154 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



From Dr. Jachsoji's Third Itcpnrt on 

 The Geology of Maine. 



I need butappcnlto the experience of one of our 

 most intellifjcnt farmers in Massachusetts, Elias 

 Phinney, Esq., of Lexington, to demonstrate tlie 

 correctness of the rules wo have laid down, with 

 regard to the use of pint for compost manure, or to 

 the beautiful farm of Benjamin Bussey, Esq. of Ja- 

 maica Plain, Roxbury, where similar results have 

 been obtained. 



Lniiigton, Jinivanj 30, 1S39. 

 Dr. Ciiaki.es T. J.icksok, 



Dear Sir .-—I herewith send you a sample of my 

 peat. I am very desirous of availing myself of the 

 benefit to be derived from a chemical analysis of 

 the same, which you kindly offered to make. A 

 more intimate knowledge of the nature and prop- 

 erties of pent, which can be obtained only by a sci- 

 entific examination of its constituent parts, would 

 enable farmers more justly to appreciate this valu- 

 able species of land. It is from a want of this 

 knowledge, (hat our extensive tracts of low mead- 

 ow and swamp lands have hitherto been esteemed 

 of little or no value. Allow me to say, sir, that 1 

 know of no way, in which you could render a more 

 essential service to the public, more especially to 

 farmers, than by enabling them to convert their un- 

 productive and unsightly bogs and morasses into 

 luxuriant fields, and 'sources of wealth. I consid- 

 er my peat grounds by far the most valuable part 

 of my farm, more valuable than my wood lots for 

 fuel, and more than double the value of an equal 

 number of acres of my uplands, for the purpose of 

 cultivation. 



In addition to these, they furnish an inexhaust- 

 ible supply of the most essential ingredient for the 

 manure heap. A statement of the uses, to which 

 I have appropriated ppat lands, and my manage- 

 ment of them, though very imperfect, may serve 

 to give you a partiafconception of their value and 

 uses, and at the same time enable you to see how 

 important it is that the farming community should 

 have more information on this subject. 



In the first place they are valuable tor fuel. 1 

 have for twenty years" past resorted to my peat 

 meadows for fuel. These with the prunings oi my 

 fruit trees, and the brush from my uncleared lands, 

 have given me my whole supply. The prunings 

 and brush are bound in bundles, and housed, and 

 with the help of a small bundle of these faggots, 

 and peat, a quick and durable fire is made. It gives 

 a summer-like atmosphere, and lights a room bet- 

 ter than a wood fire. The smoke from peat has no 

 irritating etfeot upon the eyes, and does not in the 

 slio-hest'deo-ree obstruct respiration, like the smoke 

 of°wood -, ind it has none of that drying, unpleas- 

 ant effect of a coal fire. The ashes of peat are, to 

 be s'lre, more abundant, but not more troublesome 

 and are less injurious to the furniture of the room, 

 than the ashes of coal. , . , , 



The best peat is found in meadows, which liavc 

 for many years been destitute of trees, and brush, 

 and well drained, and where the surface has be- 

 come so dry, and the accumulation of decayed veg- 

 etable matter so great, that but little grass or her- 

 bao-e of any description is seen upon the surlace^ 

 If "the meadows are suffered to remain in a wet and 

 miry condition, the wild grasses and coarse her- 

 ban-e will continue to grow, and the peat be of a 

 light and chaffy texture, filled with undecayed fi- 

 brous roots. By draining they become hard, and 

 the peat becomes compact and solid, and the cut- 

 ting out, and carrying off greatly facilitated. A 

 rod square, cut two splittings deep, each splitting 

 of the lenn-th of eighteen inches, will give three 

 cords when dried. It may be cut from May to Sep- 

 tember. If the weather in autumn be very dry, 

 the best time for cutting will be from the middle 

 of Auo-ust to the middle of September. It cut the 

 latter part of sumn.er, or in early autumn, it dries 

 more cradually, and is not so liable to crack end 

 crumble, as when cut early in summer. The pie- 

 ces are taken out with an instrument made tor the 

 purpose, from two to three inches square ; and il 

 of (rood qurJlty, will shrink about one hall in dry- 

 intr" It is considered a day's work for a man, a boy 

 and a horse, to cutout and spread a rod square^ 

 The man cuts it out, ;ind lays it upo» a light kind 

 of draw, made for the purpose, and it is drawn off 

 by the 'home, and spread bv the boy as thick as the 

 pieces can lay singly. After becoming dry enough 

 to handle without breaking, it is made into piles, 

 cob-house fashion, of Irum twelve to twenty pie- 

 ces in a pile. It will then require about four weeks 

 of dry weather to render it fit to be housed for use. 

