84 THE CANADIAN HOItTICULTURIST> 



an additional supply of water." Quite true, provided tlie statement is 

 correct, but is it correct ? From a liydrotopographical map of England, 

 prepared by Mr. Gr. J. Symons, for the " Eivers Pollution Commission," 

 I find that that portion of England having an average annual rainfall 

 of less than 30 inches is about four-fifths of its entire extent, and 

 embraces nearly all the agricultural area of England; and the portion 

 marked as having less than 25 inches takes in nearly the whole of the 

 eastern half It is quite true, however, that some portions of the map 

 show a much greater rainfall. Perhaps it might be difficult to find 

 another spot of equal extent on mother earth's surface where the rain- 

 fall is so unequal, for while it is only from 22 to 25 inches throughout 

 nearly all the agricultural eastern counties, it exceeds 40 inches in the 

 west of Ck)rnwall, and in Seathwaite, in Cumberland, 165 inches is 

 recorded as the average yearly rainfall. But merely the small spots 

 indicated as having a rainfall of 40 inches or over cannot be classed 

 •Q,s agricultural districts. 



If Mr, Bucke was desirous of showing the beneficial results of 

 irrigation to agriculture in England, it would have been well for him 

 to have named some farms where irrigation had been applied on a 

 large scale, giving the cost of the same, so that some idea might be 

 'Obtained as to its practicability in this country, for no one will deny 

 ■that a more plentiful supply of water at certain times would greatly 

 increase the crop. 



I am quite aware that large sums of money have been expended 

 in various places in England and Wales in attempts to utilize success- 

 fully the sewerage of large towns and cities on farms contiguous 

 thereto, but I have yet to learn that many of these experiments have 

 -resulted in financial success, notwithstanding that the enormous ex- 

 penses attending the delivery of the sewerage on to the farms is mainly 

 'defrayed by the great and wealthy corporations desirous of effectually 

 disposing of the sewerage in an innoccuons manner. Yet on these 

 terms there seem to be much doubt as to its practical advantages to 

 the farmer, for by a report lately adopted by the Mansion Home 

 Committee and the Royal Agricultural Society, acting jointly, they 

 say in effect that given an ordinary farm and a sewerage farm at the 

 same rent, the sewerage farm will do no more than hold its own in a 

 wet year like 1879, but in dry .periods the sewarage farm has many 

 iad vantages. 



