Continuous Trenching. 135 



the trenches, i. e. the greater the distance which 

 separates them, the greater, as a matter of course, 

 will be the quantity of soil and water to accumulate 

 in them, and the more frequently will they require 

 to be cleared out and kept in order. The greater 

 the declivity, the more danger will there be of 

 their facilitating the escape, not only of the surplus 

 rain-water, but of the soil which they have collected, 

 and which escape it is their object to prevent. 



If they can be made every ten or fifteen yards, 

 in parallel lines across the hill, so much the better 

 in fact, they cannot occur too closely, in my 

 opinion ; and the gradient should never be greater 

 than one in twelve ; though one in twenty or thirty 

 will be even better, what is wanted is to allow 

 the surplus water to run off into the nearest ravine 

 or nullah, not the soil. In width they may be 

 from fifteen to eighteen inches, and in depth not 

 less than one foot on the lower side. After a heavy 

 fall of rain a few hands should always be sent 

 round to clear them out with the mammotie, and 

 make good any breaches. 



This is a most important work, and upon the 

 attention paid to it, the duration and value of the 

 estate will positively depend, as I have endeavoured 

 to show in another chapter. 



Mr. George Wall, for many years one of the 

 leading planters of Ceylon, writes upon this subject 



