Address to the Royal Geological Society of Ireland. 119 



Killaloe. A heavy rainfall of one winter, having taken possession 

 of a cart track and cut it over five feet deep, carried the debris, 

 slaty shingle, down and spread it over the surface of a flat bog, 

 thus quite changing its nature. In places, in the county of 

 Wicklow, the farmers warp on a small scale by turning the 

 torrents loaded with granitic sand onto the boggy slopes. 



The lowland or red bogs would not be as easily brought into 

 cultivation, especially the soft ones (monegay or flow bogs) ; be- 

 ca.use to get rid of the water, deep and extensive drainage is 

 necessary. Some of the extensive improvers and cultivators in 

 Ireland are of opinion that the reclamation of these would be un-. 

 profitable. Yet what said William the Third's Dutch settlers ? 

 " Give us our own law of empoldering and we will reclaim the 

 Bog of Allen ;" and what they could do, we should be able to do. 

 Furthermore, the surfaces of deep bogs have been made good and 

 sound land, on a considerable scale, in England and in Holland, 

 and, on a small scale, in the " bog gardens " on most of the Irish 

 bogs. The Cambridge bogs, as already mentioned, were im- 

 proved by adding limy matter and warping ; the Dutch have 

 largely employed the latter ; while for the portions of the Irish 

 bogs which have been changed into good tillage land, "corn 

 gravel" (clayey limestone gravel), marl, and road stuff (pounded 

 limestone), have been used. In a few places that I have noted, 

 warping seems to have been carried on in former years; but I am 

 not aware of any place at which it is practised at present. Around, 

 and even within, the different red bogs there are plenty of 

 materials to improve them. These are the limestone gravels in 

 the eskers, and the gravelly clays in the mounds of Boulder-clay- 

 drift; while in many cases they might be warped from the 

 numerous rivers and streams. 



The improvement and bringing into successful cultivation of 

 all the Red, or Lowland Bogs, would be a vast undertakino- ; 

 yet I am convinced most of them could be made good land at a 

 cost that would eventually prove the speculation a good one ; but 

 more esp(jcially if the improvement of the surface was combined 

 with the manufacture of the peat into an economical fuel, that is 

 a fuel of small bulk and having its heating properties concen- 

 trated ; this, however, is a subject that could not be fully treated 

 here ; but to bring into proper cultivation the surface of the Red 



