10 



Farming of Lancashin 



clay which kept the water up. The same engineer gave it as his 

 opinion that a railway could not with safety be made over Chat- 

 moss without going to the bottom of it ; but the late Mr. George 

 Stephenson, with his usual engineering skill, preserved the surface 

 untouched ; and, by laying some brushwood and hurdles upon it 

 to make a foundation, and opening side-drains, carried the rail- 

 way in safety over the top of this mass of bog, which varies in its 

 depth from 10 to 37 feet. The railway, in fact, floats upon the 

 moss. 



Few men would ever have dreamt of cultivating such a waste 

 as Chat-moss ; but Mr. Roscoe, of Liverpool, first commenced 

 this great work by trying to drain 2000 acres ; after a series of 

 laborious and costly experiments, the chief fault of which was his 

 desire to do too much, and to lay the open drains too deep and 

 too far apart, he was compelled to give up the undertaking ; and 

 it was reserved for Mr. Reed, assisted with the capital of a com- 

 pany of gentlemen formed for the purpose, to accomplish the 

 desired object. 



This gentleman, in a very valuable Essay, which gained the 

 premium at the Liverpool Agricultural Society's Meeting, Sep- 

 tember, 1833, and was subsequently published by that Society, has 

 detailed the method he adopted to reclaim the moss, and to this 

 day the abundant produce of the soil bears testimony to his com- 

 plete triumph over its natural sterility. 



The drainage was the first step to improvement; this was 

 effected by cutting open parallel ditches 66 yards apart, 4 feet 

 wide at the top, and sloping down to about 14 inches at the 

 bottom, and 3 feet 6 inches deep : in a wet floating mass like 

 this moss it was not possible to sink the ditch to the whole depth 

 at once, and the first two spits being taken out it was then left for 

 time to consolidate the surface; the covered cross-drains, 10 

 yards apart, laid 3 feet deep, and running into the open ditches, 

 were commenced, but in forming these, as well as the open drains, 

 it was necessary to allow some time to elapse between the different 

 operations, that the water might to some extent run off ; the hol- 

 low drain was made by the top sod, dried by exposure to the air, 

 being wedged into the open cut, and the peat thrown in again 

 upon that to fill up. 



When the surface was partially dried, the heath and other 

 plants growing upon it were set on fire and burnt off as closely as 

 possible ; and by ploughing and cross-ploughing, and cutting up 

 the sods with a roller armed with knives, the ingenious con- 

 trivance of Mr. Reed, he was enabled to destroy the tough and 

 elastic character of the surface : after this process marl, which 

 was found at the southern edge of the moss, was, by means of a 

 moveable railway, laid on the top, to the amount of 100 cubic 



