190 ON THE RECLAMATION OF LAND FROM MOSS ON 



run away was a large ditcli which always contained running- 

 water, the water of which, having been dammed, was turned 

 aside into a large marshy hollow, which was situated 40 yards 

 south of the moss to he run away. Then, a simple wooden 

 sluice was inserted into an old ditch which led from this 

 temporary reservoir along the east side of the 8 acres to be rvm 

 away, and from thence into the main ditcli again, lower down, 

 which in turn emptied itself into the Eiver Porth, which ran 

 800 yards to the nortli of it. Tlien, the parties who had taken 

 the contracts for the reclamation began to cut out large pieces 

 of moss for 3 yards to the west of the ditch, which they flung 

 into it, and the water having been turned on, the moss was 

 carried away faster than they were able to cut it. By carefully 

 husbanding the water the reservoir always contained snfficient for 

 the purpose. When the aforesaid 3 yards had Ijeen cnt and run 

 away, a new conduit, 1 spading in depth, was always made close 

 to the facing of moss again, mitil, in the spring of the following- 

 year, all the moss covering the 8 acres had disappeared, A 

 thin scraping of moss was left on the soil, as moss has a bene- 

 ficial effect when mixed with it. The cost of thus pvitting away 

 the moss by water w^as £20 per acre. 



It would be quite unnecessary to detail the usual mode which 

 was pursued in burying and biirning the remaining 2 acres. 

 Suffice it that 3 spadings of moss were buried by trenching, and 

 the fourth was built in small kilns ; and after having l^een 

 thoroughly dried was burned the following summer. In trench- 

 ing the latter portion of gromid, the nien, under the superintend- 

 ence of a drainer, placed 3-incli drain tiles every 16 feet at 

 a depth of from 3 1 to 4| feet, thus effecting a sa\ang in drainer's 

 expenses. The cost of thus burying and burning the moss 

 averaged £26 per acre. 



It may be useful to know, in reference to the latter process, 

 some facts regarding peat ash, which I sliall state as briefly as 

 possible. Many will doubtless remember the repeated attempts 

 made to introduce peat-ash (Dutch), many years ago, into Britain, 

 the use of which, though attended with excellent results in 

 Holland, proved a failure here. The two principal causes for 

 this were — the different nature of the soils operated on ; and as 

 was shown from the analysis of the widely differing ashes, the 

 success attending its use in Holland was due less to those sub- 

 stances in it necessary for the food of plants, than to the mechani- 

 cal action it produced in reducing the too tenacious nature of 

 heavy soils (where its success was most marked) when largely 

 mixed with it. In it, phosphoric acid, one of tlie most important 

 nutritious constituents of plants, is generally conspicuous by its 

 absence ; while, again, sulphuret and protoxide of iron are fre- 

 quent constituents, and tliey are, in fact, vegetable poisons. 



