388 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



of basic slag and an equal amount of kainit, which applications should 

 be renewed in the second year, but then diminished in accord with the 

 cropping. However, some phosphoric acid and potash salts must be 

 continuously supplied, with occasional dressings of lime or chalk on the 

 acid peaty areas. These latter also require in their earlier years nitrog- 

 enous manures, for the peat is slow to yield up the nitrogen it contains. 

 The fertilizers should be nitrate of soda or lime, never sulphate of 

 ammonia. The whole success of the reclamation depends on the use of 

 these manures, as the peat in a state of nature is almost devoid of both 

 phosphoric acid and potash; on the acid peats, again, normal growth is 

 only possible after a neutral reaction has been attained by the use of 

 lime or marl. With this manuring it is found to be easy to establish 

 a good meadow herbage in a very short space of time; it is not even 

 necessary to get rid of the surface vegetation of Erica and other heath 

 and bog plants. The manure is put on and the surface is worked con- 

 tinuously with disc-harrows and rollers, but never deeply; a seed-mix- 

 ture containing chiefly red, white and Alsike clovers, Lotus uligiiiosus, 

 rye-grass, timothy and cocksfoot, is sown : n the spring and soon suc- 

 ceeds in choking the native vegetation. 



It is impossible to say what is the cost of the reclamation of moorland 

 in this fashion ; the big expense is the drainage and the construction of 

 roads, both of which are entirely determined by local conditions. But 

 of the value of the process when accomplished there can be no doubt. 

 I have seen a case quoted from the Ostfriesische Zeitung, where a piece 

 of moor bought for £75 was reclaimed and sold for £900 ; and, best test 

 of all, one may see in places like the Teufelsmoor near Bremen, families 

 living in comfort on thirty to forty acres of what was once merely wild 

 moor with no productive value. 



Of even greater interest in England is the reclamation of heath- 

 land, which has of late years been proceeding apace in Germany. In this 

 category we may include all land which owes its infertility to the coarse 

 grade and low water-retaining power of the particles of which the soil 

 is composed, the soil being at the same time as a rule devoid of carbonate 

 of lime, and covered in consequence with heather and similar caleifuge 

 plants. In England there exist extensive tracts of uncultivated land 

 of this character in close proximity to the considerable populations, but 

 the process of reclaiming such land for agriculture seems to have come 

 to an abrupt conclusion somewhere about 1850, when the developing 

 industries of the country began to offer so much greater returns for 

 capital than agriculture. That land of the kind can be cultivated with 

 success is evident from the mere fact that everywhere prosperous farms 

 may be seen bordering the wastes, possessing soils that are essentially 

 identical with those of the wastes. These were brought under cultiva- 

 tion when labor was cheaper, often without calculation of the cost because 



