RECLAMATION OF WASTE LAND. 423 



alike of improving the bog and settling cultivators on new- 

 land, which has proved most successful. Ho\\^ever, it 

 requires time — long time, in some cases time of which the 

 end seems to lie beyond the reach of the human eye. And 

 there is another drawback. In spite of the recognised 

 utility of moss litter — for which only peat in an early stage 

 of decomposition and with much undestroyed fibre will 

 do — and employment of peat under the " Mond " process, 

 as adapted by Messrs. Frank and Caro, for the manufacture 

 of gas — to say nothing of the employment of peat dust in 

 the manufacture of sugar — before the war peat had by 

 little and little become disappointingly cheap, with scarcely 

 a profitable market left for it. Accordingly in Germany 

 — which is estimated to have about 6,000,000 acres of 

 unreclaimed peat bog within its territory (Prussia alone 

 answering for about 5,000,000 acres) — sufficient, according 

 to Professor Fleischmann, who is esteemed an expert 

 authority, to provide food for 800,000 tons (live w^eight) 

 of stock and to nourish 70,000 peasant families — other 

 means have been used to turn the latent fertility of the 

 bog to account by simply reclaiming such storehouse of 

 productiveness. (Herr von Wangenheim, by the wa}^ 

 one of the chiefs of the Agricultural Party in Germany, 

 considers Professor Fleischmann 's estimate to be too low- 

 by half.) Instead of being carried off to be turned into 

 gas by the " Mond " process, the peat has been used for 

 that purpose on the spot, so as to generate the electric 

 power which will raise and remove w^hat peat has to be 

 removed, at very little cost, and in very little time. This 

 process, which is found to answer better, to cheapen the 

 cost and very materially to shorten the period required 

 for reclamation, has recently been tried upon a large scale 

 on a moor of about 25,000 acres, belonging to the State, at 

 Wiesmoor, and has proved successful. 



However, there is more still to be said in favour of the 

 Prussian process. In the recent discussion of the question 

 of reclaiming moorland in this country the objection has 

 been raised to the Dutch process, that it will not suit our 

 purpose, inasmuch as most of our bogland to be reclaimed 



