EXPERIMENT STATION". 63 



Analyses. 



T14 715 T45 



The fresh material contains: — 



Water, - 70.51 79.66 80.16 



Organic and volatile matters 24.80 17.85 16.95 



Ash,... 4.69 2.49 2.89 



100.00 100.00 100.00 



The organic and volatile matters contain: — 



Nitrogen, 1.08 0.66 0.59 



The ash contains : — 



Silica and insoluble, -. 1.67 .42 .51 



Oxide of Iron, Alumina and Phosphoric acid, . .63 .19 .27 



Lime,.. 1.37 .74 1.14 



Undetermined, ' _.. 1.02 1.14 .97 



4.69 2.49 2.89 

 The dry mucks contain : — 



Organic and volatile matters, 84.09 87.75 85.43 



Nitrogen, 3.66 3.24 2.97 



Silica and insoluble, 5.66 2.07 2.55 



Oxide of Iron, Alumina. &c., 2.14 .93 1.36 



Lime, 4.64 3.64 5.75 



The question of bringing a peat or muck swamp into cultiva- 

 tion, is one that frequently arises. The first essential of course, 

 is drainage sufficient to remove the surface water for a depth of 

 several feet. In small swamps the muck is commonly mixed with 

 enough washed-in soil to admit of cultivation directly. Where 

 the area of the bog is considerable this is commonly not the case. 

 Peat so nearly pure as the samples here reported, contains scarcely 

 enough mineral matters to make a good soil if merely drained. 

 Addition of soil, sand or coal ashes would be needful to amend 

 the texture and prevent the peat from cohering together to a 

 crust and shrinking during dry weather in a degree injurious or 

 fatal to crops, unless indeed frequent shallow tillage were resorted 

 to for the prevention of such disaster. As regards jilant-food, 

 there is an ample store of the element most costly, to supply arti- 

 ficially, viz. : nitrogen. The fresh material of these samples con- 

 tains, on the average, as much of this element as stable or yard 

 manure (0.77 per cent.), and this will become available under suit- 

 able cultivation. Lime is also abundant. The analysis is not 

 carried out sufficiently to show how the other mineral elements 

 stand, and probably phosphates and potash salts would be shortly 

 needed. With their help these jjeats would probably make very 

 productive soils for many years to come. 



