grating catch and hold occasional 
 rags, bits of paper, leaves of vegetables and other substances 
 which might cause damage to the pumps. On a platform 
 raised a few inches above the level of the sewage in the tank, a 
 workman armed with pitchfork and shovel is constantly em- 
 ployed in removing the^deposit of solid matter which is later 
 carried off and burned with the city's garbage. 
 
 After passing through the bars of the sand tank the sewage 
 is ready for the pumps. These are of enormous strength, cap- 
 able of forcing the daily volume of the city's sewage, through 
 cast-iron pipes thirty to forty inches in diameter, to the farms 
 distant from six to sixteen miles and elevated from sixty-five 
 to a hundred feet about the level of the city's floor. During 
 the year ending May 31, 1902, the pumps of the twelve radial 
 systems forwarded 83,721,323 cubic meters of sewage. The 
 daily average of that year, about three hundred thousand cubic 
 yards, would be sufficient to flood Central Park in New York to 
 a depth of two and three-quarter inches. In periods of heavy 
 rainfall very much larger quantities are pumped within twenty- 
 four hours. At such times it is occasionally found necessary 
 to allow part of the water clogging the sewers to escape into 
 the Spree and its tributaries. This admitted defect of the sys- 
 tem is due to an over-careful economy in installing the sewer- 
 age network, as a result of which some of the pipes were made 
 too small for efficient service in a great emergency. In defence 
 of the practice it is pointed out that the vents for the escape of 
 the superabundant water are located at the top of the sewers, and 
 
204 POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY [Vol. XX 
 
 that in consequence of this arrangement only a very small per- 
 centage of the heavier excrementitial matter escapes with the 
 overflow into the river. Fortunately the necessity of resorting 
 to this dangerous device occurs rarely, and then usually lasts 
 for a very short time. 
 
 The mains leading from the various pumping stations carry 
 the sewage to the highest levels of the farms. Standpipes 
 located at these points indicate the height and pressure of the 
 fluid in the mains upon a scale outside, to the moving pointer 
 of which a lantern is attached by night. Watched constantly 
 by the foremen of the fields, this device serves to show when 
 and in what quantities the sewage must be used. From the 
 standpipe radiate networks of smaller pipes which carry the 
 water to every part of the fields to be irrigated. 
 
 Of the total area of agricultural land owned by the city, 
 slightly more than half, or about 17,000 acres, have been pre- 
 pared for sewage farming. Part of the remainder is repre- 
 sented by recent acquisitions not yet adapted for irrigation and 
 still under ordinary cultivation. The rest consists mostly of 
 timber and waste land, roads and waterways. Preparation of 
 the farms for sewage irrigation is a task of considerable magni- 
 tude. In its former state the land possessed hardly anything 
 that could properly be called soil. The fields were nothing 
 more than slightly rolling tracts of sand or very sandy loam of 
 an average depth of between forty and sixty inches. An 
 American farmer would not give a second look to such land, a 
 French-Canadian would pass it with a shrug, and even a sand- 
 hiller of the South would scorn to squat on it. Only by the 
 most careful cultivation and the use of large quantities of arti- 
 ficial fertilizer were the original holders able to make it produc- 
 tive. Beneath the superficial layer of sand is a substratum of 
 impervious clay. A sandy or gravelly soil is in general the 
 most favorable for sewage farming, but in this case the depth 
 of sand was hardly sufficient to prevent accumulations of for.l 
 fluids to such an extent as to render the land marshy and sour. 
 This would have destroyed growing vegetation and threatened 
 the health of the whole neighborhood. Consequently it was 
 deemed necessary to provide at heavy expense a complete 
 system of underdrainage. 
 
No. 2] THE SEWAGE FARMS OF BERLIN 
 
 305 
 
 The fields to which the sewage is appHed are of two kinds, 
 sloping and level. Comparatively little grading is required for 
 the former ; the chief inequalities of the surface are smoothed 
 down, tiles are provided, and an open ditch is dug along the 
 highest side of the field. This is filled to overflowing with 
 sewage, which trickles down the incline and is absorbed. Such 
 sloping fields are used for the most part as meadows. Italian 
 rye-grass, the most successful of all sewage plants, is the prin- 
 cipal product. On many of the better fields of the Berlin 
 farms six or seven cuttings are taken annually, and the average 
 yield per acre on the land used for this crop is twenty-two tons 
 of grass of excellent quality per year, a marvellous result con- 
 sidering the nature of the soil.' 
 
