LAND 'AND WAT EH 
January 16, 1915* 
THE DRAINAGE OF THE SALISBURY 
PLAIN CAMP. 
By COL. F. N. MAUDE, C.B. (late R.E.). 
1 THINE it would be greatly to the pubho advantage 
a the House of Lords concentrated on the prob- 
lems of administration immediately under their eyes 
here in England instead of discussing questions of 
recruiting and terms of service without adequate 
figures before them to go upon. 
It is' the case that the War Office is meeting all the re- 
quirements of the generals at the front without stint, but 
they seem both blind and deaf to the complaints of those at 
home -who are charged with the very onerous duties of rais- 
ing and training the new armies now forming at various 
centres all over the country. 
It was common knowledge to everyone that the new mil- 
lions could not be trained in a few days, and it would have 
been only 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 suffice to turn any newly formed ©amp into 
a bottomless slough. , , 
Every one of these new sites for hut encampmente should 
have been provided at the outset with a decent system of sur- 
face drainage, and the men, as they came in, might just as 
well have been trained to digging trenches, by making dram- 
eee channels throughout the camp, as in fortifying imaginary 
hillsides against impossible contingencies. The f^'^" /j 
digging is the same in both cases, and all that is 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 
immatena ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^ provided with sufficient entrench- 
ing tools at the time, a few of Fowler's ^f'^'l'-P^m'lff 
ISachines, such as are being now us«d at the front which cut 
out a trench 2ft. 6in.. deep in a single haul, would have paid 
for themselves over and over again before now, and done niuch 
to 6lop the grumbling besides improving the health of the men 
now undergoing training. . , -r -x • i\.a. 
I have one special case before my mind as I write, viz., the 
state of the Salisbury Camps, with which eveiT reader of the 
illustrated dailies is by now familiar. Here there can be no 
possible excuse for the condition into which they have been 
Kwed ^ deteriorate, for both as regards 1-els and subsoU 
their sites are about the easiest to keep clear of water m 
Europe. 
the " puddle " in the ordinary sense of the word, and thw 
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 in 
the present case. 
All that was needed, and is even now necessary, is to 
break up this impervious film of creamy soup by running 
ordinary ploughs oriss-oroES over the country, or by dig- 
ging side drains about a foot deep. 
If the ground is very level, " sump " pits must be pro- 
vided every acre or so, pita about 3ft. to 4ft. deep, 4rft. 
diameter, filled with chalk flints or broken brick, and, if 
things are very bad, centrifugal sludge pumps can be fitted, 
Vickers-Maxim, I know, make some of them, and the first 
steam-plough in the district can be requisitioned to work 
them. 
It is really the duty of the commanding officer on the 
epot to see to all this. As we know, from the very first. Lord 
Kitohencr stated in the House of Lords that he would back 
any man to his utmost who took the responsibility of meeting 
his men's natural and obvious requirements j and that this 
was no empty form of words was at once apparent when 
several interesting relics of red tape days were presently sent 
back to the oblivion from 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 in 
use for hiding guns and fire trenches from observation, I have 
been reminded of a most ingenious method of defence, winch 
was used against us by the Maories in New Zealand in. the 
early 'sixties of the last century, that might be usefully com- 
bined \rith the existing types, not only to conceal guns in 
trenches from observation, but to protect tliem 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, and 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. 
The accompanying sketch gives a section of the ground. 
Underlying the short turf familiar to everyone who has ever 
seen a chalk down, there is a thin layer of vegetable mould 
resting on sand and light clay (very light) interspersed with 
■mall 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 
often not more than six to eight inches deep. Below this 
comes the chalk, which will soak up water like a sponge, and 
^hioh normally keeps the whole chalk country so dry. 
But when troops encamp upon it in any considerable 
amnbers, as soon as the first smart showers fall the action 
of ihe countless feet going and coming churns up the surface 
dust and vegetable mould into what engineers call " puddle, 
Le., an 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 lashed 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 oS just clear of the ground. 
Against a background of forest, orchards, or other trc^, 
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 
exocedingly short of white men, we sent out for natives to ao 
the digging, 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 UkQ 
IK* 
