70 REPORT ] 870. 



acre, while the straw was so stunted that there were not two loads from the 

 whole area. 



In the next field heyond the peas (farmed by one of the best agrienltu- 

 rists in the county, a man of superior education and agricultural knowledge, 

 who has farmed the same land for years past with immense care, having 

 planted small hedges here and there to give shelter and break the wind, and 

 ha\ang grubbed iip the old hedges, and having further collected the stones off 

 the surface of the land, and who applies fannyard manure, guano, bones, ifec. 

 with both liberality and judgment) were sown onions, and these onions the 

 farmer said that he would gladly seU for one-fifth of their cost. 



Again, upon the small meadow at Breton's marked U, comprising altoge- 

 ther, after deducting ponds &c., only 5| acres that can actually be mowed, 

 the two crops of hay already got in amount to 9 loads (3| and 5| respectively) ; 

 and a third is growing, which, with care and energy and the assistance of 

 a large barn may easily be got in in the present month, is estimated as equal 

 to the first, making a total of 12| loads in one season from 5| acres. The 

 tenant of Breton's has a large meadow, about three miles nearer London, 

 sloping down to a brook shaded by trees, and which ought to suffer less than 

 most from drought ; yet off an available area for mowing of 27 acres, he was 

 only able to get 4 loads of hay, and there is scarcely any aftermath at all. 

 In potatoes and carrots the figures run in about the same proportion between 

 the sewaged and the unsewaged ground, while of green crops without sewage 

 there were simply none. The following preliminary analyses of the sewage 

 of Romford as it enters on the farm, and of the same when diluted with a 

 certain portion of efiiuent water as it goes over the land, and of the effluent 

 water as it runs out of the drains, have been made for the Committee by 

 Dr. Eussell. From these it wiU be seen that the percentage of ammonia in 

 the sewage is low, and that it is poor as compared with that of most other 

 towns ; that is to say, the sewage is highly diluted, a condition which many 

 people beheve to be the most difficult to deal with by irrigation. Neverthe- 

 less the analyses of the effluent water show in every case that the ammonia 

 almost entirely disappears ; and if we take into account the difference in vo- 

 lume between the effluent water and the sewage, we may regard the ammonia 

 as practically non-existent in the former. On the other hand, it will bo 

 seen that there is a rather high percentage of nitrogen in the form of nitrates 

 and nitrites. The origin of the bulk of this, it is only reasonable to presume, 

 is ammonia in the sewage ; but it is so far very satisfactory to find that the 

 effect of irrigation, or, in other words, of " intermittent downward filtration," 

 should be such a complete transformation of the ammonia. But still, even 

 taking into account the greatly diminished volume of the effluent water as 

 compared with the original sewage (see Table, p. 72), there is no doubt a con- 

 siderable waste of fertilizing matter escaping in the effluent water. How far 

 this is to be attributed to the newly formed drains not being yet consolidated, 

 time alone can show. 



Soil from Plot Q,, Breton's Farm, not been sewaged. Specimen taken 15th 



July, 1870. 



Soil exposed to air of a warm summer : — per cent. 



Stones too large to pass through holes of a 1 o-i .cc 



sieve 3'8S millims. diameter J 



Soil passing through sieve 66'43 



Roots, seeds, straw, &c. picked out of soil . . "03 



Moisture lost at 100° C 1-89 



