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My little experience inclines me to think, that one of the moft 

 advantageous, if not indifpenfable preliminary ftep in reclaiming 

 bog, is fubmitting it to the procefs of burning, in a manner 

 not very different from the common pradice ; by which, if I am 

 not miftaken, a greater quantity of afhes may in moft cafes be 

 with eafe procured from a given fpace, than is eflentially ne- 

 ceflary to its future fertilization. 



IT were a very definable point gained, could we appropriate 

 their fuperfluity to any ufeful purpofe, confidering the in- 

 exhauftible fource it would afford, and the double advantage of 

 its operation ; and I might have efteemed myfelf fortunate, had 

 I been able to obtain from it, an article we have hitherto fought 

 from abroad although of prime neceflity to our moft flourifhing 

 manufadures. 



We are taught by the obfervations of moft experimental 

 chemifts, that afhes of all vegetables afford more or lefs Potash : 

 and confidering bog or peat as now univerfally allowed of vege • 

 table origin, I was led by analogy to fuppofe, that, after it had 

 undergone a fimilar procefs of incineration, a fimilarlty of pro- 

 duft, though proportionally fmall, might be the refuk. 



With a view folely to prove how far fuch reafoning w;s 

 founded, I had a quantity of turf, free from wood or any other 

 combuflible materials whatfoever, burned under my immediate 

 infpedion. When 1 had procured faSicient aflies, and fifted 



them 



