THE CHEMISTRY OF BOG RECLAMATION. 169 



" The second farm, of 240 acres, which adjoins this, had 

 a good building on it; but, having been let on lease at 

 about 10s. an acre to a large grazier whose stock-in-trade 

 was a horse, a saddle, and a pair of shears, had not been 

 cultivated or improved. 



" Similar proceedings on this farm have produced simi- 

 lar results; and, if now let in the market, I have no doubt 

 that after two years of good treatment these farms would 

 be let at 20s. an acre, and I do not despair of doubling this 

 figure in the course of time. 



" The exact weight of the turnip crop this season is, on 

 raw bog, drained, limed, and cropped this year for the first 

 time, 24 tons per acre; manure, seaweed. On land 

 ploughed but not cropped, last year 23 tons; mixed 

 mineral manure. On land from which a crop of oats had 

 previously been taken, 29 tons; manure> farmyard, with 3 

 cwt. per acre mineral manure. 



" Last year my excellent steward, Mr. MacAlister, visited 

 the Duke of Sutherland's reclamations in Scotland, and 

 was kindly and hospitably received. He found the land 

 and the procedure adopted almost identical, with the con- 

 viction that oxen and horses will suit us better at the 

 present time than steam culture, chiefly on the score of 

 economy. He also visited the Bridgewater Estate at Chat 

 Moss, near Manchester, where so much has been done to 

 bring the deep peat into cultivation, and he found the sys- 

 tem that has been followed there for so many years to be 

 like that described above, marl, however, being used in the 

 place of lime." 



At the time of my visit to Kylemore the hay crops were 

 down and partly carried on the reclaimed bog-land above, 

 described. The contrast of its luxuriance with the dark 

 and dreary desolation of the many estates I had seen during 

 three summers' wanderings through Ireland added further 

 proof of the infamy of the majority of Irish landlords, by 

 showing what Ireland would have been had they done their 

 duty. 



