THE CHEMISTRY OF BOG RECLAMATION. 167 



After the land has been broken up, a good dressing of lime 

 is to be applied to it, and this, in the expressive language of 

 the people here, 'boils the bog ' that is, the lime causes the 

 vegetable matter, formerly half decomposed, to become con- 

 verted into excellent manure. This leaves the soil sweetened 

 by the neutralization of its acids, and in a condition pretty 

 easily broken up by the chain-harrow; or, what is better 

 still, by Randall's American revolving harrow. 



"Good herbage will grow on bog thus treated, but as 

 much as possible should at once be put into root-crops, with 

 farmyard manure for potatoes and turnips. The more lime 

 you give the better will be your crop, and, treated thus, 

 there is no doubt that even during the first year, land so re- 

 claimed will yield remunerative crops. People ask, ' But 

 will not the whole thing go back to bog ?' Of course it will 

 if not kept under proper rotation, which we find to be one 

 of five years namely, roots followed by oats, laid down with 

 clover and grass seed, which remains for two years. After 

 being broken up a second time, the land materially im- 

 proves and becomes doubly valuable. I have no doubt that 

 all bog-lands may be thus reclaimed, but it is up-hill work 

 and not remunerative to attempt the reclamation of bogs 

 that are more than four feet in depth. 



" And here I will make a remark as to the effects of 

 drainage in a wet country. By no means does the whole 

 effect result from raising the temperature of the soil; there 

 is something else as important, and that is the supply of 

 ammonia, brought down from the skies in the rain, which, 

 with other fertilizing matter, is caught, detained, and ab- 

 sorbed in the soil. A well-drained field becomes, in fact, 

 just like a water-meadow over which a river flows for a part 

 of a year; and thus the very wetness of the climate may be 

 made to reduce the supply of ammoniacal manures, so ex- 

 pensive to buy. 



"The porous, well-drained soil carries quickly off the 

 superfluous moisture, while the ammonia is absorbed by the 

 roots and leaves of the plants. An excessive bill for am- 

 moniacal manures has been the ruin of many a farmer; and 

 our aim in Ireland should be to secure good crops by 

 thorough drainage and constant stirring of the soil, without 



