6 The Drainage of Fens and Low Lands, 



ment of the present outfall and the continuance of steam 

 power 



The great improvements which have been made in the 

 steam engine and water-raising machines, together with the 

 greater facilities for obtaining and the lower price of coals, 

 have very considerably reduced the cost of lifting water as 

 compared to what it was when many of the improvements for 

 the drainage of the fen land were carried out. There is no 

 doubt if the work had to be done now, the engineers engaged 

 in those works would have trusted more to mechanical lifting 

 than to gravitation. 



The choice as between gravitation and steam power for 

 draining low lands resolves itself into a question of cost If 

 the annual charge for interest on the outlay for a gravitation 

 scheme, with a proportionate sum for repayment of the prin- 

 cipal, exceeds the average annual cost for a pumping station, 

 then the steam power is decidedly preferable, not only as 

 being more economical, but as rendering the district more 

 thoroughly independent of outside circumstances. The annual 

 charge for a gravitation scheme is constant, be the season wet 

 or dry ; whereas a pumping station adapts itself more readily 

 to the actual work to be done, the charge for coals varying 

 with the amount of water to be pumped. 



One obstacle to the more general use of steam power has 

 been the excessive cost of pumping stations in some localities 

 from the use of imperfect machinery^ and ignorance on the 

 part of those concerned in the management. While some 

 engines and pumps are so efficiently designed and managed, 

 as to leave little or no room for improvement, others are being 

 run with a most extravagant use of coals, and imposing a rate 

 of taxation for their maintenance that is quite uncalled for. 



