Smearing of Sheep. — Improvement of flossy Lands. 1S9 



SMEARING OF SHEEP. 



The following has been Ibund effectual : — Tmmediately 

 after the sbcc[) arc shorn, soak the roots of the wool that 

 reniains all over with oil or butter and briiTisfoae, and three 

 or four days al'terwards wash them with tak and water: 

 the wool of next season will not only be much finer, but 

 the quantity will be in greater abundance. It may be de- 

 pended upon that the sheep will not be troubled with the 

 scab or veniiin in that year. Tar water is a safe and efi'ec- 

 tual remedy against maggots. 



IMPROVEMENT OP MOSSY LANDS. 



Sir John Sinclair has communicated to the public the 

 result of some extensive experiments he has been lately 

 making on the improvement of mossv lands. 



He states his failure for two years; but the third had 

 completely removed all doubts of his ultinjate success in 

 this important undertaking. 



The causes of his original failure, and of his ultimate 

 success, he assigns to his having, at first, omitted to mark 

 the distinction between quick and dead moss, which was 

 latterly called to his attention by a perusal of Dr. Anderson's 

 Practical Essay on Peat Moss; in which, for the first time 

 to his knowledge, that distinction is pointed out. " While 

 it is- quick or growing, it cannot afford food for other vege- 

 tables, being a vegetable, or a con;bination of vegetables, 

 itself; it is necessary, therefore, to convert it into dead 

 moss, before it can be productive." And he assigns this 

 additional cause, that he had adopted the mode used in 

 Kngland for flat fens, whereas the ^rounds on wliich he 

 tried the experiments lay on the sides of hills. 



The mode he recommends is, after having used the feu 

 plough for parin-: the surfice merelv, for which alone it is 

 calculated, to plough deep before attempting to crop the 

 land, 'the utility of which practice Dr. Anderson had expe- 

 rienced. " He knew," says Sir John, " the beneficial 

 effects of deep ploughing, and of exposing moss to the 

 iiifluence of frost, by whicti it is converted not only into a 

 fertile soil, but even into a manure well adapted for liidit or 

 clayey lands. It is, however, particularly to be observed, 

 that exposing a mossy soil to the infiuence of the sun, or 

 nloughing it during the summer season, does n)ischief, dry- 

 mg up its moisture, and changing it into peat for fuel, after 

 which it is almost proof against the effects uf frost ; whereas 

 Uip more it can be txpoied to frost the belter; as it i^thus 



cjianircid 