 The level fields are graded until they are almost perfectly 
 horizontal or are laid out in terraces — a tedious and costly 
 operation, which, however, is somewhat facilitated by the sandy 
 character of the soil. After having been smoothed off they are 
 divided into tracts of an acre or less, each of which is still further 
 subdivided into narrow strips or beds. A complete system of 
 irrigation ditches large and small brings the sewage into con- 
 tact with the sides of the beds. In no case is it allowed to 
 touch directly the growing vegetation of the level fields. The 
 sewage filters into the beds from the sides and reaches the roots 
 only. In order that this action may be efifective, the width of 
 the beds is strictly limited, being ordinarily only forty inches. 
 Considering the original character of the soil, a truly remark- 
 able array of vegetation is brought forth luxuriantly on the 
 level fields. Of grains there are wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn 
 and rape seed ; of vegetables, potatoes, beets, carrots, radishes 
 and particularly every variety of cabbage dear to the heart of 
 the Hausfrau ; of fruits, strawberries, currants, gooseberries 
 and raspberries. Medicinal herbs, hemp and nursery seedlings 
 are other products. Roses whose exquisite scent strangely be- 
 
 ' The grass is sold as it lies on the field immediately after being cut, bringing from 
 40 to 60 pfenninge per double hundred-weight in this form, or about $1.00 to ^1.50 
 per ton. Owing to the large proportion of water contained in rye-grass, its conversion 
 into hay is economically impossible, a fact which naturally detracts greatly from its 
 value. Cf. J. W. Slater's Sewage Treatment, Purification and Utilization (London, 
 1888), p. 49. 
 
3o6 POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY [Vol. XX 
 
 lies their nurture are sold at good prices to Berlin florists by 
 the enterprising gardeners of the sewage farms. 
 
 Owing to the small size of the beds in the level fields a large 
 part of the work of cultivating them must be done by hand, or 
 as the Germans somewhat more correctly say, " by the spade" 
 {Spatenkuliur) . Most of the laborers live directly on the sew- 
 age farms, which have a permanent population of this character 
 numbering about 3000, of whom 21 00 are adults. Whenever 
 necessary, as in harvest time, other laborers are temporarily 
 employed, the men receiving from one and a half to two and a 
 half marks, and the women eighty pfennigs to one mark a day. 
 The permanent force is paid at even lower rates, but the differ- 
 ence is more than made up by the free rental of cottages, pay- 
 ments in kind and the privilege of cultivating small pieces of 
 ground. Skilled workers, such as nurserymen and foremen, 
 get two and three marks a day. The piece-work method is 
 often employed, and under it the men are said to earn from 
 twenty to fifty per cent, more.' Taking into consideration the 
 great amount of common labor necessitated by sewage farming, 
 it would seem that Europe has a decided advantage over 
 America in the cheapness and abundance of its supply. 
 
 In addition to the free laborers employed on the Berlin 
 farms, there are always from seven to eleven hundred work- 
 house prisoners, mostly beggars, vagrants and tramps arrested 
 in the city, who are forced to work out their sentences in the 
 fields. The sewage farms thus provide simple, open-air em- 
 ployment to an almost unlimited extent for a class of persons 
 whose maintenance in institutions would not only be less satis- 
 factory from a sanitary point of view, but would also cost the 
 city more than under the present arrangement. Worked in 
 gangs, housed in cheerless barracks, clothed in uniforms of 
 rough brown cloth and sparingly fed, these Arbeitskausler ol the 
 sewage farms nevertheless seldom attempt to escape, partly be- 
 cause it is practically impossible to avoid being caught within 
 a few days, and partly because they prefer working outdoors for 
 Berlin to imprisonment in other places. Although short-term 
 prisoners exclusively, there are not a few among them who con- 
 ' Annates des ponts et chaussles, 7 s^rie, tome x, p. 283 (1895). 
 
