Introduction. 3 



to the difficulty of getting rid of the water by gravitation. In 

 the south of France also large tracts of land have been made 

 available for cultivation by reclamation and steam drainage. 



Primarily drainage by gravitation is the simplest and most 

 effective method. When windmills were the only motive 

 power, this means of getting rid of the water was more of 

 a necessity than it is at the present time, when pumping 

 engines can be obtained with a high degree of efficiency, and 

 can be worked at a small cost. 



The engineers who originally designed the drainage for the 

 P'enland in England endeavoured by means of long straight 

 cuts to obtain a natural outfall into the sea, or main rivers, at 

 low water, excluding the tidal flow by sluices having self- 

 acting doors. Modern engineers have followed the example 

 thus set, and consequently, while large sums have been spent 

 in artificial cuts with the object of obtaining drainage without 

 the aid of mechanical power, the improvement of the main 

 tidal outfall rivers has been more or less neglected, and the 

 chimneys of pumping engines are everywhere to be seen 

 scattered over the fens. 



In no instance in the Fenland has the attempt to obtain 

 what is called a "natural drainage," that is, drainage by 

 gravitation, been completely successful. While the higher 

 land is well drained, the lower fens, which often lie at the 

 greatest distance from the outfall, can only be kept fit for 

 cultivation by lifting the water out of their drains. The lift 

 of the water, and consequently the cost of the pumping, has 

 been considerably reduced, but the taxes to meet the interest 

 on the outlay for the works, in addition to the cost <vf pump- 

 ing, is much higher than in adjacent districts where more 

 reliance has been placed on pumping. Fen land, which was 

 well drained when the main outfall drains were first con- 

 structed, afterwards had to resort to pumping, owing to the 

 lowerinof of the surface from the consolidation and shrink- 

 ing of the peat Such has been the case in the East Fen in 



B 2 



