PEAT AS AN ABSORBENT AND AS A FERTILIZER. 97 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 



Saturday, March 30, 1878. 



A meeting for Discussion was holden at 11 o'clock, W. C. 

 Strong, Chairman of the Committee on Publication and Discussion, 

 presiding. Tlie following essa}' was read by the author, H. Weld 

 Fuller, of Boston : — 



Peat as an Absorbent and as a Fertilizer. 



Agriculture is admitted to be one of the great pillars of the 

 state. The health, the wealth, the contentment, growth and happi- 

 ness of a people depend upon it for support. Without the plough- 

 share and pruning-hook, the sword and lance would become useless 

 in war ; and in peace there would be no fixed habitations and little 

 increase in population. But, to lift us above the savage life, agri- 

 culture must have brains and manures. The farm requires a good 

 supply of both. He is the best farmer who uses both to the best 

 advantage. Soils are as various as the persons who till them ; and 

 the true farmer will study their temper and make the most of them. 

 Science is the economy of force — lessening work and increasing 

 the results. If the husbandman would better his own condition, or 

 the condition of his poor lands ; if he would keep his good lands, or 

 himself, in good heart, or honestl}' get much out of little, or more 

 out of much ; if, in a word, he would live and thrive by his pro- 

 ducts and not impoverish his place, he must farm with brains and 

 manures. 



Good husbandry is based on manures, rightl}' prepared and 

 rightly applied. When nature stores away the phosphates in the 

 hill-side, or fills our swamps or lowlands with nitrogenous matter, 

 she leaves it for us to find out their value and profit by them. She 

 is often lavish of materials ; but her beneficiaries ma}- use or abuse 

 them as they please. Some soils consist almost wholl}' of vege- 

 table remains, so apparent to the e^^e that we might naturally 

 regard them as just fitted for immediate use ; whereas, their worth 

 depends upon their preparation and skilful application. Such are 

 the different varieties of Peat, of which I would now speak. 



These are, as we all know, of several kinds ; the mild, the sour, 

 the coaly, etc. In other words, the fuel peat, the black muck, etc., 

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