IMPROVEMENT OF PEAT LANDS. 39 



turned up by the plough, would remain difficult of management, 

 and very slow of decomposition, and much interfere with any 

 crop which might be cultivated. But this being pared and 

 burned on the ground, the ashes, which are stated to contain the 

 element of potash, so useful in vegetation, furnish in themselves 

 a valuable manure. In paring and burning, great care is to be 

 used lest the burning should proceed too far, and burn deep 

 holes in the peat, which would be both unsightly and incon 

 venient. 



3. APPLICATION OF LIME. The next inquiry is, What appli 

 cation shall be made to the soil ? Lime is very generally recom 

 mended, in places where it is accessible at a reasonable rate ; but 

 farmers are not unanimous as to its necessity or utility. The 

 effects of lime are understood, in what must be considered the 

 present imperfect state of the science, to be four-fold. It oper 

 ates, first, as a mechanical divider of the soil ; and this effect is 

 undoubted and valuable. The application of sand to peat effects 

 the same purpose. Secondly, the lime operates, by a chemical 

 process, to decompose and reduce the peat ; but on this point, 

 chemists seem to hold a double doctrine maintaining that, in 

 some circumstances not very clearly defined, it dissolves and 

 consumes, but, under other circumstances, it tends to harden 

 and preserve, the woody fibre. This may be true in both re 

 spects, though we may find it as difficult to understand as the 

 satyr, in the fable, did to understand how the traveller should 

 blow in his hands to warm them, and blow in his broth to cool 

 it. Lime is supposed to be beneficial in a third respect, that of 

 furnishing to the plant a portion of food which it actually re 

 quires, an element of which its substance consists. This is not, 

 of course, required in all plants which may be cultivated ; nor 

 to the same extent in plants of the same family. There is 

 another advantage supposed to arise from the application of lime ; 

 and that is, its chemical effects in correcting the mineral acids 

 which often abound in peat bogs. An excess of iron, which 

 may be seen in the color of the stagnant water or drainings of 

 these lands, is a common fault. The application of lime, in such 

 a case, converts the sulphate of iron into the sulphate of lime, or 

 gypsum, that is, from poison into food, and wholesome nutri 

 ment, for vegetables. &quot; Turf, or turfy soils,&quot; says Boussingault, 



