226 FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 



Generally speaking, it is believed that peat may be more 

 advantageously used in composts, in the way before de- 

 scribed ; as in this way its effects will be greater, and 

 much more permanent, as a manure. 



Where the surface is but thinly covered with peat, it 

 may be mostly burnt off, in a dry time, after the land is 

 cleared ; and then the ashes lie on the land where they are 

 wanted : But in such case it would eventually prove more 

 advantageous to the land to rot or decompose the peat, with 

 lime, as before mentioned; after which tne black mass re- 

 maining may be mixed with the earth below, so as to ren- 

 der it more permanently productive. 



A surface of peat of this description may, however, be 

 successfully cultivated with yearly crops of potatoes, until 

 the peat, by roting away, can be mixed with the earth be- 

 low, so as to form a mixture suitable for other crops. 



Under Moss, that article is recommended as a manure 

 for potatoes. 



We have no doubt, that peat made fine, and mixed with 

 some suitable earth, would answer a better purpose; as 

 what seems most essential to the growth of these roots is 

 to be placed where they can most easily extend, having at 

 the same time a due degree of air and moisture ; and it is 

 probably for this reason that they grow well under a mere 

 covering of straw. 



Seaweed (Alga Marina) is afforded in considerable 

 quantities on many parts oi our seacoast, and is valuable as 

 a manure, particularly for light dry soils. For clays it is 

 not so good. It is best to be ploughed in the soil while 

 green ; as, when it has become dried, it is not so valuable 

 as a manure. 



It has two advantages over barn-dung; one in common, 

 however, with most other manures, it contains no seeds of 

 weeds ; the other is, it tends to render light lands more 

 compact, and for that reason crops of wheat raised on them 

 are but little affected with mildew ; while wheat grown on 

 lands long manured with the contents of the barn-yard, be- 

 coming thereby more loose and friable, is found, in Great- 

 britain at least, to be most liable to this disorder. 



Mr. Davy, in his Memoir to the Board of Agriculture IB 

 England, after mentioning the different results of analyzed 

 earths which were found extremely fertile, observes, that, 



* In supplying animal or vegetable manure, a temporary 

 food is only provided for plants, which is in all cases ex- 

 hausted by means of a certain number of crops ; but when a 

 soil is rendered of the best possible constitution and tex- 

 ture, with regard to its earthy parts, its fertility may be 

 considered as permanently established. It becomes capable 

 of attracting a large portion of vegetable nourishment from 