No. 2] THE SEWAGE FARMS OF BERLIN jq? 
 
 trive to be sent back time and time again until they become 
 almost as permanent as the regular employees. Thus by a 
 sardonic but truly poetic justice the sewage of a great city and its 
 human riff-raflf are forced to work out their salvation together. 
 
 Shortly after the feasibility of sewage irrigation had been 
 demonstrated under municipal management the city received 
 numerous applications from tenant farmers who wished to rent 
 small tracts of land with the privilege of using the sewage as 
 fertihzer. About 2100 acres are now rented in this manner; 
 the remainder, or about seven-eighths of all the land adapted 
 for sewage cultivation, is farmed directly by the city. It has 
 been the policy of the municipality throughout to insist not 
 only upon municipal ownership, but also upon municipal man- 
 agement or at least the strictest sort of municipal control of 
 the sewage farms. The sanitary welfare of the city is recog- 
 nized as vastly more important than any purely economic 
 interests involved. For this reason public operation under re- 
 sponsible officials is preferred as a general rule. In the leases 
 under which the tenant farmers operate, it is also the practice 
 to provide every precaution against carelessness in the use of 
 the liquid fertilizer, and these conditions are carefully enforced 
 by administrative supervision. 
 
 Sewage is at best a word of sinister significance, and sewage 
 farms — though they grow roses — will hardly find employment 
 in poetic metaphors as places suggestive of sweetness and 
 purity. Yet one might travel for miles over Berlin's landed 
 estates without encountering a single unpleasant odor unless he 
 chanced upon an open hydrant. After the water is released 
 and distributed over the fields it quickly loses its offensive 
 character, no matter how foul it may have been on issuing 
 from the pipes. Sewage coming from different parts of Berlin 
 varies greatly in color and composition, and likewise in 
 offensiveness and fertilizing power. Thus the sewage from a 
 radial system occupied largely by workingmen, to whom bath 
 tubs are unknown luxuries and who economize strictly in the 
 use of water under the stress of the meter system employed in 
 Berlin, is foul and inky on arriving at the farms. Conse- 
 quently it is much more welcome to the cultivators than the 
 
3o8 POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY [Vol. XX 
 
 colorless and almost odorless water from the district south of 
 the Thiergarten where wealth and bath tubs abound. This 
 point is worthy of note by American municipalities contemplat- 
 ing sewage farming. Owing to the much larger per capita use 
 of water in this country the sewage of our cities is considerably 
 less valuable for agricultural purposes than is the case in 
 Germany. 
 
 More important than the outward inofifensiveness of the sew- 
 age farms is their sanitary condition. Is this method of dis- 
 posing of the liquid waste of a great city simply a device 
 whereby the health of hundreds of thousands is preserved at 
 the sacrifice of the health of hundreds living on the farms or in 
 their neighborhood ? The formula of the greatest good to the 
 greatest number might cover such a case, but there is no need 
 to invoke the shade of Bentham here. It may be asserted 
 most confidently that the average health of the population on 
 and in the immediate neighborhood of the sewage farms is as 
 good as that of other rural communities in Prussia. Moreover, 
 the danger of epidemics is probably less than in communities 
 of equal size in Prussia or elsewhere, certainly less than in 
 many American cities at the present time. The explanation 
 of this apparently extreme statement may be found in the great 
 and constant care with which the pathological phenomena of 
 the sewage farms are studied. Other things being equal, that 
 community is best safeguarded against epidemics where they 
 are most feared and where the most thorough preparations are 
 made to prevent them. Such a community may be found 
 upon the Berlin sewage farms. Probably no rural population 
 in the world has more intelligent care expended upon the 
 preservation of its health — surely a valuable asset against any 
 special liability to disease to which it may be exposed. A 
 glance at the statistical tables which the municipal government 
 publishes annually and which deal with cases of sickness and 
 death on the sewage farms will go far in support of this state- 
 ment. From the same source one may learn also of the fre- 
 quent analyses of the water of the wells used by the sewage 
 farmers. The effluent from the fields, gathered first by the 
 tiles underlying them and carried off by open trenches to 
 
