146 
Drainacjc of Wliittlcsca More. 
peat before the soil is laid on it. To this end, drains must be cut 
at intervals of 2 chains, at as great a depth as the water in the 
ditches which suiTound each division, or rather each future field, 
will permit, — being, on an average, about 3J feet. The drains are 
easily formed, in a manner well known in many districts, by 
leaving, at the depth of one draw of the spade from the bottom, a. 
shoulder or ledge, upon which the excavated turf is laid, thus 
covering and leaving below it a channel for the water of the bog 
to percolate into and discharge by. Nothing can be more satis- 
factory than the effect that this rude subsoil-draining produces 
upon the character of the bog, without which precaution any 
attempt to warp upon the bog saturated with peat-water would 
be attended with comparatively little success. 
It may not be out of place here to suggest that there may be 
many large districts circumstanced more or less like the one we 
have been describing, where a similar method of fertilization, 
perhaps on a larger, and if so, on a proportionately less costly 
scale, might be adopted. Some of the richest soil in Ireland is 
in immediate juxtaposition with large tracts of bog, and although 
without examining the case of such districts carefully — taking 
into account the value of the peat for fuel and weighing many 
other circumstances — it would be impossible to form an opinion 
as to the practicability of applying such a scheme to them, yet 
there does certainly seem to be a sufficient similarity between the 
two cases to justify the suggestion that an " Irish-Bog-Reclama- 
tion Company " be forthwith formed. 
It must be here remarked, that, in the more recent operations, 
the assistance of a company of a less speculative character than 
the one suggested above has been called in ; — one, in short, of 
those associations, which, as companies sanctioned by Parliament, 
afford, on no unreasonable terms, facilities both pecuniary and 
engineering, without which, in many instances, improvements, 
even the most obvious and desirable, could not be carried out. 
It has been with the able assistance and under the careful super- 
vision of Mr. Thompson, the engineer to the "West of England 
Drainage and Inclosure Company," that the warping, turf- 
draining, and a large extent of road-making have been carried on ; 
and although of course the profit to the company increases to a 
certain extent the cost of the work, yet a large set-off may be 
reckoned in the advantage derived from their organised system 
of supervision, account-keeping, and, above all, their power of 
supplying experienced and trustworthy foremen. The terms on 
which the company are carrying out the work may be calculated 
as an addition of between one-eighth and one-ninth of the cost ; 
but in justice to them it must be remembered that if the work 
had been carried out on the larger scale, which they were much 
