On the Reclamation of Peat-Land in the Netherlands. 441 
Loio-lying Peat. — The low-ljing' peat, however, is for the 
most part reclaimed, as it lies in the western pi)rtion of the two 
provinces of North and South Holland, where water-communi- 
cation is everywhere abundant. Nobody is allowed to dig peat 
from such places, unless the Government has a sufficient 
guarantee that within a certain time the site of the peat-bed will 
be converted into a polder, properly drained and brought into 
cultivation. These peat-beds generally repose on a clay-subsoil, 
and rarely attain any great thickness. The system is to excavate 
the peat, rejecting the top soil, and generally also a portion of 
the uppermost layer of peat, and afterwards to mix these waste 
materials and the lowest stratum of peat with the clayey subsoil. 
The land is then sown for some years with the usual agricul- 
tural crops, such as colza (rape-seed), oats, potatoes, wheat, &c., 
perhaps continuing longer in arable culture for the purpose of 
growing carraways, flax, and other industrial crops, and finally 
being laid down to grass. 
High-lying Peat. — The course of operations for reclaiming 
the Hoogeveen or high-lying peat is generally different, and pre- 
sents great variety, according to circumstances of situation, local 
requirements, and probably also of soil and climate. This 
variety of peat generally rests on a sandy subsoil, but is some- 
times of such thickness that the subsoil cannot profitably be 
reached. In any case, to bring the land into cultivation it is 
necessary to mix sand with a greater or less quantity of peat, 
whether the sand is obtained from the subsoil or imported from 
a distance. As these operations are being carried on in the 
Eastern provinces of the Netherlands on a large scale, I have 
thought it desirable to give descriptions of some typical in- 
stances, both where the peat is used for fuel and where it is not, 
and also where the land, when reclaimed, is devoted to wood- 
land, to farming purposes, and to market-garden culture. Under 
all these varying circumstances, it should be remembered that 
the quality of the peat has very little to do with the result, but 
that its wet or dry condition is a most important factor. Dried 
peat cannot be mixed with sand or any other medium, and even 
wet peat requires a large addition of farmyard manure to the 
sand to enable a workable tilth to be produced. 
NlEUWEROOED, NEAR HOOGEVEEX. 
Peat Working. — This extensive property belongs to the 
Messrs. Rahder, and is worked for the extraction of peat on the 
most approved systems. The peat consists of several layers of 
different qualities, which graduate into one another, the deepest 
and most valuable being the soft blue or blackish peat, which 
