AGRICULTURE. 



mosses in the Fylde district of the same county, 

 oats and potatoes, turnips, and even wheat, may 

 be seen growing on the surface of bog perhaps 

 thirty feet or more in depth ; and, indeed, to culti- 

 vate a bog is a much less difficult task than to 

 improve a moor, because the peat is only an excess 

 of manure more readily destroyed than created. 

 Main drains are first made conformably to the 

 extent, configuration, and situation of the moss, 

 to the levels of surrounding lands, and to the 

 levels of the substratum on which the moss rests. 

 Roads are formed by first cutting open drains on 

 each side, and throwing the material into the 

 centre of the intended roadway ; and when this 

 is tolerably dry, sand or gravel is laid on, several 

 inches thick, and four yards wide. Open ditches ! 

 are made, dividing the land into fields of about 

 four acres each, and covered drains are laid at 

 ten -yard intervals. These are wedge -drains, 

 similar to those of Chat-moss, and are three feet 

 deep. The whole expense of draining each field 

 of four acres amounts to about 1, 6s. to which 

 must be added a share of the outlay for the general 

 main drain or canal, and for roads. Marl to the 

 extent of 100 or no tons per acre is then applied 

 by a portable railway, at a further expense of 

 about i, 143. per acre. The value of the land 

 thus reclaimed is often more than i per acre to 

 rent, and is calculated to pay more than 10 per 

 cent, on the outlay. 



Some of the most unpromising bogs in Ireland 

 have been converted into fertile soil, most com- 

 monly at an expense of about 15 per acre ; 

 though some have cost nearly double, and others, 

 again, only ^8 or ^10 so much depending upon 

 local circumstances, facilities for discharging the 

 drain-water, and the distance of the marl, or other 

 solidifying material, or the lime, which is so 

 efficacious in altering their qualities. Black or 

 mountain peat is generally situated favourably for 

 drainage ; and if marl, sand, or clay is not obtain- 

 able, and even lime cannot be procured, paring, 

 and burning, and manuring will be found to pro- 

 duce, in time, a soil capable of bearing good crops; 

 and this is the case even at very great altitudes, 



Erovided the reclaimer be content with rape or 

 ardy turnips and grass-seeds for sheep-feeding, 

 instead of trying to grow corn. 



We have not space to describe the great drain- 

 ages of our fens by embanking rivers, excavating 

 straight instead of circuitous channels, lifting up 

 the drain-waters from the low-lying lands by wind- 

 mills and steam-engines, inclosing the muddy 

 sands of estuaries and salt-marshes along the 

 coasts from the sedimentary tides, and issuing 

 the drain-water through sluices with self-acting 

 valve-doors to keep out the sea. Tracts of open 

 marsh deposited by the ocean still exist on the 

 English coast, which it might be worth while to 

 embank ; in Ireland there are some very fine slobs, 

 as they are there called ; and in South Wales 

 there are ii,ooo acres of fen and marsh land, 

 which, if drained, could be made into very excel- 

 lent soil. We must allude, however, to a method 

 of improving low flat land lying contiguous to 

 tidal rivers or estuaries, and below the level of the 

 tides at high-watercalled 



Warping. The waters of the Ouse, Trent, 

 and other tidal rivers converging to the Humber, 

 hold in suspension a large amount of earthy sedi- 

 ment, locally termed warp, and by being con- 



ducted over the land, and allowed to deposit their 

 slime, have covered some 20,000 acres of worthless 

 peat-moor and weak sand with the richest possible 

 soil. A sluice with opening doors is erected in 

 the bank of the stream, a main-drain cut and 

 embanked across the low lands to the ground 

 intended to be warped ; and the latter is sur- 

 rounded with a well-sloped bank, sufficiently high 

 to hold the water. The ' compartment ' may be 

 fifty acres or less being so much as the farmer 

 can conveniently spare at one time. The thick 

 water enters the inclosure at the furthest side, and 

 directly it expands into a quieter current, begins 

 to let fall the deposit, passing slowly over the 

 surface of the land on its way to the near side 

 of the compartment, where a tunnel permits its 

 escape back again into the drain at ebb-tide. 

 The further side having received a sufficient 

 coating, inlets are cut in the bank of the drain at 

 a less-advanced position, until the water gradually 

 silts up the entire inclosure. From one to three 

 feet thickness of deposit is obtained in from one 

 to two and a half years, according to circum- 

 stances ; the expense, with large drains and other 

 works included, ranging from 12 to 20 per acre; 

 while on land adjoining the public warping-drains, 

 it is much less than half that sum. When the new 

 warp has become partially solidified, furrows are 

 dug in it ; and after being exposed to a winter's 

 frost, seeds are sown, with oats to shelter them. 

 These are grazed with sheep for two years, when, 

 the excess of salt having drained out of the soil, 

 beans, wheat, potatoes, and flax follow. This 

 alluvial soil, rich in organic matter, is most pro- 

 lific worth 60 to ^100 per acre and com- 

 manding a rental of 2, los. or $, or even 

 much more. 



The same kind of silt or warp is sometimes 

 excavated from old river-channels, and by means 

 of a movable railway, spread upon the boggy land 

 to be improved. 



In the Cambridgeshire and other fens, the peaty 

 soil is improved by 



Claying. Pits are sunk in rows, say fourteen 

 or fifteen yards apart ; and on reaching the blue 

 calcareous and greasy clay, at a depth of two to 

 six or more feet, the workman casts out some two 

 to four draws, throwing part on each side : the 

 black soil removed in sinking the next adjoining 

 pit is thrown into the last, to fill it up ; and so on, 

 across the field. The object in sinking pits is to 

 prevent the sides from coming together, which 

 would be the case if a long open trench were dug. 



WOODS AND FORESTS. 



Undoubtedly a very great extent of the royal 

 forests and other wood-lands might be profitably 

 grubbed up, and the land brought into cultivation. 

 Wychwood, in Oxfordshire, about 4000 acres, was 

 lately disafforested, having previously produced" 

 for the country only ^100 clear annual return; 

 though the soil is well adapted for tillage. 



Exclusive of Windsor, the fourteen royal forests 

 lying in various counties from Hants to Durham, 

 cover at least 48,000 acres, capable of yielding a 

 princely revenue, if properly planted, thinned, and 

 generally managed ; but having really produced, 

 until very lately, little or nothing. 



The New Forest is a tract of 66,000 acres, of 

 which little more than a quarter were wood-land in 



