WASH OF SOIL 239 



long water-pits, which serve the double purpose of retaining 

 washed-away soil and rain, which would otherwise run off in 

 the drains. 



These pits are dug along the sloping ground, as illustrated 

 in the sketch given overleaf. They cost G.8 per acre to dig out 

 in Java, but the great drawback is that every heavy shower of 

 rain leaves them filled up with soil and they require continued 

 digging out. 



FIG. 64. View of Roots exposed by Wash of Soil. 



I have known them to be filled level six times a year. At 

 each time it costs nearly as much to dig them out as at the time 

 they were first made, and this expense has to be incurred at 

 least from four to six times a year on an average. The total 

 outlay may average about G.20 per acre per annum. 



There is also the additional difficulty that on very steep 

 hillsides these water-pits cannot well be dug out at all, or, if 

 dug out, would be almost immediately filled up; and besides 

 this, on steep land these pits are apt to induce the soil to slip 

 away bodily in large masses. Where hillsides are very rocky, 



