conspicuous objects in a
landscape of strange grandeur. Mr. Henry, who was an eminent surgeon
before he became a great landowner, has gone about the work of
reclamation with scientific knowledge as well as vigorous will, and
now has a great area in the various stages of conversion from bog into
productive land. When he began to reclaim land at Kylemore the
neighbouring gentry smiled good-humouredly, plunged their hands into
their (mostly empty) pockets, and wished him joy of his bargain. Now
the Kylemore improvements are the wonder of Connemara. The long
unknown mangold is seen to flourish on spots which once nourished
about a snipe to an acre. Root crops are very largely grown, and it is
to these that the climate and reclaimed bog of Connemara are more
particularly favourable; but there is abundance of grain at
Currywongoan, at Greenmount, and at the home-farm at Dowris.
Neighbouring proprietors are thinking the matter over, and are
wondering whether an Irish landlord ought, like an English one, to do
something to employ and encourage his poor tenants, and help on with
improvements those inclined to help themselves. Even the tenants
themselves on the Kylemore Estate are beginning to wake up under the
care of a resident landlord inclined to set them in the way of
improving their condition. With the run of the mountain in addition to
holdings varying from twelve to forty and fifty acres in extent, Mr.
Mitchell Henry's people are learning by example, are breaking up land,
and every year increasing the area under the plough. It would thus
seem that the Connemara peasant is not unteachable, if only some
patience be shown and fair breathing space allotted to him.

Mr. Mitchell Henry's idea of reclamation was purely scientific at
first, and has only by degrees been developed into a large enterprise.
He was struck by the fact that the bog lies directly on the
limestone, as coal, ironstone, and limestone lie in parts of
Staffordshire, only awaiting the hand of man to turn them to practical
account. Draining and liming are all that bog-land requires to yield
immediate crops. The main difficulty is of course to get rid of the
water, which keeps down the temperature of the land until it produces
nothing but the humblest kind of vegetation. All the steps of the
reclaiming process may be seen at Kylemore. The first thing to be done
is to cut a big deep drain right through the bog to the gravel between
it and the limestone. Then the