No. 2] THE SEWAGE FARMS OF BERLIN 
 
 309 
 
 neighboring water courses, is likewise made the subject of 
 careful and constantly repeated examinations. Almost invari- 
 ably it is found pure, clear, odorless and practically free from 
 micro-organisms. Countless tests of the efifluent have failed to 
 show the presence of typhoid bacilli in a single instance. The 
 least evidence of a taint of any sort is followed by a searching 
 investigation which does not stop until the cause has been dis- 
 covered and removed. Similarly with any suspicious case of 
 sickness occurring on the estates. From 1893 to 1903 there 
 was an average of only one and a half cases of typhoid fever a 
 year on the sewage farms ; and during three successive years 
 in this period, 1894, 1895 ^'^^ 1896, not a single case was re- 
 ported. Careful investigation in every instance failed to es- 
 tablish any connection between the disease and the water of 
 the farms. As regards other epidemic diseases equally favor- 
 able results are shown. This record effectually disposes of the 
 argument that flies would spread broadcast disease-germs ob- 
 tained from the sewage distributed openly over the surface of 
 the land. While the possibility of the transmission of patho- 
 genic organisms in this way is fully established, the practical 
 danger, judging from Berlin's farming experience, is very slight. 
 
 The perfect confidence of the municipality in the sanitary 
 security of the sewage farms is shown by the fact that it has 
 erected on four of the estates homes for the benefit of patients 
 sent out from hospitals in the city. One of these is designed 
 for convalescent women, particularly those recovering from 
 maternity cases, another for convalescent men, and the remain- 
 ing two for consumption cases. The city manages the homes 
 directly, charging rates sufficient to pay expenses. In no 
 sense, therefore, may the patients be classed as paupers re- 
 maining upon the farms because they have nowhere else to go. 
 Over two thousand persons are cared for annually by the four 
 homes, and there is always a large waiting list — facts which 
 speak well for the public confidence in the sanitary condition 
 of the sewage farms and in the management of the institutions 
 for convalescents located upon them.' 
 
 " Paris casts twenty-five millions of francs annually into the 
 • Statistisches Jahrbuch d. Stadt Berlin, Jahrgang xxvii, p. 460. 
 
2IO POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY [Vol. XX 
 
 sea." With this text Victor Hugo begins his wonderful de- 
 scription in Les Miserables of the sewers of Paris. Whatever 
 may be the literary quality of these chapters — and who has not 
 thrilled at the adventures of Jean Valjean ? — they certainly con- 
 vey a most ludicrously inaccurate idea of the value of sewage. 
 It is easy to ascertain the amount of fertilizing ingredients con- 
 tained in a city's liquid refuse and to multiply this by market 
 prices, but the result is no more indicative of the real value of 
 the sewage than would be a calculation of the value of the gold 
 in a given ore regardless of the cost of extracting it. Berlin's 
 practical experience on this point is obviously more conclusive 
 than any quantity of statistics which soar into the millions un- 
 hampered by facts. 
 
 With fair natural conditions for sewage farming, with a large 
 supply of cheap labor easily obtainable and with the most 
 capable and honest of administrators, it must nevertheless be 
 confessed that the purely financial results obtained by the Ger- 
 man capital do not bulk large among the advantages of its 
 system. Disregarding all interest charges and assuming the 
 sewage to be laid down free of cost in the fields, the total value 
 of farm producte for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1903, 
 exceeded the actual running expenses of 2,871,517 marks by 
 231)394 niarks.' This was the most favorable showing made 
 since 1892. Indeed, during four years of the decade ending in 
 1903, deficits had to be met as the result of current opera- 
 tions on the estates regardless of all other expenses. The 
 average annual profit between 1893 and 1903 was only 33,442 
 marks. Looking solely at the result of current operations on 
 the farms, then, it may be said that they usually yield a small 
 sum clear of expenses. 
 
 The foregoing figures, however, take no account of the heav- 
 iest charges incident to Berlin's method of sewage disposal. 
 
