222 Reclamation of Bog and Moorland in Galway. 
At Tooreena there are nine cottages : these are let, with 105 
acres of land, in fields numbered 11 to 19 on the plan (Fig. 3), 
the tenants paying an aggregate rental of 27/. The remaining 
633 acres of the township were let with no house upon them for 
20/., subsequently reduced to 15/. per annum. As the tenant did 
not succeed in paying even the reduced rent, Mr. Henry took 
this land in hand in 1874, and has been gradually reclaiming a 
great portion of it. There are 373 acres of it (No. 28, extending 
beyond the limits of the plan, Fig. 4) deep bog, resting on Silurian 
rock ; this part is not an inviting subject for cultivation, and as 
yet it has been only sheep-drained. It is intended, however, 
to reclaim about 40 acres of it near the road, where the peat is 
not so deep as elsewhere. The remaining 260 acres are moor- 
land, mostly having a southern aspect. A gravelly subsoil of 
drift formation is covered with a thin growth of peat, averaging 
20 inches in depth. About 150 acres of this land was bearing 
crops in 1877, and the rest of it is now being reclaimed. The 
land lies on a low hill, some 600 feet, high, in a conspicuous 
part of the property, where the eye is refreshed by the broad 
patch of verdure standing up amid the sombre majesty of darker 
and more lofty hills. 
With the exception of a very small patch of two or three acres, 
close to the new buildings, no part of this land shows any marks 
of previous cultivation ; it is therefore an excellent example of 
the cultivation of waste land ; and it will be worth while to give 
a somewhat detailed account of the work that has been done. On 
entering the farm from the high road, one may notice that the 
gate-posts are none of them of wood ; in the absence of timber of 
local growth rough boulder-stones are used as posts, sometimes 
a single stone being sufficient, while in other cases three large 
stones have been piled one on the other and clamped with iron. 
Boulder stones varying from a hundredweight to a ton had 
occasionally to be removed from the land, and it was as easy to 
make them into cyclopean gate-posts as to break them up and 
obtain other posts from a distance. The fences are formed of 
ditch and bank, planted with alders and fuchsia, with some 
ozier and thorn. The fuchsia grows freely from cuttings, and 
stands the winter well ; there are hedges of it in Letterfrack that 
have stood for thirty years ; where they have not been kept 
down, they are 10 to 12 feet high. As a fence on level ground,^ 
it is very inferior in efficacy to thorn, but it is quick growing, 
and soon forms a sufficient and ornamental protection, combined 
with the ditch and bank. The formation of fences and th& 
draining of the land were the first operations undertaken in 1874. 
In that year, and the first nine months of 1875, 446/. 8s. 4r/. was 
expended in wages. The sum of 55/. Is. id. was expended in 
