68 The Drainage of Fens and Low Lands. 



the machinery is designed of light sections and scant pro- 

 portions. The cost of machinery for raising water to heights 

 varying from 6 to ii feet is given at 28/, lO^. per horse-power 

 for machines capable of lifting about 30 tons per minute, and 

 for larger engines up to 70 tons a minute 14/.* 



Cost of Maintenance. — The annual cost of maintaining 

 a pumping station varies with the accessibility of the locality 

 as affecting the price of coals, the efficiency of the machinery, 

 and the skill and care of the engineman. From statistics 

 prepared by the author as to the expense of maintaining 

 pumping stations in a large district in the Bedford Level, the 

 average cost for the three years 188 1-2-3, which were very 

 wet, and during which several floods occurred, was 16' 25^^^ 

 per acre throughout the level, or i • %6d, per acre per foot of 

 lift, of which i'47<^. was for coals only. Taking the larger 

 districts, in which, from the engines being of a better character, 

 the proportionate consumption was less, the cost for coals only 

 was found to be about id. per acre per foot of lift. These 

 amounts were obtained as the result of the figures given by 

 eleven different stations, draining about 120,000 acres of land, 

 with lifts varying from 6 feet to 14 feet, the cost of coals being 

 about 16^-. per ton delivered f During the same period, the 

 cost of working the large engines and scoop wheels at Pode- 

 hole for draining Deeping Fen in Lincolnshire, was 10 '58^. 

 per acre, of which ^'$6^ was for coals. Taking the average 

 lift of the water at S feet, this gives i*^id, per acre per foot of 

 lift for coals. The average working charges of the engines 

 and centrifugal pumps at Lade Bank for draining the East 

 Fen in the same county for the same period — 1881-83 — was 

 1089/,, equal to 7*46^. per acre. The average rainfall was 

 30*27 inches a year. Taking the average lift at 4 feet, this is 

 equal to i • ?>6d. per acre per foot of lift The cost of coals 

 at this station would probably be about 14^'. per ton. For the 



* 'Irrigation Machinery on the Pacific Coast/ by J. Richards, 

 t * Report on the River Ouse.' 



