The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-21
HAVE MOIST TIME ON
 SALISBURY PL A N
With Canadian Troops En- camped on Maneuver Field
RAIN FINDERS WORK
Almost Impossible to Find Ground Firm Enough for Cavalry and Ar tillery to Move About-Live
 in Huts and Tents

Salisbury, England, February t.-(Cor- respondence of the Associated Press.) The old world and the new world met when the war office assigned troops from western Canada to the great maneu- yer grounds on Salisbury Plain, one of the most historic places in England. Huts of corrugated iron and wood alternate with tents and give the various soldier colonies the halter-sSeter appearance of Goldfieud in it's boom days.
 To add to the primitive appearance of the camps suddenly hurled into the midst of a country which was the scene Of rural peace and quiet, the war office Is constructing a railway through the center of Salisbury Plain to supply the big army eneamped there.
 Graders and steelmen are camped along the right of way. Horse tents and com missary shacks line the cuts whose banks are slipping and sliding under the effects of driving rains which hinder the work nearly every day.
 Four Days of Sunshine.
 Canadian soldiers who have kept diaries for the F weeks they have been on Sails bury Plain report they have recorded orly four sunsiny days. The weather off, fees at many south coast towns not far from Salisbury report rainfall of nearly seven inches for last month, the record ' through Salisbury Plain are macadamized, the heavy traffic incidental to the care of more than 2000 troopers encamped there at various times since the opening of the war, has worn holes in the roads and torrential rains have covered them with liquid mud many inches thick.
 The fields in which the tents and huts are located are so soft that troopers sink to their ankles. Supply wagons are hope lessly mired even in highest portions of the camps and it is necessary to shift the roads constantly.
 Much of the canvas has routed and water trickles through upon the soldiers who protect their blankets with rubber ground sheets. Only "a small proportion of the Canadians are now under canvas however, and shacks are being construct ed for these as fast as material can be hauled to the various camps.
 Drill grounds are moved every few days and it is almost impossible to find any place where the artillery and cavalry can>move about. The development of the new troops has been hindered so serio- oGsy, that the Canadians gladly well come reports of a probable movement to the.south of France where sunshine and dry camps are promised
 The 5000 Canadians are scattered about the great plain into a circle probably six miles in diameter. While Salisbury is the chief railway center, the Canadian camps begin at Amesbury, six miles north from Salisbury, and extend to Bustar1 camp, at least 12 miles from Salisbury Genueral Sam Hughes troopers from Calgary and Edmonton are encamped near Stonehenge, a prehistoric ruin sup posed to date back to the bronze age.
 Part of the huts used by the Canadians are canvas on wooden frames. This type is being abandoned, however, as rapidly as possible in favor of corrugated iror huts placed on permanent brick pillars which rise several feet above the ground
 Most of the huts are about 50 feet long and 20 feet wide The soldiers sleep n toward an aisle extending the length serious problem and some of the men who are still under canvas prefer to stay there as they say it is impossible to keep free from graybacks in a building where so many men live without an op- pqrtunity to bathe.
 In all the camps on Salisbury Plain, as well as in other parts of England, the lack of bathing since the beginning or cold weather has been very annoying to the soldiers It is not uncommon to see sign on the gates of manor houses near military camps stating that the owner will be glad to provide hot baths for soldiers between certain hours daily. The spirit of good fellowship between the officers and the men in the Canadian contingent is the source of surprise to officers of the English regular army. At times they are inclined to charge the Canadians with lack of discipline.