IMPROVEMENT OF PEAT LANDS. 43 



The practice of one of the best farmers in Lincolnshire, whom 

 I have the pleasure of knowing, is described by him as follows : 



He resumed the occupation of a farm which had been let to a 

 tenant, and which had been all clayed over once. He fallowed 

 it thoroughly, and, after getting some crops of cole or rape, he 

 clayed it again, putting on about 300 cubic yards to the acre. 

 Clay dikes are formed eleven yards from the centre of each, and 

 are dug about three feet wide and four feet deep, which fur 

 nishes a large amount of clay to be applied to the land. He 

 then went through a regular course of cropping, and clayed a 

 third time, and obtained highly productive crops forty bushels 

 of wheat to the acre, and from sixty-four to seventy bushels of 

 oats. He began to clay a fourth time, but not with the same 

 success as before ; from which he inferred that the land had been 



the soil.&quot; (Yet it seems to be a conceded fact that the application of lime is 

 most beneficial where there is most lime in the soil. This is a remarkable, and, 

 in a measure, an inexplicable circumstance. H. C.) &quot;The bean, indeed, and, 

 so far as we have observed, the potato crop, are exceptions to this rule ; although 

 we have seen lime, in compost with earth or old turf dikes, give a most produc 

 tive and valuable crop of potatoes.&quot; 



&quot; Whether spread on the surface of pasture-land alone, or in compost with 

 earth, or applied with a crop and grass seeds, with a view to pasture, it never 

 fails to call into existence the dormant seeds of the superior grasses in the soil, 

 and to nourish and facilitate the growth of those that may have been confided to 

 it by the agriculturist. This is a fact beyond all dispute. It is a never-failing 

 fertilizer of grass land. The effects of lime on peaty soils are the following : 



&quot;Peat is known to contain two substances inimical to vegetation, and eminently 

 preventive of the changes and interchanges, the compositions and recompositions, 

 necessary to afford a supply of genial nourishment to a superior class of vegeta 

 bles. These injurious substances are tannin and gallic acid. But let us con 

 sider for a moment the composition of these inimical compounds, and we shall 

 find that we have it in our power, by a simple process, to convert them into sub 

 stances most friendly to the advancement of superior vegetation, and in this form 

 contributing highly to the fertility of soils. We find, on analysis, that they are 

 composed of the following constituent proportions : 



Carbon. Hydrogen. Oxygen. 



&quot;Tannin, .... 52.59 .... 3.825 .... 43.583 

 Gallic Acid, . . . 5G.G4 .... 5.00 .... 38.35 



&quot; We have shown that quicklime and hydrate have a powerful affinity for car 

 bonaceous matter and oxygen. This known, with the assistance of the above 

 analysis, it is at once clear how they operate beneficially on peaty soils. It is 

 evident that, by appropriating a portion of the carbon and oxygen, lime neu 

 tralizes the acid in both these substances, itself becoming a carbonate ; and, by 

 this change, substances that were formerly destructive to fertility, combining in 