 ' This net profit of 231,394 marks includes an item of 148,497 marks which repre- 
 sents the increase during the year i902-r03, as shown by the inventory, in the value 
 of seeds, tools, materials, etc., on hand. The remaining figures quoted in the above 
 paragraph also include these items and are therefore strictly comparable with the 
 figure first given. As such estimates of increase or decrease are carefully made and 
 as they are by no means always favorable to the management of the farms, there 
 would seem to be no reason to exclude them. 
 
No. 2] THE SEWAGE FARMS OF BERLIN 311 
 
 First among these should be mentioned the current cost of 
 operating the radial systems in the city, amounting for the year 
 ending March 31, 1903, to close upon one and a quarter mil- 
 lion marks. Even more important are the interest charges. 
 The total permanent investment in the whole sewage-disposal 
 plant of Berlin amounted, at the end of the fiscal year 1902-03, 
 to 126,000,000 marks, of which three-fifths is debited to the 
 works in the city and the remainder to the farms. By the 
 operations of the sinking fund the amount of debt outstanding 
 has been reduced to 96,000,000 marks, on which, in 1902-03, 
 the city paid interest amounting to 3,368,000 marks. Adding 
 to the above figures a number of smaller items of expense, the 
 financial results of the Berlin system for 1902-03 may be 
 summed up in the statement that it cost the city 7,974,000 
 marks to raise crops valued at 2,954,000 marks. 
 
 In the most favorable year of a decade, then, the operations 
 of the Berlin plant as a whole resulted in a deficit of 5,020,000 
 marks. As the city paid 2,800,000 marks into the sinking 
 fund in 1902-03 the total amount required for that year was 
 7,820,000 marks. This came principally from a special sewer- 
 age tax of one and one-half per cent of the rental value of real 
 estate, which yielded 6,020,000 marks. Fees and other small 
 items brought in 220,000 marks. The deficit of 1,580,000 
 marks which still remained was met directly by the munici- 
 pality.' Owing to the favorable results on the farms in 1902- 
 03 this contribution was considerably smaller than usual. As 
 the city enjoys certain distinct advantages from the sewage- 
 disposal system in the removal of rain- water from the streets 
 and liquid wastes generally from public buildings and public 
 comfort stations, these direct payments are fully justified, al- 
 though, of course, in the last analysis the money comes out 
 of the pocket of the taxpayer. 
 
 Berlin's balance sheet shows conclusively that something more 
 than sewage is required to make sand Pactolian. Indeed there 
 
 ' Exactly 1,577,161.58 marks in cash. If the increase for 1902-03 in the value of 
 goods on hand as shown by the inventory be allowed (see preceding note), the real 
 deficit left to be met by the city would be reduced by 148,497 marks and would thus 
 stand at 1,428,664.58 marks. 
 
312 POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY [VOL. XX 
 
 are certain difficulties inherent in cultivation of this sort which 
 easily explain the financial results detailed above. Some limi- 
 tations are placed upon the rotation and selection of crops by 
 the peculiarities of sewage farming. With so large an estate it 
 is at times difficult, even in so great a market as that of Berlin, 
 to dispose favorably of certain crops, especially of small fruits. 
 A large standing force of workmen must be employed day and 
 night at all seasons. The most important handicap, however, 
 is the necessity of disposing of all the sewage even when it is 
 harmful to vegetation. A hard rain in Berlin usually means a 
 hard rain on the farms as well, but the latter are obliged to dis- 
 pose of the double dose in a very short time. If relief from 
 such excessive irrigation be sought in an extension of the area 
 of the sewage farms, new difficulties arise. Despite its poor 
 quality the land suitable for this purpose is costly, since it must 
 be located near the city and must possess special advantages 
 with reference to surface, elevation and drainage. On an aver- 
 age the city paid about $220 an acre for its present holdings, 
 while the necessary work of grading, drainage, etc., brought 
 this up to about $395 an acre. Taking all these limitations in 
 connection with the present depressed condition of agriculture 
 in Germany, the exceedingly modest returns obtained from the 
 sewage farms are not difficult to understand. 
 
