September 19, 1907J 



NA TURE 



529 



Gerard Boate. The method of reclamation practised in 

 Ireland at the beginning of the seventeenth century, con- 

 sisting as it did of draining the bogs and manuring the 

 dried surface, was probably, owing to radical differences 

 in detail between it and the Dutch fen reclamation 

 process, of independent origin from the latter, which was 

 introduced about the same time on the Continent at 

 Groningen, in Holland, and at Emden, in East Frisia. 

 At a later period — in the reign of William III. — the Dutch 

 offered to introduce their system into Ireland upon con- 

 dition of being allowed to establish a self-governing colony 

 in the Queen's County. 



The drainage and reclamation of the bogs have always 

 been subjects of interest ; the existence of so much un- 

 reclaimed land being a source of loss to the State, and its 

 humidity being detrimental to the health of the com- 

 munity. 



We find, for instance, a writer in 1660 recommending 

 that " An Act of Parliament should be made th.it they 

 who did not at such a time make some progress in drain- 

 ing their bogs should part with them to others that 

 would," and about sixty-five years later an -Act was passed 





map of Ireland. 



by the Irish Parliament for the encouragement of thr 

 drainage of bogs. 



Schemes for the drainage and reclamation by burning 

 and manuring the surface of the bog, on the one hand, 

 or by covering it with a layer of sand and manure after 

 a due interval for subsidence, on the other, were published 

 in 1S14 in the reports of the Bog Commissioners. These 

 reports described also the numerous successful plantations 

 of trees in Irish bogs made during the eighteenth century. 

 The engineers engaged in the work were of opinion that 

 the bogs could be drained and converted into arable land 

 without much expenditure of time or money. 



It would be scarcely economic to attempt the reclam- 

 ation of bogs the average depth of which is 25 feet, .such 

 as those in the central plain of Ireland, without first 

 making a serious effort to utilise the " available " peat of 

 the bogs. .Apart from the large sum of 41,565/. expended 

 in the years of the Bog Survey, there have been since 

 that time smaller sums contributed by the State to the 

 development of the peat industry. The Department of 

 Agriculture, for example, has within the last few years 



NO. 1977, VOL. 76] 



spent upwards of 6317Z. in experiments on the preparation 

 of peat-moss litter and fuel. It employed the services 

 of an expert to report upon the various Continental pro- 

 cesses, and to select the machinery necessary for the 

 carrying out of the experiments which were subsequently 

 performed at Inny Junction, County Cavan, and at Castle- 

 connell, County Limerick. 



-Dolbe: 



vidmgr 



Within the past hundred years many attempts have 

 been made in Ireland to utilise the peat supply. About 

 the middle of the nineteenth century a turf-charcoal 

 factory was established at DerrymuUen by Rogers, but 

 was, however, after a brief period of work, abandoned. 

 .\ similar fate awaited the turf-distillation factory estab- 

 lished in the year 1849 by Reece under the guidance of 



Fig. 3. — Peat-i 



r baler, Un 



Kildan 



Sir Robert Kane at Kilberry, near Athy. Although a 

 bright future seemed to lie before this factory, which 

 was the first of its kind in Europe, it was, after a few 

 years' active work, closed by its directors. In 1863 a 

 process for the manufacture of " sieve turf " was worked 

 on a large scale for a short time in connection with the 

 Creevelea Iron Works near Sligo. At Derrylea, near 



