secondary drains are also cut down to
the gravel, and are supplemented by "sheep" or surface drains about
twenty inches deep and twenty inches wide at top, narrowing to six
inches at the bottom. This process may be called "tapping the bog,"
which begins to shrink visibly. The puffy rounded surface gradually
sinks as the water runs off, and the earth gains in solidity. When
this process is sufficiently advanced the drains are cleared and
deepened, and a wedge-shaped sod, too wide to reach the bottom, is
rammed in so as to leave below it a permanent tubular covered drain,
which is thus made without tiles or other costly material. Then the
surface is dressed with lime, which, as the people say, "boils the
bog" instead of burning it in the old-fashioned Irish manner. On such
newly broken-up ground I saw numerous potato ridges, the large area
of turnips and mangolds already spoken of, grasses and rape for
sheep-feed. The celery grown on the reclaimed bog is superb, even
finer than that grown on Chat Moss, which gave Manchester its
reputation for celery-growing.

It is not pretended that all the bogs in Ireland are susceptible of
similar treatment, nor is it by any means necessary that they should
be. For there is plenty of bog-land less than four feet in depth, and
this alone is worth draining and liming at present. According to Mr.
Mitchell Henry's calculation he can drain and lime the land, take a
first crop off it, and then afford to let it at fifteen shillings per
acre. This is thirteen shillings more than it is worth now, and would
return interest for the necessary outlay at five per cent. per annum.
It is well known that Mr. Mitchell Henry has pursued his work at
Kylemore in the spirit of a pioneer, and that he looks to the
employment of the poor Connemara folk on reclamations as the loophole
of escape from their present miserable condition. But, while anxious
for the people, he is not unjust to the landlords who, whatever their
wish may be, are too poor to attempt any extensive improvement of
their estates. With the exception of Mr. Berridge and Lord Sligo,
nobody has much money in these parts besides Mr. Henry, whose example
is followed slowly, because proprietors lack the means to undertake
anything on a grand scale. His impression is, that to effect any good
the matter must be made Imperial. The suggestion is, that suitable
tracts of the best waste lands should be acquired by the Government;
that the work of recl