84 THE AFTER-EFFECTS OF THE HIGH TIDE. 



it was got rid of, while, where the sea walls were very seriously 

 damaged, several weeks, and even months, elapsed before this 

 could be done. So difficult did it prove to repair the breaches in 

 the sea walls in New England and Pewit Island, and in part of 

 the parish of Fambridge, that the attempt was abandoned, and 

 many hundreds of acres of land have now reverted to the condi- 

 tion of "saltings."' The injurious effect of salt water on crops 

 is variously stated by different authorities to last from five to 

 twenty years. This inquiry was undertaken by the authors 

 with a view to advising as to the best means of cultivating the 

 land, and also to determine the amount of salt deposited, the 

 time required for its removal by drainage, and its chemical and 

 physical effects upon the soil constituents ; knowledge which 

 must be of value in the event of future inundations, an event 

 not unlikely to happen while the sea-walls on many parts of our 

 coast remain in their present insecure condition. 



To ascertain how far the presence of Common Salt was 

 injurious to the crops, a determination was made in samples of 

 soil taken in January, 1898, from different localities and at 

 different depths. Tables are given showing the per-centages. 

 The average of the top soil was -25 per cent., or about 25 times 

 more than the average amount in the soil from unflooded land,= 

 and equal to about 2| tons per acre. In all probability, a quan- 

 tity of this weight applied as a top dressing would injure most 

 crops, but the writers state that there is evidence of a much 

 larger per-centage of salt being present without directly affecting 

 plant growth : but in this case it is diffused through the soil, and 

 consequentlv does not concentrate its action upon the roots or 

 stems of the plants. Wheat and turnips— the former newly 

 sown and not yet germinated at the time of the flooding — grew 

 on land containing -3 per cent, of salt ; while mustard, turnips, 

 mangolds, beet, cabbage, peas, creeping-bent grass, and red 

 fescue, sown in flower pots filled with soil from two of the 

 flooded districts, all germinated well and were apparently abso- 

 lutely uninjured, even at the most critical period of growth, by 

 the salt left in the soil. It would thus appear that, although the 



1 For details the reader is referred, not only to the original Report, but also to Mr. Percy 

 Clark's papers on "The Encroaching Sea on the East Coast" (E. N.. vol x., pp. 297-299;, 

 and " Some Further Notes on the Effects of the Great Tide of November, 1897 ; " also to the 

 note, " Disastrous Effects of the High Tide of November, 1897, at North Fambridge " (pp. 375- 

 C), and the extracts, " Truly Derelict : a Curious Corner of Essex," printed on pp. 397-399, in 

 the same volume. 



2 The authors estimate the water of the North Sea to contain 27 per cent, of common 

 salt, and about '5 per cent, of other chlorides and sulphates. The common salt would be 

 sufficient in quantity to produce serious injury to plants by plasmolysis of the root-hairs. 



