120 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



Bogs would be of incalculable benefit, as it would increase the area 

 of arable land by at least an eighth ; and the statesman who car- 

 ried it to a successful issue would be a real benefactor to Ireland. 



The improvement of the mountain wastes is perhaps a more 

 immediately pressing question ; because, although eventually 

 they might not be as profitable as either the intakes or the 

 cultivated bogs, yet it could be done more quickly to meet the 

 present hunger for land. It is essentially a geological question, 

 and one that ought to be approached with caution, as former 

 experience has proved that certain lands of this class, will scarcely, 

 if ever, give a return for money expended on them. As is the 

 case with cultivable lands, the quality of mountainous and up- 

 land wastes depends in a great measure on the nature of the 

 underlying rocks. 



Of the mountain wastes we shall first mention the bogs. Those 

 that are on the hill-tops usually are of small value ; most of them, 

 however, may be improved for grazing purposes by surface 

 drainage. The bogs in the mountain valleys and low portions 

 have already been mentioned. 



Considerable tracts of the drift in some of the mountain valleys 

 are cultivated ; but there are, besides, the gravels (eskers) and 

 moraine drift hills, which in some districts, especially in parts of 

 Munster a.nd Connaught, have been left in a state of nature. The 

 esker drift is nearly always capable of profitable culture by sub- 

 soiling in the first instance ; while what is principaUy necessary 

 in regard to the moraine drift is the clearing away the numerous 

 blocks of stone, the draining of the hollows, fencing and planting 

 with timber. These lands being so capable of improvement, it is 

 at first sight a matter of surprise that they should be in their 

 present condition ; but according to tradition they were originally 

 forest lands, and since the forests were cut down nothing has 

 been done to them. There are large tracts of such lands in the 

 counties Kerry, Galway, Mayo, &c., capable of being made much 

 more valuable than they are at present ; but in all these mountain 

 tracts there are areas which it would be more profitable to plant 

 with trees than to till. 



Of the soils made up of the debris of the underlying rocks, 

 perhaps the worst is that in quartzite and quartz rock districts. 

 Those areas in which the rocks are solely quartzite or quartz rock 