 The top, or turf, is thrown back into the pits, from 

 which the peat is taken ; and if well levelled, and 

 the ground drained, it will, after the first year, give 

 a large crop of foul meadow, or other lowland 



grass. Peat, taken from land which has been ma- 

 ny yeails drained, when dried, is nearly as heavy 

 as oak (vood, and bears about the same price in the 

 market. 



The value of peat and swamp lands lor tillage, 

 is nov pretty well known, ai)d acknowledged. 

 Some years since, I occasionally sold to my neigh- 

 bors a'few rods of my peat land, yearly, to be cut 

 out for fuel, at three dollars per rod, being at the 

 rate of four hundred and eighty 'dollars per acre ; 

 but finding this sum to be less than its value for 

 cultivation, especially when laid to grass, I have 

 declined making further sales at that price. I have 

 raised upon my reclaimed meadows, seventy-five 

 bushels of corn, five hundred bushels of potatoes, 

 or from four to five tons of the best hay, at a first 

 and second cutting, to the acre, at a less expense 

 of labor and manure, than would be required to 

 produce half this crop upon uplands. To render 

 these lands productive, they should be thoroughly 

 drained, by digging a ditch around the margin of 

 the meadow, so as to cut off the springs, and re- 

 ceive the water, that is continually flowing in from 

 the surrounding uplands. If the meadow be wide, 

 a ditch through the centre may be necessary, but 

 this will be of no use without the border ditches. 

 This being thoroughly done, and the surplus wa- 

 ter all drav.-n off, the next step is to exterminate 

 the wild grasses, and herbage of every kind, that 

 grow upon the surface. To effect this, the method 

 heretofore generally, and now by some pursued, is 

 to cover with gravel or sand, top dress with ma- 

 nure, sow the grass seed, and then rirke, or bush 

 it over. This, for the first vear or two, will give a 

 good crop of hay ; but after" this, I have invariably 

 found that the more coarse and hardy kinds ot wild 

 grass would work their way through the sand, or 

 o-ravel, and entirely supplant the cultivated grasses 

 —when the whole must have another covering, or 

 be abandoned as worthless. If to be planted with 

 corn or any of the root crops, my course has been 

 to turn over the turf or sward with a plough hav- 

 ing a wrought iron share or coulter, ground to a 

 sharp edge, in the driest season, say in the month 

 of September, roll down as hard as possible, carry 

 on in the winter a sufficient top dressing of com- 

 post, twenty cart loads to the acre, and m the 

 spring plant" v.-lth corn, or roots, without disturbing 

 the sod. When the corn or roots are taken off, the 

 surface is made smooth with the cultivator, or hoe 

 and liarrow, and late in November, or just before 

 the heavy frosts set in, sow with herds grass and 

 red top seed, half a bushel of the former and one 

 bushel of the latter to the acre. Tho field is then 

 rolled, which completes the process. If the plough 

 does not turn the sods smooth, it will be necessary 

 to follow it v;ith the bog hoe, to level the uneven 

 places. By keeping the sod undisturbed in the cul- 

 tivation, a more firm and compact surface is form- 

 ed, upon which oxen or horses may work, gener- 

 ally, without danger of miring. If the land is in- 

 t-iided for grass, withov.t the intervention of a ho- 

 ed crop, the turf is turned over with tho plough, as 

 before stated, in August or September, or as early 

 as the surface becomes dry enough to admit the 

 oxen or horses upon it; then follow with the bog 

 hoc, and turn over such parts as the plough has 

 left unturned, make the whole smooth with the 

 hoe, and late in November, spread on a top dress- 

 ing of compost, not less than twenty cart loads, 

 made half of loam, and half of stable manure, to 

 the acre ; then sow tlii? grass seed, and bush, and 

 roll dov/n. If the ground be miry, 'so as to render 

 the use of the plough impracticable, the bog hoe 

 must be resorted to, and the whole turned over by 

 hand, and top dressed, and seeded to grass, as above 

 stated. The cost of turning ever with the hoe, 

 will be twenty dollars per acre, at the usual price 

 of labor. Tliis mode of culture completely sub- 

 dues the natural wild grasses, and gives a compact 

 and rich surface of vegetable mould, which will 

 give an abundant crop of the best Englisli hay for 

 four or five years, without the aid of more manure. 

 If the sod is disturbed and attempted to be pulver- 

 ized in the course of tlie cultivation, the surface, 

 when laid to grass, will be loose and spongy— an 

 extra top dressing of loam and manure will be re- 

 quired, and after all, the surface will not become 

 so compact, or the produce by any means so great. 

