70 MOZxVMRIQUE 



swamp have been planted up with pahns. Through 

 these swamps numerous drains are cut to lead the 

 water ol^, yet the drains often do not work but 

 hold stagnant w^ater. It is quite an exception to 

 find a drain with running water in it, or dry. In 

 many cases the drains are cut without any regard 

 to outlet or a proper fall. There are plantations 

 or parts of plantations crossed and recrossed with 

 ditches from which the water could not possibly 

 escape, as there is high ground all round which 

 has not been cut through. On other places a 

 proper system of drainage with an adequate fall 

 has been worked out, but the ditches are choked 

 and the water dammed back. 



The notion seems to prevail that trenches are 

 all that are necessary, and that provided you have 

 plenty of them the water will all be drawn away 

 from the land. The consequence is that these 

 swamps remani swamps; and cocoanuts are planted 

 in them with the expectation that they will thrive 

 with stagnant w^ater within 2 feet of their roots. 

 Cocoanut-trees send their roots down from 2 to 

 3 metres below the surface, and if stagnant water 

 exists within that limit they cannot prosper as 

 they should. The effect is most marked upon 

 them ; the leaves taking on a yellow tinge as soon 

 as a depression is reached; a sure indication of 

 water. Thousands of trees have been planted out 



