IMPROVEMENT OF PEAT LANDS. 53 



In Ireland, the first crop usually taken from peat lands is 

 potatoes ; and these are generally grown in the lazy-bed method, 

 to which I have referred in a former report. In this case, where 

 the peat rests upon clay or a hard subsoil, the ground is first 

 laid out in beds varying from four to six feet in width, and 

 divided lengthwise by trenches which empty into an open drain ; 

 dirt, or bog earth from these trenches, being, as it is dug out. 

 laid upon these beds. The seed potatoes and manure are then 

 placed upon them, arid covered with another digging of earth, or 

 clay from the trench. When the potatoes, which are planted 

 crosswise of the bed, in rows about a foot apart, have shown 

 themselves above-ground a few inches, they are then covered 

 with a second digging of earth, or soil from the trenches. This 

 completes the cultivation. The land is the next year sown with 

 oats, and sometimes laid down to grass : or, in some cases, a 

 crop of wheat is taken. Sometimes the old trenches are filled 

 up, and a new laying out of the ground, and a new trenching, is 

 made, and the process, as at first, repeated. Where the means 

 of improvement are so limited as in Ireland, and the social dis 

 advantages so great, Irish husbandry can be in but few cases 

 referred to as a model. This remark, however, must not be 

 received, as I shall presently show, without strong exceptions in 

 some parts of that country. 



I have gone thus fully into the subject of the improvement of 

 peat lands, because, in parts of New England and New Jersey, 

 and other parts of the country, there are vast bodies of this kind 

 of ground, waiting the resuscitating hand of intelligent cultiva 

 tion. I know of many distinguished examples of the most 

 judicious and successful improvement in my own country, to 

 which I have not deemed proper, in this place, to refer. The 

 strong conclusions to which I have come in the case are, first, 

 as the indispensable basis of the improvement of such soils, they 

 must be well drained ; secondly, that, in most cases, paring and 

 burning, and spreading the ashes, are advisable ; in the third 

 place, that, although lime may be useful, a dressing of clay of 



of the ear, if not taken off the rape for a few days, which generally sets them 

 right again. It is generally consumed in the months of October, November, and 

 December, before it is injured by severe frost.&quot; 



This is literally a rape of the ear, and is probably owing to some acrid matter 

 belonging to the plant, which in its general character resembles mustard. 



