208 Treatment of the reclaimed Bo(j-land of Whittlesca Mere. 
and lying side by side with the portion that has been clayed, 
afford excellent opportunities of comparing their respective 
value, and give abundant evidence of the superiority of the 
latter. The corn crops on the clayed land — speaking again of 
that part of it which is in a more matured state — are far better 
in quality ; and, with the exception of one oat crop in a peculiar 
season, in cjuantity. The straw is better, especially for feeding 
purposes, the difference in value having been sometimes esti- 
mated at 5s. per acre. The liability to damage by spring frosts 
is very greatly lessened, and an earlier ripening of the crop is 
insured. In the case of potatoes, the yield, under circumstances 
other than that of clay or no clay precisely similar, has been 
found to be not far from double ; while in the case of coleseed 
and root- crops — perhaps rather more in that of kohl-rabi than 
of mangolds — the great advantage in the admixture of the clay 
is conspicuously apparent in the increased produce. 
These are, perhaps, the points most worth recording in the 
treatment and farming of this tract of bog-land recently reclaimed 
and clayed ; but, in considering them, the nature of the bog or 
peat itself must not be forgotten. The almost total absence of 
sand distinguishes it in a marked manner from peaty districts 
like that around Bagshot, and in a less degree from the bogs of 
Ireland, for the improvement of which considerable modifi- 
cations in the above methods of cultivation, and manures em- 
ployed, would have to be adopted. 
XII. — Village Sanitary Economy. — By J, Batley Denton, 
M. Inst. C.E., Agricultural and Sanitary Engineer. 
What is village sanitary economy? The sanitary economy of 
social and physical science in its application to villages means 
simply the maintenance of pure air within each dwelling, the pro- 
vision of pure water for the inhabitants, and the preservation of a 
healthy condition of the surrounding atmosphere. When applied 
to crowded cities and manufacturing districts, the term seems 
appropriate enough, but when associated with those " bowers of 
innocence and ease" which the poet describes our rural villages 
to be, it appears in discord with one of the most hallowed of 
our national instincts, the love of country life. 
P Nevertheless, the statistics of public health collected by the 
Registrar-General go far to disturb the satisfaction we have been 
led to entertain, and to induce us to reject the prejudices of the 
past, i 
