38 CLIMATE AND RESOUECES OF 



loss from surface-drainage as long as the ridges round the 

 fields were in order and did their duty. 



Now that these lands have been neglected, and the ridges 

 have been allowed to fall out of order and become useless, the 

 whole of the rain falling on them, with the exception of what 

 is arrested by the looser sand, runs off by surface -drainage ; 

 the rush of water to the lower land is increased in both volume 

 and force, and the land is cut into water-channels, by which, 

 with the rush of water, the loosened surface-soil is carried 

 away. The degradation of the surface-soil is shown by the 

 trees on the high land, whose roots have been laid bare, and 

 are now exposed above ground by the washing away of the 

 surface-soil. With this, all manure and vegetable matters, 

 such as the remains of stubble of former crops, leaves, &c., and 

 lying on the surface, are carried away ; the soluble salts of the 

 dung and urine of cattle in the upper layers of the soil are 

 also dissolved and washed out, and thus the soil of the coun- 

 try is robbed of its natural nourishment. 



In every district a certain sum is set apart, under the name 

 of the Koad and Ferry Fund, for keeping in order the roads, 

 and facilitating the means of internal communication. The 

 roads, as I have said, are being more rapidly destroyed by 

 surface-drainage than was formerly the case, and a yearly 

 increasing sum has to be laid out in their repair and on 

 bridges. The old bridges, which were formerly sufficient, are, 

 now that surface-drainage has increased, found insufficient 

 to carry off the water, and more extensive and expensive 

 bridges have to be built in their places, and new bridges have 

 to be built to cross watercourses which formerly did not exist. 

 The roads are getting more difficult for conveyance of goods 

 by wheeled carriages, and carriage by pack-animals may have 

 , ere long to be reverted to, if surface-drainage is allowed to go 

 on increasing at the rate it has done of late years. 