 While Berlin's experience has failed to realize the dreams of 
 sewage enthusiasts of the Colonel Sellers type, it would be far 
 from the truth to assume that her system has proved a disap- 
 pointment to those responsible for its foundation. Let it be 
 remembered that if the city did not dispose of its liquid refuse 
 by irrigation it would have to do so by some other method, 
 probably clarification and chemical treatment. A comparison 
 made a few years ago between Berlin and a number of German 
 cities which had adopted the latter method showed that on a 
 per capita basis the metropolis was serving its people at a 
 much lower rate than any of the others. Even should the 
 sewage farms have to be abandoned for a more efficient system 
 at some future date, the city will possess in its land a large 
 asset, the value of which is rapidly advancing. On the other 
 hand, should science develop nothing better, the municipality 
 
No. 2] THE SEWAGE FARMS OF BERLIN 313 
 
 may congratulate itself on what few metropolitan cities possess 
 at the present time, namely, an entirely satisfactory method of 
 sewage disposal capable of indefinite expansion with the growth 
 of its population. In the final analysis the purely financial 
 results of the Berlin system are of minor importance. Its 
 heaviest dividends are paid in cleaner, healthier, longer lives 
 to two million people. 
 
 Robert C. Brooks. 
 
 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY. 
 
 A Review devoted to the historical, statistical and comparative study of 
 politics, economics and public law. 
 
 Flan. — The field of the Quarterly is indicated by its title; its object is to 
 give the results of scientific investigation in this field. The Quarterly follows 
 the most important movements of foreign politics, but deyotes chief attention to 
 questions of present interest in the United States. On such questions its attitude 
 is non-partisan. Every article is signed; and every article, irieluding those of the 
 editors, expresses simply the personal view of the writer. 
 
 Editors. — The Quarterly is under the editorial management of the Faculty 
 of Political Science of Columbia University. 
 
 Contributor3. — The list includes university and college teachers, politicians, 
 lawyers, journalists and business men in aUparts of the United States, and Eng- 
 lish and Continental professors and publicists. 
 
 CONTENTS OF THE LAST TWO NUMBERS. 
 December, 1904. 
 
 Present Problems of Constitutional Law ■••■•!• W. Burgess 
 
 ParUamentary Obstruction Gborg Jellinek 
 
 The Courts on Restrictive Labor Laws H. R, Seager 
 
 Texas Revolutionary Finances , Eugene C. Barker 
 
 A Gold Standard for the Straits , E. W. Kemmbrjer 
 
 Trial by Jury in Germany. Burt Estes Howard 
 
 Municipal Corruption > Henry Jones Ford . 
 
 March, 1905. 
 
 Our Monetary Equilibrium HORACE WHITE 
 
 Monopolistic Combinations in Europe , Francis Walker 
 
 The Taxation of Franchises in California Carl C. Plehn 
 
 Suffrage Limitations at the South ..:..... Francis G. Caffey 
 
 Police Removals and the Courts . . . .... ... Clay Lawrence 
 
 The Scottish Church Case .......;, John Davidson . 
 
 Russia's Struggle with Autocracy V. G. SiMKHOVITCH 
 
 Literature. — Each number contains careful reviews by specialists of recent 
 publications. At least twice a year these reviews will be supplemented by a series 
 of short Book Notes. 
 
 Heoord. — The Record of Political Events, published twice a year, gives a 
 rdsum^ of political and social movements throughout the world.- 
 
 Communications in reference to articles, reviews and exchanges should be 
 addressed to Prof. MTJNROB SMITH, Columbia University, New York City. 
 Inteiiding contributors are requested to retain copies of MS. submitted, as the 
 editors disclaim responsibility for its safety. If accompanied by stamps, rejected 
 articles will be returned, when requested. Subscriptions should be forwarded 
 and all business communications addressed to GINN & COMPANY, 70 Fifth 
 Ave., New York City; 378-388 Wabash Ave., Chicago; 29 Beacon St., Boston. 
 
 Yearly Subscription, Three Dollars in America ; Thirteen Shillings in England ; 
 Thirteen Marks in Germany. Single Numbers: 75 cents, 3s. 6rf., K. 3.50 
 Back Numbers and Bound Volumes can b« obtained from the publishers. 
 
ut^^f^^