and the Storage of Water. 
3 
water-course which passes through several estates belonging to 
different owners, renders it difficult for the improvements to be 
carried out universally ; and the total neglect on some parts of a 
stream of all necessary works, such as cutting the weeds and the 
removal of obstructions in the bed and sides, causes a diminu- 
tion of the water-way and a consequent obstruction of the 
channel. To such an extent in some districts has this been 
allowed to go on, that in a case quoted before the Committee of 
the House of Lords of last Session, a small tributary river had 
for several miles diminished one-half in width and silted up 
one-half in depth, and had become so fouled with weeds, that the 
bed was being gradually raised above the level of the surrounding 
country. 
To quote the words of a correspondent of the ' Times,' " the 
condition of the smaller streams of the country is indeed de- 
plorable. Their channels are generally an alternation of weed- 
choked swamps and nearly impassable rapids, with here and 
there a rare oasis of deep steady stream, the consequence of the 
needs of some millowner who does what is right in his own 
eyes, restrained only by the common-law rights of the neighbours 
above and below him." Streams in such a condition are ill- 
adapted to carry off the rapid flow of water due to modern 
drainage ; and the damage by consequent flooding is increased 
by the neglect to maintain the embankments protecting the 
lower lands. 
The increase in the value of all land, arising from the ever- 
growing population of the country, has caused large tracts, 
formerly meadows, which received little damage, or even benefit, 
from occasional floods, to be converted into arable land, on which 
a continuous flood means the loss of the present crop, and detri- 
ment to the future one by the soddening of the soil. In con- 
sidering any general scheme, it may become a matter for serious 
consideration whether it may not be more profitable to throw 
these low-lying arable lands into grass, and suffer them to be 
occasionally flooded, than to carry out such an extensive plan of 
improvement as will protect the lowest lands from winter floods 
under such exceptional rainfalls as occur only at long intervals. 
The almost unanimous testimony of the witnesses examined 
before the Committee of the House of Lords appointed to inquire 
into the constitution of existing Conservancy Boards, with 
reference to the prevention of floods and the storage of water, 
which sat last Session, was to the effect : " That floods are more 
frequent and of longer duration in recent times than formerly : 
That the cause of this is due to the general adoption of subsoil 
drainage and the improvements in arterial drainage by straighten- 
ing rivers," &c., whereby the water is brought more rapidly to 
B 2 
