ROADING AND DRAINING. 157 



is gathered, and a muddy yellow sheet of water 

 scours down the hillside, taking tons of soil with 

 it. " Water holes" and terracing have been tried, 

 but " no one has ever made holes big enough, or 

 embankments strong enough, to meet the require- 

 ments of the case. All precautions may be taken, 

 with satisfactory results for a long time ; yet the 

 day comes when all is of no avail : embankments 

 give way, holes overflow, the water gathers body 

 and force, and rushes down the hill sweeping away 

 every obstacle, leaving a deep trench behind it 

 down to the subsoil, and often far into it, all 

 which may be the work of a few minutes, and thus 

 the labour and watching of years is neutralized 

 in an hour." 



Good drains of average size and half a chain 

 apart are cut at the rate of about Rs. 10 per acre. 

 The upkeep of roads and drains that is to say, 

 the regular clearing of them out and repairing 

 amounts to between Rs. 2 and 3, according to 

 the care and skill with which they were originally 

 constructed. 



