in one estate in this county in two years (1816 and 1817) than perhaps have been made in the whole county of Galway, and they are only the outlets to other intended drains. In two summers upwards of 5000 perches were made, and they are still going on with the same spirit; this is not the drainage of a demesne, but part of a design to drain an extensive estate, the property of three young ladies. Blush, ye landed proprietors, who spend your property in countries where your vanity is so frequently mortified, or who, more from fashion than liking, fritter away your time and estate, and injure your health in gaming houses! !—There is nothing so easily drained as bog, nor is there any kind in which more money has been thrown away, under an idea that very deep draining was necessary. It has, to be sure, a very imposing appearance to stand on the edge of a bog drain neatly cut to the depth, perhaps, of sixteen feet and eighteen feet wide, and probably of considerable length; but it is frequently, alas! a great drawback to this pleasure, to observe the bog within a few feet of it still like a wet sponge; a drain, however capacious, will have little effect, especially if drawn in the direction of the fall, unless many surface drains assist it, and the bog frequently stirred or turned to assist the rain in washing out those acids that prevent its decomposition; for this reason, the nearer to the approach of winter the better, as alternate rains and frosts are powerful assistants in the process. It is this frequent turning that fits the turf mould usually brought to the door or yard of every cottier near a bog for manure, (called black mud or mooreen,) it cannot be supposed it is the very trifling addition of earth or dung alone they are able to add that produces this effect; it is to the washing or steeping in a damp or wet situation that its effect is to be attributed, for in too many instances they have

nothing to add to the heap. There cannot be a more mistaken idea than making bog too dry; it may make it into turf, but will never decompose it, on which depends in a great measure the improvement of bog. In nothing is this more clearly ascertained than the propagation of Fiorin grass; in very dry bog it is little worth, but in that kept nearly in a state of pap it will flourish, provided some manure has been previously used; indeed even without this help we frequently see it flourish in very moist situations. Surface drains in bog should have but little fall, merely as much as will give the water a gentle currency. I venture to assert that our bogs, which are now a bye word or reproach to our country, will, at no very distant period, have their value properly appreciated. It may not be generally known that Mr. Roscoe, the well known and ingenious improver of Chatmoss in Lancashire, sold 1000 acres of improved bog for £10,000. which he had held for a lease of 99 years: this will scarcely be credited by those gentlemen who cover their own want of industry, by throwing doubts and difficulties in the way of this high road to wealth,

1

Sir Humphry Davy, who has thrown a brilliant and lasting light on every subject connected with chemistry, says, "bog is a soil covered not only with fuel, but "likewise with manure. It is the excess of manure only "which is detrimental; and it is much more easy to "destroy, than to create it."-Speak of draining at any public meeting, and you would think every demesne in the county of Galway was perfectly drained; but view them, and you will probably find that this improvement has been confined to the ground immediately in view of the house. Much money might be saved by using the plough instead of the spade in making ditches and drains, in soils not rendered unfit by too many stones.

SECTION IX.

NATURE OF MANURES.

THE principal manure of this county is what is generally called black mud or mooreen, which is the surface of some adjoining bog, brought home generally in baskets or kishes, and spread about the yard, and up to the very door of the dwelling house; on this is laid any dung, clay, or gravel, they can scrape together; if they are near the high road, they are sure to dig away part of it, or the ditches on either side, for this purpose, even where magistrates pass almost daily. This is mixed with the black mud, and lies until used for potatoes in spring. In some places they trench in hot dung stratum super stratum, which is very near the practice recommended by Lord Dundonald. I have seen this practised on the Miss Netterville's estate by one of their tenants, who I am convinced had never heard of the practice. The collection of this mud is highly injurious to many estates, as it is taken away down to the barren earth, called Lack liagh, that can, when thus stripped, be with great difficulty ever reclaimed. This practice, where there are extensive villages, is a serious injury, and is one proof amongst many others, to show how little attentive agents generally are to every thing but receiving the rents. A remarkable instance of this abuse occurs near the new school-house, between Clonbrock and Ahaseragh. If tenants were obliged to leave a foot at least of the bog over the earth, it would be sufficient, when mixed with the gravel, which generally lies under the lack liagh; a mixture of this last with bog, or any other soil, I am inclined to think produces rushes. The next manure is ashes, produced

by burning the surface sod, and forms a very large part of that used for potatoes. On many estates, as well as by an act of the Legislature, this is prohibited under a large penalty, but this should be on the over cropping. Those who do not discriminate, shew a very limited and prejudiced knowledge of the subject. A respectable and intelligent correspondent, though a little angry, answers my query on burning, thus: "Burning is ge"nerally prohibited; but to my certain knowledge, "not injurious, if the land be not over-croped Clover, "&c. &c. has flourished with me better after it, than "after dung or folding. Most of our landlords are "chymists, or think themselves so; theory and prac"tice are thrown away on them; they are above list"ening to such trash; experiments laughed at, and "thrown into the keenest and wittiest ridicule, for we "have such geniuses here, as you have mentioned in "the County of Clare Survey, &c." Much attention has been lately paid in England to the burning of clay, that is, the subtratum, and as a general practice, is much preferable to burning the surface; but in bogs or moory ground, or that in which many perennial weeds predominate, I should give a preference to burning the surface. Burning clay has been long practised in the north of Ireland; it is a highly valuable manure, if not followed by too many corn crops. Mr. Curwen of Workington Hall in Cumberland, has introduced it on his extensive farms, and as he has very justly obtained great celebrity as an agriculturist, the practice may be expected to advance rapidly in England, or rather in Scotland, as they are less bigotted to old customs than the middling ranks of farmers in England. Great and unnecessary expense and trouble were at first incurred from not pursuing the simple mode of Ireland, and help to show, that notwithstanding the advanced state

of agricultural knowledge, how little one country knows the practices of another; I might say, how little one county knows of the practices of the adjoining one. This ignorance, in a great measure, helps to confirm bad practices. In the year 1815, it began to be practised to a great extent in Scotland, as the following short extracts from the Dumfries and Galloway Courier will plainly prove, and at the same time the enterprise of Scotland, and our want of knowing the practices of our own country. Mr. Alexander Craige, in a letter to Mr. Boyd of Morton Hall, says, "last season, by way of experiment, I manured part of my turnip field with well rotted stable dung, which was ploughed in the same day it was led out; the remainder with ashes; that sown on the ashes sprung much earlier than that on the dung, continued more vigorous during the season, and when I pulled them lately, the turnips produced from the ashes were more than double the size of those from the dung." Again, "Mr. Wallace has a considerable quantity of ashes on land for his Swedish turnip this season, and he means to have at least sixty acres of turnips from ashes; so fully convinced is he of the superior efficacy of clay ashes, that he has repeatedly declared to me, he would not now be at the trouble of carting dung from Kirkudbright to his farm, though only one mile and half distance, even if he were to get the dung as a present: to burn the clay ashes has cost me one shilling the cart load."* Again, "no rule can be laid down for regulating the size of the lumps of clay thrown on the kiln, as that must depend on the state of the fire, but I have found every lump completely

⚫ There is a provoking inaccuracy in many English reports, where the quantity is not mentioned. The cart load abovementioned, may be a double or single horse cart. If the number of bushels had been mentioned, we would then have a datum to direct us.