466 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



No. 



8 



U me will accelerate the decomposition of the ve- 

 getable matter of which the whole mass of moss- 

 earth is composed; and, as putrefaction advances, 

 the food of plants will be prepared, and the moss 

 will be gradually formed into a black mould. 

 Lime is the best re-agent that the farmer can ap- 

 ply; and a shovel to put it on, with a spade to dig 

 up the moss, are all the apparatus he can as yet use 

 to advantage. 



3. Insolubility, or an antiseptic quality, forms 

 the distinguishing peculiarity of moss. All other 

 plants, whenever they cease to grow, are liable to 

 be dissolved by putrefaction. It is appointed for 

 all vegetables, as well as animals, to die, and, 

 after death, to be subjected to decomposition. 

 That terrible power begins where vegetation ter- 

 minaies; and steadily pursues its course of des- 

 truction, till it completely reduces the beautiful 

 works of vegetable organization, sets the whole 

 substances of which plants were composed at liber- 

 ty, and either restores them to the elements from 

 which they had been collected by vegetable or- 

 ganization, or crives them an opportunity to enter 

 into new compounds. While vegetation is rearing 

 and perfecting a nevv crop of plants, putreliiction 

 is reducing and separating the component parts 

 of that which preceded it; and as growing plants 

 are fed upon the remains of former crops, when 

 reduced by putrefaction, that awful power may be 

 considered as the feeder and supporter of plants 

 while they remain in life, and their destroyer 

 whenever they die. 



The plants whieh grow upon, and contribute to 

 the formation of moss- earth, are the only ones in 

 the whole vegetable kingdom that oppose any 

 thing like a successful resistance to the all-subduing 

 powers of putrefaction. Their resistance, howe- 

 ver, does not prevent the destroyer from advan- 

 cing so far, as in all cases to disfigure the plants, 

 and, in many cases, to nearly annihilate their or- 

 ganic texture; but its powers are not adequate to 

 the complete reduction of that tribe of plants. A 

 considerable portion of the organic texture of some 

 of the plants, and a sort of mucus, which is form- 

 ed of others, baffles the powers of" puirelaciion; 

 and one crop of these accumulating over another, 

 the moss stratum ha> risen to the height we now 

 Bee. The plants that grow in the greatest quan- 

 tity of moisture, are those that present the most 

 powerful resistance to putrefaction. 



The insoluble antiseptic qualities of moss are so 

 powerful, that they will prevent putrefiriction trom 

 making the least progress on wood, metals, 

 clothes, leather, or even on animal matter, when 

 buried in moss. The trees found in moss are 

 often much rotted, especially in the upper side: 

 but this must have happened before they were 

 covered over by the moss. The clothes on dead 

 bodies buried in moss for more than a century, have 

 been found as sound and fi-ee from rottenness, as 

 if they had only remained there for one month. I 

 have in my custody, a shoe evidently of Roman 

 manufacture, and a species of cloth formed of hair, 

 both found under moss in this parish, which 

 though they must have remained there for many 

 centuries, are as free from corruption as those now 

 in the shops for sale. JVlany luimam bodies have 

 been dug up from under moss, in various parts of 

 Britain and Ireland, after remaining a century, 

 and some of them several centuries in the moss; 

 all of M'hich have been found as entire and free 

 from corrup;io;> as when they were buried. 



So far as I know, it has not yet been ascertained 

 what are the particular ingredients of these plmus, 

 or in the moss-earth formed fiom them, that with- 

 stand the powers of putrelaction. Dr. Walker 

 thinks It cannot proceed from the mineral or vege- 

 table acids; but Dr. Ronnie mentions the carlxm- 

 ic, the gallic, and the sulphuric acids, and Dr. 

 Jamieson, the suberic acid, among the chief cau- 

 ses of the antiseptic quality of moss earth. 



Be this as it may, I am humbly of opinion that 

 tannin, though not mentioned by either ol' them, 

 contributes powerfully towards the resistance 

 which moss presents to the dissolving powers of 

 putrefaction. Many of the plants which grow 

 upon moss, and contribute to its formation, con- 

 tain a larire portion of tan. Tormentilla, which 

 is found growing in all sorts of moss, contains 

 more tan than any other plant, and is the most 

 powerful astringent known in the vegetable king- 

 dom. Probably resin, gum extract, and the bitter 

 principle, will also be found insonieof these plants 

 and contribute to their aniisejitic qualities. 



As moss is wholly composed of vegetable mat- 

 ter, and, of course would f()rm the best of manure 

 if it were or could be rendered soluble, a discovery 

 of the means, by which iis antiseptic and insolu- 

 ble qualities could be removed, and the moss ren- 

 dered as septic and soluble as other vegetable mat- 

 ter, would be of greater importance than any dis- 

 covery, either in agriculture, or any other science, 

 for a century past. It would, in fitct, enable the 

 farmer toextend the volume of his dunghill at plea- 

 sure, and add several millions of acres to the 

 range of cultivated and productive soil. 



4. T^^e /e/7ac('/i/ of moss, in the natural mass in 

 which it is found, and when it has been dried 

 into peat, has been noticed by all who have writ- 

 ten on the the subject. While moss remaire un- 

 broken, it is so close and adhesive, that, if lef: one 

 or two inches in thickness, and duly supported, it 

 will hold water like a dish; and when good l)lack, 

 well decayed moss, is cut into peat, and dried, be- 

 fore its tenacity is loosened by frost, or much rain, 

 it becomes so hard and firm, that it is not afier- 

 wards so easily formed into a soil, or melted down 

 by the weather. But this quality in moss seems 

 to me to have been much overrated. 



Degner, a Dutch philosopher, author of the 

 opinion afterwards retailed by Dr. Anderson, viz: 

 that moss was a growing plant siii generis, as- 

 serts, that when moss is dried, it becomes a hard 

 tenacious substance, insoluble in water; and that 

 his countrymen sometimes lay the foundations of 

 their houses on peats; and when the buildings 

 have decayed through age, the peats remain 

 sound. Dr. Anderson, who implicitly follows 

 Degner, repeats the same story; and Dr. Rennie, 

 who has devoted a section to that subject, asserts, 

 that "after peat is thoroughly dried, it is one of the 

 most insoluble substances, and the least liaf)le to 

 change or dissolution." He then adds, under a 

 quotation mark, but does not say from what au- 

 thoritv, that "a piece of dried peat was put into 

 the boiler of a steam-engine, for three months; 

 yet, though exposed to a heat greater than boiling 

 water, it remained unchanged." The surliice of 

 the peat was covered with something like the 

 powder of iron; but "the centre, and all but the 

 surfiice, was unchanged." This tenacity, the 

 Doctor thinks proceeds from the bituminous qual- 

 ities of the moss; and he says the adhesion of 



