36 
Arterial Drainage 
Flooding. 
In providing for any new system of drainage, although the 
primary motive may be to void the surplus rainfall from the 
land as quickly as possible, yet other considerations should be 
taken into account and the fact not lost sight of, that the modern 
system of drainage has a tendency to bring about droughts in 
summer, the effect of vv'hich may be as disastrous as floods in 
winter. The point to be gained is the proper control and regu- 
lation of the water arising from the rainfall, and so to devise 
schemes of improvement as to have thorough mastery over both 
discharge and storage, verifying the old adage that " water is a 
good servant but a bad master." There are districts where floods, 
if not all-owed to remain too long on the land, do absolute good 
to grass, by depositing on it matter of a fertilising nature washed 
from calcareous and marly soils. In the same watershed there 
may be streams the water from which, having passed over fer- 
ruginous and siliceous soils, does great damage ; the grit, in 
the latter case, deposited on the leaf of the grass, purging and 
otherwise injuriously affecting the cattle that feed on it.* An 
instance of this occurs in the valley of the Hampshire Stour, as 
described by Lord Malmesbury in his evidence before the House 
of Lords' Committee on Floods, where his Lordship is reported 
as stating that on the Stour the farmers want five or six floods 
in the year, a fine marly warp, which is very enriching, being 
brought down by the water and deposited. The water flowing 
from the New Forest by another stream in the same district is 
impregnated with a great deal of chalybeate matter, which is very 
pernicious, and does a great deal of harm to the meadows. If 
floods were done away with on the Stour, the deterioration of the 
land would be immense. The flooded meadows let at 3/. an 
acre ; whereas those higher up the stream, which are not flooded, 
let for only I5.s. an acre.f 
The Clerk to the Thames Valley Drainage Commissioners, 
Mr. Hawkins, in his evidence before the same Committee also 
stated, J that there would be the greatest opposition in the 
Thames Valley if the people thought that the floods on the grass- 
lands were to be entirely stopped in winter. They are very 
valuable as long as the water can go on and off, and not be left 
lying on the land and spoiling the grass. In his opinion the 
object of any legislation should be to regulate the floods, and to 
pass them off instead of letting them lie on the land. Mr. Bailey 
• ' Report and Evidence of Committee, House of Lords' Conservancy Boards,'' 
Stssion 1877; Evidence, Taunton, Q. 220G; Dcntou, QQ. 2418, 2421, 2422, 2425; 
Ldwiuk's, Q. 2537. 
t Idem, Q. 2582 et seq. X Idem, Q. 2749. 
