FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 87 



It is sometimes confounded with peat; but this would 

 seem to possess different qualities. Where turf has been 

 dug up, the hole thus made will grow up again, after a 

 number of years ; but this is not the case with peat. 



Turf would seem to be a mass of vegetable matter, in a 

 partly decomposed state, mixed with a large proportion of 

 living roots of aquatic plants extending through it; and it 

 is probable the addition of vegetable earth, which is pro- 

 duced by the constant growth and decay of these, that 

 causes places from which turf has been dug to fill or grow 

 up again. 



In Holland, much turf of this description is taken from 

 the bottoms of the canals, and is used for fuel. 



Ireland abounds much in low sunken tracts, which are 

 often chiefly composed of turf, or of peat; of which we 

 shall now speak, and conclude with some observations of 

 these earths which may be more or less applicable to each. 



Peat soils sometimes form the surface of the earth; 

 sometimes again this earth is found at various depths under- 

 neath, in a more compact form. It abounds much in the 

 cold mountainous tract of land which forms the northerly 

 and unsettled part of this county (Herkimer) and its vicinity. 

 The surface of the earth there is, in many places, composed 

 of a mass of peat, forming a depth of from one to two, and 

 sometimes three, feet. 



The timber, where the peaty earth prevails to such ex- 

 tenj, is mostly spruce and hemlock. The peat thus formed 

 would seem to be principally the remains of the trees 

 which have sprung from the soil, and in time have become 

 decomposed, to a certain extent, during the course of many 

 thousand years. 



Heat and moisture are the principal agents, both in pro- 

 ducing and destroying. They cause animals, and vegeta- 

 bles, to expand and grow to maturity; and when they be- 

 come diseased, and no longer fit to sustain life, the same 

 principles of heat and moisture, which before gave life and 

 nurtured them, suddenly decompose them and cause them 

 to return to dust. Without heat and moisture, there could 

 be no vegetable or animal existence, in the first place; nor 

 any change or decomposition of them, after they had once 

 been formed. 



But it requires a certain degree of heat to entirely de- 

 compose animal or vegetable matter, of any kind; while, at 

 the same time, the decomposition of either may be in part, 

 or entirely, prevented by the presence of other substances, 

 which are calculated to preserve them from its operation. 

 Thus the Egyptians had an art of embalming animal bodies, 

 &o as to enable them to withstand the operation of heat, for 

 thousands of years. 



