THE UNPRODUCTIVE BOGS OF IRELAND.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2763, 31 January 1882, Page 2

THE UNPRODUCTIVE BOGS OF IRELAND.

The total area of bog in Ireland is estimated at 2,830,000 acres, nearly oneseventh of the entire surface of the island. Of these bogs there are 1,576,000 acres of flat bog ; the remaining 1,254,000 acres are mountain bog. The “ Builder” says “ Without entering into chemical details —which, however we are fully prepared to do —we' may state as an uncontradicted fact that nothing but well-directed labor is required to convert the greater portion, if not all, of that land, now waste, into the richest pasture or corn , land. Drainage is the first, and in many cases the only, requisite to effect this change. Burning the surface of the bog, after draining, has in some places an admirable

result. Claying the bog, by extracting the clay which lies below and forms an impervious bed, and placing it as a top dressing, is the method which has been followed in other cases, as in our own Bridgewater levels, with the result of turning waste swamps into the richest pasture or hay-growing lands in the kingdom. Whichever of these methods be adopted, there is the remarkable characteristic that labor only is required. No more capital is wanted than will suffice to feed the workpeople. There is a great work to be done—a work so large that it is beyond the recch of any private enterprise ; it is a work involving immense national benefit. All neighboring landowners woul 1 be enriched by the reclamation of this enormous bog. The island would have almost a new country added to its productive area. No money need to be sunk in the bog. It is only requisite to apply to it that muscular force which is fretting itself into deeper poverty and misery by enforced idleness. That the proper mode for attacking the bog is a raatter for ready scientific determination every Woolwich cadet is aware. What is required is, simply, 1 enough labor under scientific direction; and when we reflect that we want the work to be done, as well as the men to be employed, we think no unnecessary strain would be put on convict labor, as a solution to the problem.”