158 EMPLOYMENT AFFORDED. 



if not destroyed, by the pauper dole of food, or by 

 pauper employment. Employment has been afforded 

 by the works to upwards of 20,000 labourers con- 

 stantly during the past year, the larger proportion of 

 which has been in the more distressed districts of the 

 country. 



" The effect of this Act in directing the attention of 

 proprietors, previously careless on the subject, to agri- 

 cultural improvement, is very remarkable ; and every 

 one connected with the district has observed the change 

 of habits which has taken place among many of the 

 leading sportsmen, who now vie with each other in 

 attention to farming improvements ; and gentlemen of 

 different estates, who formerly employed labourers as a 

 matter of duty, now take a personal interest in the 

 works." — Report of Mr Prendergast for the county of 

 Leitrim. 



In the county of Galway, Mr Irvine says : — 

 "The most remarkable portion of the works is the 

 reclamation of more than 1000 acres of bog and moor, 

 which, by draining, levelling, and gravelling, have, at a 

 cost of £4, 14s. 6d. per acre, been increased in value 

 fully 7s. per acre, making a return exceeding 8 per cent 

 on the amount expended. The successive operations 

 by which the improvement has been effected were, first, 

 the dividing the several tracts proposed to be reclaimed 

 into fields varying in extent from 3 to 15 acres, by open 

 drains 6 feet in depth ; the surface of the bog then 

 received a general levelling, after which, a top-dressing 

 of 120 cubic yards per acre of clay or clayey limestone 

 gravel was laid on and carefully spread." 



