Country Life
BY IAN NIALL A BAD storm several days ago caused flooding once again in the valley of our local river. This happens several times in a year and the people who live in the affected area are accustomed to the hazard, which varies from the mere washing of soil from banks and the overflowing of ditches to things involving the use of brooms and floorcloths and the salvag- ing of carpets. The answer may lie, it seems to me, in forestry schemes to hold back a good deal more of the surface water on the hills and thus ensure a steadier flow through ditches and streams feeding the rivers. There is, how- ever, a sort of contrary effort in the work of hill drainage and forestry, for ploughing new drains in the uplands brings water down much quicker than the valleys need it. One wonders at times whether the benefit in hill grazing— already hard to appreciate—balances the expenditure in repairing periodic flood damage. This is, of course, a rather local prob- lem, but wherever one looks at hills from which water drains it seems that rain is chan- nelled away far too readily. It is no wonder that some places have the constant worry about drought. Water conservation is the concern of far too few people at the moment and the rain is hastened seawards for a variety of reasons before use can be made of it.
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