LAND DRAINAGE BY MEANS OF PUMPS. 3 
outlets for disposing of the interior drainage water, but subsequent 
experience showed that by this means alone satisfactory reclamation 
of the land could not be secured; hence, a supplementary pumping 
plant, not contemplated in the original plans, was later installed. 
The two characteristics which any agricultural drainage project 
must possess for its perfect success are, first, effectiveness, and second, 
profitableness. If an elaborate plan for drainage improvement, when 
actually carried out, fails to drain the land sufficiently to secure a 
satisfactory cultivable condition the project is a failure. In fact, it 
is even worse than a failure, for not only may it mean an actual finan- 
cial loss to its owners, but as an example may discourage others from 
undertaking other meritorious projects. So vital is it to secure 
adequate drainage that if any constructive work at all is undertaken, 
it would seem that everyone connected with such work would ap- 
preciate its importance. Yet almost innumerable instances can be 
found where drainage improvements have been planned and con- 
structed on a scale entirely too small to secure efficient results, and 
where those responsible for carrying out the work should have known 
in advance that the benefits resulting from their misdirected efforts 
would not be commensurate with the expenditures incurred. 
It is characteristic of almost all artificial drainage improvements 
that, if a certain amount of work is needed, the actual construction 
of a part only of the whole work will not produce a correspondingly 
proportionate benefit; that is, if only one-half of the needed work is 
carried out much less than one-half of the full benefit will be obtained. 
It is, perhaps, approximately true that the carrying out of three- 
fourths of the needed work would yield one-fourth of the total benefit. 
The last one-fourth of the work produces perhaps three-fourths of 
the benefit. It is on account of this relation that the original planning 
of all drainage work on a sufficiently comprehensive and adequate scale 
is so important. 
Naturally those who have had no experience in constructing drain- 
age improvements can have little comprehension of the innumerable 
difficulties and obstacles that may arise in the construction of exten- 
sive work and in its operation after completion; and, too often, when 
they have the responsible charge of such work, they are prone to 
refuse to accept the advice of others who have had extended experi- 
ence. There are still intricate problems and baffling uncertainties, 
numerous enough, in securing drainage in difficult situations, but 
there would seem to be no excuse nowadays for undertaking impor- 
tant work in violation of fundamental principles of drainage science 
well known to every experienced worker in this field of engineering. 
It is not alone sufficient, however, that the drainage work as con- 
structed shall secure the desired benefit. The work must be done 
economically and in such a way as to secure the greatest profit to 
