168 SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS. 



much outlay for concetrated manures. At the same time 

 I ought to remark that we have grown excellent potatoes by 

 using 57. worth per acre of superphosphate and nitrate of 

 soda in cases in which our farmyard manure has fallen short. 



" The reclamation of mountain-laud as distinguished 

 from hog-land can hest be illustrated by a record of what 

 has been accomplished on two farms here. Three years 

 ago the leases of two upland farms fell in, and I took them 

 into my own hands. The first consists of 600 acres, one- 

 half a nearly level flat of deepish bog running alongside 

 the river, the other half moor heath, which with difficulty 

 supported a few sheep and cattle. 



." There had never been any buildings on this land, nor 

 had a spade ever been put into it; and the tenant, being 

 unable to pay his rent of 151. a year for the 600 acres, was 

 glad to give it up for a moderate consideration. The first 

 thing accomplished was to fence and drain thoroughly as 

 before described, and the best half of the land was then 

 divided into forty-acre fields. Exactly now two years ago 

 on September 15th a little cottage and a stable for a pair 

 of horses and a pair of bullocks was completed and tenanted 

 by two men and a boy. They ploughed all the week and 

 came home on Saturdays to draw their supply of food and 

 fodder for the ensuing seven days, thus approximating very 

 nearly to the position of settlers in a new country. We 

 limed all the land we could, manured part of it with sea- 

 weed and part with the farm manure made by the horses 

 and oxen which were at work, and cropped with roots such 

 as turnips and potatoes. A good portion we sowed with 

 oats out of the lea, but the most satisfactory crop we found 

 to be rape and grasses mixed, for on the best of the land 

 they form at once an excellent permanent pasture. We 

 have now had two crops from this land; and I venture to 

 say that the thirteen stacks of oats and hay gathered in in 

 good condition, and the turnips and roots now growing, 

 which are not excelled in the county Gal way except those 

 of Lord Clancarty at Ballinasloe, who has grown 110 tons 

 of turnips to the Irish acre, equal to upwards of 68 tons to 

 the acre here present a picture most gratifying and cheer- 

 ing in every way. 