 Should meadows be found too soft and miry to ad- 

 mit of their being ploughed in the summer, or au- 

 tumn, and the expense of turning with the hoe 

 should be thought to be too great, I would advise 

 plouo-hin'r in the spring, when the frost , is out to 

 the depth'of three or tour inches, cartiijg on ma- 

 nure, and then sowing or planting at a convenient 

 and proper season. The art of reclaiming these 

 low meadows, consists in taking off all the surplus 

 water by judicious draining, and in thoroughly ex- 

 terminating the natural herbage and grasses. This 



being effected, we have our rich bottoms, equally 

 as jiroductive as the deep alluvials of the west, and 

 obtained at a cost and sacrifice infinitely less. 



The tliird particular, in which peat lands may 

 be considered valuable to the farmer, consists in 

 furnishing him with a very important ingredient 

 for his compost. Feat is made up principally of 

 decomposed vegetable substances, with a portion 

 of the lighter particles of vegetable mould, washed 

 in from the surrounding higlilands. But when 

 taken fresh from the pit, it contains certain an- 

 tisceptic properties, injurious to vegetation, which 

 must be absorbed, or neutralized, by a combination 

 with other substances, in order to render i_t food for 

 plants. This may in some measure be effected by 

 exposure to the action of the air and frost. Where 

 the surrounding uplands are composed of gravel or 

 sand, the peat or swamp mud may be called sili- 

 cious, and is less valuable for manure, especially 

 if the adjacent uplands rise abruptly ; when com- 

 posed principally of cloy, the peat is aluminous— 

 this is frequently found resting on beds of marl, 

 and is considered much richer, and more valuable 

 for the compost heap. 



I have annually, for some years past, used »n my 

 farm some hundreds of loads of peal mud, which 

 is either thrown into my hog stye, or mixed with 

 fresh stable dung, or with lime. When mixed with 

 ffreen stable manure, the proportions are two parts 

 of peat mud to one of dung; and I am confident, 

 from repeated experiments, that a load of this com- 

 post, well mixed and fermented, will give as great 

 a produce, and a more permanent improvement to 

 the soil, than the same quantity of stable manure. 

 In this opinion, I am not alone. Other accurate 

 and Intelligent cultivators have made similar ex- 

 periments with similar results. 



The vegetable substances of which peat is com- 

 posed, having been decomposed in stagnant waters, 

 they have not passed through a putrefactive fer- 

 mentation, and are therefore supposed to retain 

 much of their natural soils, gums and acids. Peats, 

 in this region, are also supposed to contain por- 

 tions of sulphate of iron, or copperas, oxide of iron, 

 &c. This opinion is formed from noticing the dif- 

 ference between the effect produced by u.^ing the 

 peat mud on grounds, when first taken out of the 

 meadow, and that which is produced after fermen- 

 tation, with stable manure, or by mixing it with 

 lime. The ashes of peat have but little or no per- 

 ceptible efiects, when used alone, but by mixing 

 them with lime, they become a valuable manure. 



That our peat may possess other and different 

 properties, which are in a greater or less degree in- 

 jurious to plants, is highly probable. These can bo 

 detected and remedied only by the aid of science. 

 It is to the agricultural chemist, that tba practical 

 farmer must look for a development of his resour- 

 ces, to remove the obstacles which impede Ills pro- 

 gress, and to impart that information which will 

 give confidence to action, and a successful issue to 

 labor. 



With an earnest desire that you may persevere 

 in your useful labors, 



I am, dear sir. 



With the highest respect, 

 Your obedient servant, 



E. PHINNEY. 



Having two years since, given Dr. N. C. Keep 

 some instructions, relating to the management of 

 peat compo.st, that gentleman communicated them 

 to his father, an old and intelligent farmer residing 

 at Longmeadow, upon Connecticut river ; and the 

 experimental trial having been made to his satis- 

 faction, he politely furnishes me with the following 

 interesting statistics; 



To Ch.^kles T. J.icksok, State Geologist, &c. 



Dcur Sir: — Being much indebted to you for in- 

 formation in regard to the use of peat, as a manure, 

 and the mode in which its acid properties may be 

 not only neutralized, but made a most valuable 

 food for plants, I beg leave to state, that in the fall 

 of 183(5, I took fronrmy bog about three cords of 

 peat, and placed it in a pile on the nearest solid 

 land, la the woods. It remained there undisturb- 

 ed until sometime in November, 1S37. By the ac- 

 tion of the frost of the preceding winter, and tho 

 heat of the summer, it had lost much of its adhe- 

 sive property, and was greatly reduced in weight. 



I now brought it liome, and wiille one was un- 

 loading, another sifted in lime with the hand, (it 

 having been previously slaked to fine powder,) at 

 the rate of one bushel to a cord of peat. Lime 

 having thus been scattered evenly through the 

 whole'mass, nothing further was done to it until a- 

 bout the middle of the next May. Observing, af- 

 ter the manure had been removed from the barn 

 yard, that a considerable quantity of water from 

 "the rains had collected itself in tha lowest part of 



