In the case of the sewage from a single house, however, the possibility of making use both of the water and the fertilizer in sewage is not so difficult. Recent writers on irrigation have pointed out that, while irrigation of late years has made most headway in the semi-arid districts of the West, there are many opportunities for its successful and profitable utilization in the East, and Mr. Lute Wilcox, in a recent book on irrigation, says: “The farmer who has a soil containing an abundance of all the needed elements in a proper state of fineness cannot but deem himself happy if he have always ready at hand the means of readily and cheaply supplying all the water needed by his soil and growing crops, just when and in just such quantities as are needed. Happier still may he be when he realizes that he need have no ‘off years’, and he knows that the waters he admits to his fields at will are freighted with rich fertilizing elements usually far more valuable to the growing crops than any that he can purchase and apply at a costly rate—a cost that makes serious inroads upon the profits of the majority of farmers cultivating the worn-out or deteriorated soils in the older States year by year. Fertilizers are already needed for the most profitable culture on many farms in Iowa, Minnesota, Eastern Kansas, and Nebraska, in Missouri, and in all States east of those named.” Perhaps the greatest uncertainty in the matter of farming is the available water coming from the clouds. In one year the rainfall may come at the proper time to moisten the seed and to insure a rapid germination. These early rains may be followed by showers at proper intervals to supply the little rootlets with the necessary moisture so that the growth of the plant may be constant and vigorous. During the ripening season the rains may be withheld so that the harvest is insured under the most favorable conditions. In other years, however, the spring rains may be so continuous as to cause the seeds to rot, requiring a second sowing. Then the rains may fail so that the seeds either fail to germinate, or at best produce scattered and imperfect growths. At the time of harvest storm may follow storm, so that the harvesting of those plants which have developed is made almost impossible.