74 THE FERTILITY OF THE SOIL [CH. 



expanse of mud was surveyed, farm boundaries 

 marked out, and arrangements made for letting some 

 of the prospective farms, when on November 12th 

 the bank broke and the whole Mere was flooded 

 again to a depth of 2 J feet. But the bank was 

 mended and the engine set to work; in little more 

 than three weeks the mud surface was once more 

 exposed. Then a main dyke was cut through the 

 area, and a number of smaller lateral dykes; this 

 work was very arduous and the mud frequently fell 

 in. But it was finished at last and the pump re- 

 moved the water as fast as it collected. " The eflect 

 of this network of drains was quickly visible. The 

 bed of the Mere was soon covered with innumerable 

 cracks and fissures, deep and wide, so as to make it a 

 matter of no small difficulty to walk along the 

 surface, while in the surrounding bog the principal 

 eft'ect was the speedy consolidation of its crust.... 



" It was no easy matter to reduce the Mere-land 

 into a state to receive such seed as should be first 

 sown ; the adhesive condition of the surface making 

 it impossible to use horses even when shod with 

 boards, if indeed the wide fissures did not render it 

 dangerous to try the experiment. The whole area 

 therefore had to be prepared by hand — over the 

 largest part light harrows were first drawn by hand — 

 the seed was then sown, and the harrows used a second 

 and sometimes a third time, at a cost of about 5/- or 



