PEAT AS AN ABSORBENT AND AS A FERTILIZER. 109 



of unleached wood ashes and a bushel of bone-dust, as an excellent 

 fertilizer for fruit trees. 



Now that the meetings for discussion were about to close for 

 the season, Mr. Wilder wished to say that he had been much 

 interested in them, and believed that the}' had been very advan- 

 tageous to all who had attended. He referred to the Chairman 

 of the Committee on Publication and Discussion, who presided 

 on this occasion, as the projector of these meetings, and as having 

 done more than any one else to sustain them, and expressed 

 the conviction that he had never done the Society a more beneficial 

 service. No lady or gentleman could come in to one of these 

 meetings without gaining some information, even on the most 

 common subjects. 



N. B. White said that peat was always found in low places, and 

 that it is very expensive to get it up on high land. If the meadow 

 is so situated that it can be drained and cultivated, he believed that 

 that course would be found more profitable than digging and com- 

 posting the peat. He thought, also, that poor or exhausted soils 

 could be brought to a state of fertility at much less expense by 

 ploughing in green crops, than by fertilizing with peat compost, 

 which requires so great an amount of labor. 



The Chairman said that, though man}^ of the best cultivators do 

 not use a great amount of peat, he thought all would agree as to 

 its value as an absorbent and in handling manure. 



Rev. A. B. Muzzey, of the Committee on Publication and Discus- 

 sion, remarked that we have in the Society abundance of material 

 for very interesting essays, and suggested that during the interim 

 the members should be maturing papers to be read when the meet- 

 ings are resumed another season, which would be a great assistance 

 to the Committee. 



The Chairman then announced that the meetings for discussion 

 were closed for the season. 



