No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 495 



There is unfortunately no survey of the State such as enables us to 

 give at this time the total areas occupied by such deposits. In the 

 various surveys of the State, these peat bed areas have been grouped 

 with bottom lands in such a manner that the areas occupied by the 

 latter and the peat beds respectively cannot be determined from the 

 data published. It has been thoroughly estimated, however, that as a 

 whole these beds cover not less than 75 square miles. All over the 

 regions of the State covered by the glacial drift there are numerous 

 lakelets filled from the drainage basins formed by surrounding steep 

 hillsides, the entry of the water into the lakes often being by springs 

 discharging upward into their bodies the sub-surface flow contributed 

 by the higher land surrounding. These lakes have commonly been 

 formed by dams of glacial drift deposited in the ravines of which 

 the lakes form heads and the lakes discharge the excess of the water 

 they receive through small streams flowing sluggishly over the tops of 

 these dams. 



Some of these lakes are shallow, because they were not deep to 

 start with or because they have Ijeen filled with wash from the 

 adjacent hillsides; others are still deep bodies of cold water. Be- 

 cause of the obstructions they alike possess both the shallow and 

 deep lakes are marked, however, by only a slight current movement. 

 Under these conditions many of them have gradually filled in with 

 vegetation. The course of development of this vegetation consisted 

 first in the formation of a growth of algae and related organisms 

 over the water surface. The vegetable covering gradually thickened 

 and presently came to support other growths, more especially those 

 of the mosses. The weight of these later layers caused the under- 

 most gradually to sink. This sinking often took place most rapidly 

 near the shores of the lakes. As this succession of vegetation went 

 on, the thickening layer of decomposing plants and the mineral 

 wash from the surrounding uplands that is from time to time re- 

 ceived in quantities varying very greatly according to the surround- 

 ings, in many cases, particularly of the shallower lakes, completely 

 filled their depressions with a mass of vegetable matter; in other 

 cases the vegetable layer became not only continuous but sufficiently 

 coherent to support the weight of men and even of the larger domes- 

 tic animals, although underneath the mass remained great depths of 

 lake water. Through and under these vegetable formations the ex- 

 cess of lake water continues to seep slowly into the small streams 

 that sluggishly work their way through the outlets earlier described. 

 The character of the surface vegetation of these vegetable lands has 

 changed from time to time, and today many support thick growth 

 of flags, sedges, and bushes like that of the cranberry, but very rarely 

 the heavier growths of trees. In a great many cases, the shores of 

 the lake are fringed with bushes which have not, however, pushed 

 out from the shores on to the bogs or peat beds just described. 



These soils, together with those of swamp lands, are commonly 

 classified as cumulose soils. In many particulars they differ from 

 the other soil classes composed chiefly of mineral materials, their 

 adaptation to crops is very much more limited than in the case of 

 mineral lands, and the methods of their treatment also are peculiar. 

 They have, however, marked fitness, under favoring conditions, for 

 certain important crops, and contribute, moreover, raw materials of 

 considerable value to a number of growing industries. In view of 



