214 Reclamation of Bog and Moorland in Galicay. 
consolidated, and the minor drains can now be cut. Where the 
peat is less than 4 feet thick, the main drain can be cut at a cost 
of 8r?., and the minor drains at 6c?. per Irish perch of 7 yards, 
with 3c?. extra for going through or under each boulder-stone or 
root of bog-oak ; the minor drains have lately been placed at 
8 yards interval, wider intervals having proved insufficient. 
Across the minor drains, sheep-drains are run at about the same 
distance apart, to carry off the surface-water, at a cost of \d. per 
perch. The bog should then be left untouched for from two to 
four years, during which time the turf will become consolidated. 
The drains should then be cleared out, and a wedge of turf, too 
wide to reach the bottom, be driven down, so as to form a solid 
covering, with a water-channel of, 6 inches deep below" it. The 
drain is then filled in and levelled. The sodding and level- 
ling is usually done by day-work, at a cost of about od. per 
perch. There is great advantage in leaving the drains open till 
the peat has subsided, for if covered in at once the channels are apt 
to be filled up ; the surface will in the meantime be better fitted 
to benefit from tillage, and from the application of lime. Where 
the peat is thin, the surface will be sufficiently dry to be ploughed 
by oxen, or by horses working in pattens ; the former animals 
are now exclusively used for all reclamation work ; they not 
only travel better over soft ground, but are far less liable to 
injure themselves when required to strain at a dead-pull, when 
the plough strikes against a boulder or buried root. There was 
at one time great difficulty in reducing the furrow of turf after 
the plough ; ordinary harrows often failed to penetrate it, and 
it had to be chopped up by hand-power. A great advantage has 
been obtained from the use of Randall's Pulverising Harrow, an 
Americart invention, imported from Utica (Fig. 2). 
Beneath the bar, to which the shafts are attached, there are two 
frames, each carrying G sharp-edged revolving discs, so arranged 
that they can be set obliquely at any angle to the line of draught. 
The discs are not plain, but are slightly dished, the concave side 
being inwards. Each disc cuts into the furrow, and pushes the 
strip it has cut towards the centre of the machine. Whenever 
the furrow is tough, the weight of the driver increases 'the cut- 
ting-power of the harrow. The work done by tliis machine is 
excellent, and it is of great service in comminuting turf and 
peat. When the bog is not firm enough after draining for 
ploughing, it must be dug by hand and thrown up in ridges or 
lazy beds, 4 feet wide. The next operation should be the appli- 
cation of lime, which materially assists in disintegrating the soil, 
and at the same time neutralises the acids in it. The effects of 
lime are well known to the peasantry, who expressively say that 
it " boils the bog." On soft ground the lime used to be carried 
