PEAT MAKING. 



which once grew there, is shown by the trunks and 

 branches of trees which are found among the lower 

 parts of the peat. It was indeed the destruction of 

 forests that gave rise to such mosses." Several agen- 

 cies are explained as causes which have contributed 

 to the formation of peat mosses, among them that 

 "man armed with axe and hatchet may come and fell 

 oak and beech and pine, taking, it may be, little or 

 none of the wood away, but leaving it there to rot, 

 and to gather around and cover it, a mantle of peat- 

 forming plants. 



"So long as the conditions of growth remain 

 favorable for the marshy vegetation, peat continues to 

 be found, and the bogs become gradually thicker. But 

 where these conditions change in such measure as to 

 kill off the peat producing mosses, the peat ceases to 

 accumulate. Its surface as it dries becomes a fit soil 

 for other plants, notably for heather, which extends 

 completely over it and sends its roots far down into 

 the black spongy substance. The matted roots of the 

 heath form an upper fibrous layer of peat. In the 

 end, firs and other trees may take root upon the tract." 



It is a custom among gardeners in localities where 

 Heather abounds to skin off the heath with a sharp 

 spade to get the fibrous soil in which the plants were 

 growing. For this the Heather on upland or dry 

 land is always chosen, never from mucky or mossy 

 ground. In thickness the soil runs from one to three 

 inches. It is not rich, but it is a solid network of 

 fiber and as fresh and sweet as soil can possibly be, 

 or as the elements can season it. It never gets water- 

 logged or sour. Orchids grow well in such a soil, 



89 



