LAND 'AND WATER 
January 16, 1915, 
THE DRAINAGE OF THE SALISBURY 
PLAIN CAMP. 
By COL. F. N. MAUDE, C.B. (late R.E.). 
I THINK it would be greatly to the publi* advaiilage 
if the House of Lords concentrated on the prob- 
lems of administration immediately under then- eyea 
h«e in England instead of discussing questions of 
recruiting and termg of servke without adequate 
fiffurea before theiu to go upon. 
It ib the case that the Ww Office if meeting all the re- 
quircmcnta of the generals at the front vnthout stint, but 
they seem both Mind and deaf to the complaints of thoee at 
hoiMe who are charged ^ith the very onerous duties ot rais- 
ing and training the new armies now forming a4, various 
ceuliea all over the country. 
It was common knowledge to everyone that the new imJ- 
)ion8 oould not be trained in a few days, and if would have 
been <»ly reasonable foresight to provide for the ram which 
was sure to fall in the winter months, though no one could 
have anticipated the abnormal downpours of the last six 
weeks Yet even one-half the amount of rain which has actu- 
ally fallen would suffiee to turn any newly formed «imp into 
a bottomless slough. , 
Every one of these new sites for hut encampmeiits tliouKl 
have been provided at the outset with a decent system of sur- 
face drainage, and the men, as they came in, might ]ust as 
well have been trained to digging trenches, by making drain- 
«ge channels throughout the camp, as in fortifying imaginary 
hillsides against impossible contingencies. The action ot 
dieting is the same in both cases, and all that ib' really needed 
is "to harden the hands and back muscles of the men by pro- 
gressive instruction: the shape of the thing they dig is quite 
JBomalerial. ~. • . ^ i 
If the men could not be provided with euffioient entrenoJi- 
ing tools at the time, a few of Fowler's trench-ploughing 
machines, such as are being now used at the front, which cut 
ent a trench 2ft. 6in. deep in a single haul, would have paid 
for themselves over and over again before now, and done much 
to etop the grumbling besides improving the health of the men 
now undergoing training. -41 
I have one special case before my mind as I write, viz., the 
state of the Salisbury Camps, with which every reader of the 
illustrated dailies is by now familiar. Here there can be no 
possible excuse for the condition into wliich they have been 
allowed to deteriorate, for both as' regards levels and subsoil 
their sites are about the caeiest to keep clear of water in 
Europe. 
the "puddle" in the ordinary sense of the word, and thfe 
impervious clay in time turns the whole country-side into 
a moving creamy sea, which flows down country lanes, and 
renders them impassable, and this is what has happened i» 
the present ease. 
All that wa.s needed, and is even now necessary, is to 
break up this impervious film of creamy soup by running 
ordinary ploufrhs wist-eross over the country, cr by dig- 
ging side drains about a foot deep. 
If the ground is very level, " sump " pits must be pro- 
vided every acre cr so, pits about 3ft. to 4ft. deep, 4ft. 
diam.eter, filled with ohalk flints or broken brick, and, if 
things are very l>ad, centrifugal sludge pumps can be fitted. 
Vickcrs-Masim, 1 know, make some of them, and the first 
steam-plougli in the district can be requisitioned to work 
them. 
It is really the duty of the ccmmaiKHng officer on the 
epot to see to all this. As w© know, from the very first. Lord 
Kitchener stated in the Hcmse of Lords that he would badt 
any man to his utmost who took the rcsponsibiKty of meeting 
his men's natural and obvious requirements; and that this 
was no empty form of words was at onco apparent when 
several interesting relics of red tape days' were presently eent 
back to the obli-vion ficqn which it is a pity that they had 
ever emerged. 
BRUSHWOOD SCREENS FOR GUNS AND 
FIRE TRENCHES. 
Looking at photographs of the various methods now ia 
use for hiding guns and fire trenches from observation, I have 
been reminded of a most ingenious method of defence, wliich 
was used against us by the Maories in New Zealand in the 
early 'sixties of the last century, that might be usefully com- 
bined with the existing types, not only to conceal guns in 
trenches from observation, but to protect them against shrap- 
nel bullets, shell splinters, and possibly to stop many rifle 
bullets striking obliquely to the front. 
We used Armstrongs against these " pahs," as they were 
called, and found that our shell could do nothing against 
them, for they did not offer sufficient resistance to make the 
percussion fuses work, ajid if we fired time fuses to burst out- 
side, the splinters -were all caught and held. 
The idea can be readily grasped from the subjoined 
sketch . 
'Simvp pit' 
The accompanying sketch gives a section of the ground. 
Underlying the short turf familiar to everyone who has ever 
•eon a chalk down, there is a thin layer of vegetable mould 
rtsting on sand and light clay (very light) interspereed with 
small broken chalk flints and rounded gravel. It can be seen 
in any quarry section all round the chalk hills which encircle 
London. Sometimes it may be two to three feet thick, in 
North Kent, for instance, but on the Salisbury downs it is 
<Jften not more than six to eight inches deep. Below this 
oomes tlie chalk, which will soak up water like a sponge, and 
vbidi normally keeps the whole chalk country so dry. 
But when troops encamp upon it in any considerable 
ftumberB, as soon as the first smart showers fall the action 
eS the countless feet going and coming churns up the surface 
dust and vegetable mould into what engineers' call "puddle," 
Le., aa impervious clay which retains the water that makes 
Light brushwood, willow, and the like, not more than 
half an inch in diameter^ if possible, and with the twigs and 
leaves left on, were attached in a thickness of about eight 
inches to a foot, to a horizontal beam, which was laahed to 
uprights in such a manner that the screen was free to swing 
when struck — the lower ends of the sticks being loosely seized' 
together with yarn, and cut off just clear of the ground. 
Against a background of forest, orchards, or othei" trees, 
these screens were quite invisible; and since, as I have said, 
no artillery fire made any impression on them, we were forced 
to attack them by regular trench- and sap work. As we were 
oj:oeedingly short of white men, we sent out for natives to do 
the dii^ging, and as we paid very good wages, the enemy 
thought it a pity that good money should go a-begging, so 
sent out a portion of the garrison through the bush to work 
in our -trenches. As one dark man seemed very much Hkg 
16* 
