PEAT AND ROCKWEED. 



337 



Nitrogen (ammonia .01) 

 Potassium oxide 

 Sand, &c. 



Per cent. 

 3.58 

 .49 

 4.65 



Valuation per ton of two thousand pounds : 



114.8 pounds of phosphoric acid . . 

 71.6 pounds of nitrogen .... 

 9.8 pounds of potassium oxide . 



Turfy Peat. 

 (Auburn, Worcester Co., Mass.) 



Moisture at 100° C. 

 Vegetable matter left 

 Ash constituents 

 Calcium oxide (lime) in ash 

 Nitrogen (vegetable matter) 



$6 88 



10 65 



40 



$17 93 



Per cent. 



85.34 



14.66 



1.20 



.50 



.49 



One hundred parts of the original wet peat left twenty- 

 two parts of air-dry matter. The sample represents a good 

 quality of its kind. Farmers who apply a well-prepared peat 

 to their soil ought to keep in mind that they acid, as a rule, 

 only a small amount of slow-acting nitrogen to their soil 

 resources of plant-food. The frequent gcod results in con- 

 sequence of a judicious application of peat as a fertilizing 

 material is mainly due, either to an improvement of the 

 physical condition of the soil (rendering a light sandy soil 

 more retentive, and, in case of a coarse fibrous peat, a heavy 

 soil more permeable), or to the favorable re-action of the 

 products of a decomposing organic matter on the latent 

 resources of the soil on mineral plant-food. The larger the 

 crops which have been gathered, the stronger must be the 

 subsequent manuring, is a rule which applies with particular 

 force to those instances where the mere use of peat has 

 increased the yield of the lands under cultivation. 



Rockiveed. 



The examination of this sea-plant was carried on at the 

 request of Hon. James J. H. Gregory of Marblehead, Mass., 

 for the purpose of testing the relative fertilizing value of 

 specimens collected in different seasons. One lot of the 

 rockweed was collected in the middle of the month of May, 



