72 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



SEA WEED 



Is a powerful aid to the farmer, when Avithin convenient 

 distances. It is thrown upon the sea-coast by the waves in 

 large winrows ; or it is carefully raked up from the rocks or 

 bottom of the bays, either by farmers or those who make it 

 a business to procure and sell it. It may be used as bedding 

 for cattle or litter or the barnyard, or added directly to the 

 compost heap. Where the distance for carrying it would 

 prevent its use, it may be burned, and the ashes removed to 

 the land. It has much more saline matter than vegetables 

 which grow on land, and yields a more valuable manure. 



PEAT. 



This substance is seldom found in this country, in the 

 purity that characterizes it in many parts of northern 

 Europe. There, its nearly pure carbonaceous quality admits 

 of its extensive use as fuel. In the United States, it is 

 generally mixed with the wash from the adjacent elevations, 

 which renders it more easily susceptible of profitable cultiva- 

 tion in its, native bed, and scarcely less valuable as a fer- 

 tilizer when applied to other lands. In six different speci- 

 mens from Northampton, and four from other localities in 

 Massachusetts, Dr. Dana found an average of 29.41 soluble, 

 and 55.03 insoluble vegetable matter; and 15.55 of salts and 

 silicates, in every 100 parts. His researches have led him 

 to recommend the mixture of 30 Ibs. potash, or 20 Ibs. soda 

 ash ; or what is more economical and equally efficacious, 

 eight bushels of unleached wood ashes with one cord of peat 

 as it is dug from its bed ; or if leached ashes be used, they 

 should be mixed in the proportion of one to three of peat. 

 This he considers fully equivalent to pure cow dung in value. 

 He also estimates the salts and organic matter of four cords 

 of peat, as equal to the manure of a cow for one year. The 

 opinion of Mr. Phinney, of Lexington, Mass., founded on 

 close observation and long practice, is, that one part of green 

 cattle dung, composted with twice its bulk of peat, will 

 make the whole equal in value to the unmixed dung. 



Peat in its natural condition, contains from 70 to over 90 

 per cent, of water. It should be dug from its bed in the fall 

 or winter, for the purpose of draining and exposing it to the 

 action of the Atmosphere, when it will be found to have lost 

 about two-thirds of its bulk. In this state, it still holds 

 about 65 per cent, of water. It may then be carried into 

 the cattle yards, and used for making composts in any way 

 desired. 



