201 Treatment of the reclaimed Bog-land of Whittlcsea Mere. 
farthest point of delivery, the distance was nearly two miles, and 
the expense of the operation very great. The f ost, indeed, has so 
far exceeded the estimate given in tlie paper alluded to, that this 
opportunity should be taken of giving the actual result, now that 
the work is finished, the plant sold off, and the account closed. The 
closest calculation, then, which it has been found possible to make, 
gives for the cost of claying to the depth of six inches from 18/. 
to 19/., and for a depth of four inches between 15/. and 16/. 
The land thus clayed lets readily for '6Qs. an acre, so that, even 
at the increased cost, it has proved a remunerative operation, 
especially when it is borne in mind that the land was previously 
in the state of rough bog, producing no rent whatever. 
At a distance of two miles from the Merc, and near the village 
of Holme, a corner of the peaty tract runs up to the higher land 
of the surrounding country, and about 230 acres of this has been 
taken into a home farm, nearly 200 acres having been first 
covered with clay to an average depth of 3^ inches. The cost 
of claying this piece of bog-land has been small in comparison 
with that just referred to. Here the average distance to which 
the clay was carried did not exceed half a mile ; the excavation 
Avas easier, and, after a short time, steam-power was called in ; 
and an engine, traction-rope, and portable rails, were substituted 
for horses, the cost on the completion of the work being found to 
have been little over 9/. per acre. 
It has been suggested that, as the operation was finished in the 
spring of 1866, sufficient time has elapsed to make it a matter of 
interest to record what the experience of nearly four years has 
shown to be advantageous or otherwise in the management of 
bog-land, recently reclaimed and clayed. 
Of the 230 acres taken into the farm, although a small pro- 
portion liad been more or less under cultivation, some for two or 
three years, and some for a longer period, by far the larger part 
consisted of the roughest kind of bog. Of the whole, about 
190 acres have been clayed, and 40 remain unclayed. Of these 
40 acres, about 15 had been for several years under cultiva- 
tion, and 25 only for one or two years. 
It would have been far better, doubtless, if, in anticipation of 
the claying, the rougher part could have been prepared, and 
brought into a state of semi-cultivation a few years previouslv, 
so that something like a top-soil should have been forming, with 
which the clay, when deposited on it, would have readily amalga- 
mated in the course of the usual farming operations. As it was, 
however, circumstances made it necessary that the whole tract 
should be taken in hand at once, and the clay being spread, on 
an average, at the rate of half an acre a day, the whole 190 acres 
were covered within a very limited time. 
