IMPROVEMENT OF PEAT LANDS. 33 



other mineral substances, and charged with acids unfriendly to 

 vegetation. In its natural condition, it produces only a coarse 

 kind of herbage, distasteful and innutritions, or is covered with 

 a short moss ; in Ireland, in many cases, by heath, alike worth 

 less for any purpose of feed. It is retentive of water like a 

 sponge, and is very difficult of being reduced, so as to furnish a 

 good bed for a sweet and healthy vegetation. In a wet condi 

 tion, it is scarcely accessible ; in a dry state, it becomes too light 

 and hard ; arid, though composed wholly of decayed vegetable 

 matter, is in an inert condition, or deficient in some elements 

 essential in order to render it productive. It is found of very 

 different depths in some cases, only a thin stratum of decayed 

 vegetable matter, of six inches or a foot in depth, overlaying a 

 bed of white sand or gravel ; in others, a bed of black spongy 

 matter, of many feet, and often of unascertained depth. 



Much of this land in England, Ireland, and Scotland, has been 

 redeemed, and made highly productive. An eminent Scotch 

 farmer, to whom I had the honor of letters of introduction, states 

 that land which, in its natural state, was not worth more than 

 sixpence an acre, in its improved condition is now fully equal to 

 three pounds per acre. This refers to the annual rent or income 

 of the land. This farmer has recovered two hundred acres of 

 peat bog. Much of it was redeemed at a great expense, as it had 

 been cut over for fuel, and it was deemed important to fill up 

 the holes which had thus been left. Much of it was reclaimed 

 at the expense of 30, or $150, per acre ; but the farmer con 

 sidered himself amply remunerated by the improvement. Other 

 lands, which gave him not more than Is. 6d., or 37J cents, per 

 acre, now give him 12s. to 14s., $3 to $3 50, per acre, annually. 

 A similar improvement is stated by a farmer in West Somerset 

 shire, whose peat land, before comparatively valueless, now lets for 

 3 to 4 per acre. The improvements in the fen land of Lin 

 colnshire and Cambridgeshire, which is in many parts a species 

 of peat land, have been followed by results equally valuable. 



The extensive tracts of bog land in New Jersey, lying between 

 tho city of New York and Newark, in New Jersey, over which 

 both the turnpike and the railroads now pass, open a field for 

 improvements of the same kind and of the most valuable de 

 scription. Partial attempts have been made already, and their 

 success is sufficiently encouraging. But when the whole of this 



