96 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



mechanical means of lifting water out of sub- 

 merged lands came when the native farmers 

 were forced beyond the areas where gravity 

 could be utilized to take care of the excess. 

 The means first in use were the old-fashioned 

 scoop-wheels and the crude Archimedean 

 screws. In 1825 Holland undertook the stu- 

 pendous engineering task of draining a dis- 

 trict the Zuidplas Polder containing over 

 10,000 acres, and lying twenty-two feet below 

 the level of the River Yssel. It was indeed 

 a task for the engineers of those days, but they 

 accomplished it by establishing two batteries 

 of windmills, driving scoop wheels and Archi- 

 medean screws, the first battery of fifteen 

 windmills lifting the water half way to a set- 

 tling basin, and the second taking it up and 

 over the river dike. The greatest single drain- 

 age project in history is that of the Haarlem 

 Lake in Holland, comprising 41,650 acres. 

 The lake was fifteen feet deep. A phalanx 

 of windmills, their long arms beating the air 

 in unison, were set in motion in 1852, but it 

 was not until thirty-nine months later that 

 they had accomplished their task of scooping 

 out the water. On several occasions later the 

 water got ahead of the crude motive power 



