1837] 



FA R INl KRS' REGISTER 



467 



the peat can b« destroyed by removal of the bitu- 1 are found; and it is upon that which they live. In 

 men, and airain restored by the "application oi li- j unbroken moss, there is scarcely snch a thinir as 

 quid biluiiieii, ore^'en by iinniersiiiij it in a quanti- 

 ty of water scjueezed out of another piece of moss." 

 I have never seen peats that liiid remained li)r 

 a<rtis as the tbuittlation of a iiouse, nor tliat had 

 been three months in a boiler; tint i havepeen |)eais 

 of as irood quality as the best in Holland, or an}- 

 other place, when exposed to the vicissitudes of 



a soil. There is little or no lermenlation or de 

 composition of vetxet.able matter, even on the sar- 

 liice of unbroken moss, which is close and solid, 

 ;md where the vegetable matter is insoluble and 

 antiseptic; and. there being no Ibod for them, the 

 iininialcula are not found there. Neither is the 

 mole Ibund in such moss. That creature lives on 



the weather for three or four years, lose their Lena- j the animalcula, as they do on the veiretable mat- 

 citv, becomes loose and triable, and m(juider into ter when under putreliiction. That being awant- 

 eanh, beinir as desiiiule of indammability as so | ing in moss, there are no animalcula, and as lew 

 uuich old larm-yard duiiir. The ends of those I moles. Bui whenever the moss is dug up, and 

 tliat are in a «taek exposed to the vveatiier ibr a lermentation and decomposition brought on the ve- 

 vear or two, become loose m their texture, vuid lose gelable matter, by the acid of manure, exposure 

 the irreatest |)art of their intiammability. Vege- to the atmosphere, or either means, armies ol 

 tables will soon begin to .<rrow in thetii; and the | worms and animalcula are raised, and troops of 

 whole stack would "crumhle down to earth, in j moles are fbund in chase of them, 

 a shorter time than a well built house in Holland j Dr. Rennie says—'' Certainly living animals 

 could be sujiposed to decay of age. Tiie ends of | may be detected much deeper in other soils than 

 the peats that are [)laced next to the cjround in the i in moss." The Doctor is certainly correct in that 

 slack, are always damp, and their adhesion loos- j assertion; and the reason is obvious. Other soils 

 eiied; and peats are always so, whet) |)iaced fbr ' are generally more open and permeable than so- 

 a lew mouths iu any daiiip place. \^nien any, | lid unbroken moss. The herbage that grows on 



even of the driest an<l the best peats that ever 

 were cut, are led on the spread-field over year, 

 they are not worth !akin<r home Ibr ftie! next sea- 

 feon; and in two or three years more rhey have 

 lost all Ibrm ol peats and adhesion, and are crum- 

 bled into earth, nearly desiititufe of inflammabili- 

 ty. I never tried ilie cementing powers of any 

 other liquid bitumen; but the water scpieez^^.d out 

 out of any other spe(-ies of moss hasi no elTect 

 with me in restoring the tenacity of weatlier- 

 beaten peat. I will venture to assert, tliai all the 

 juices that can be squeezed out of an acre of moss- 

 earth, will not cement and render adhesive one 

 peat of an ordinary size, madeupofthe remains ol 

 those that had remained two years exposed to the 

 weather, or of the crumbs of peats on the peat- 

 stack-stead. If these were again reduced to pul- 

 py mucus, or as soft and void of granulated matter, 



them is not of an antiseptic quality, like that on 

 moss; but, whenever it ceases to grow, it yields to 

 complete dissolution by putrelaction. The vege- 

 table matter so dissolved, Ibrms and enriches the 

 soil; and the vegetable juices are washed in, and 

 sink into the earth to a considerable depth, accord- 

 ing to the permeable nature of the ground; and 

 wherever these go, the animalcula will be Ibund. 

 But, in moss, there is no such thing as vegetable 

 matter under putrelaction. If it were, the close 

 texture of that earth, would prevent it from sink- 

 ing even a few inches; of course, there can be no 

 worms nor animalcula there. The want of them 

 does not ptoceed from any noxious quality in the 

 moss pernicious to animal life. 



Fishes, and every sort of living ceatures that 

 occupy stanks, and small streams, where there 

 is no moss water, are found in those which 



(a thing by no means easy to be done with good ! are entirely composed of that species of water, 

 peat), it might be baked into peat, which would j There are hundreds of burns, nils, and standing 

 be somewhat adhesive when drv; but I do not I lakes or pools of water, in all the counties in 

 suppose that the water squeezed out of moss | Scotland, situated in the ndddle of deep moss, and 



would have any eflects in that operation, more 

 than that taken from a si)ringor river 



Degnerand Dr. Anderson have endeavored to 

 support their favorite theory, by an argument de- 

 duced from the circumstance, that no worms, nor 

 animalcula, are found in solid unbroken moss, more 

 than a loot or eighteen inches below the surtace. 



into which nothing but moss water can ever fall; 

 and yet these streams, pools or stanks, are stored 

 with various sorts of fish, and all the living crea- 

 tures that occupy places where there is no moss. 

 The Blackburn, parish of Crawfordjohn, rises in, 

 and runs through moss, is composed of moss- 

 water, and nothing but moss-water, dark and 



Dr. Rennie, takinij their story fbr his text, hiis dis- ! brown; yet it yields the largest, the best, and 

 played much ingenuity and knowledge of science, i the greatest number of trouts that are to be 

 to show that the want of reptiles in moss is a I found in any stream of the same size in Scotland, 

 proof of some peculiarly noxious quality in that j The lochs, streams, and stanks, that abound at 

 earth. And in page 564, he says that no species i the head of Loch-Dum in Ayrshire are entirely 

 of fish do exist in liquid moss; and neither fishes, | composed of moss-water; yet fishes, and many 

 nor any living creature, can be detected in moss living creatures, abound in all of them. 



water, il stagnant and unmixed. 



But, with due submission to authors of superi- 

 or erudition, I can discover no mystery in the 

 want of worms and reptiles in solid unbroken 



I did not intend, when I began to write, to have 

 occupied so much of your valuable room on this 

 part of the subject; but an ardent wish to render 

 every thing regarding that substance clear to the 



moss below the soil. If I understand reptile econ- i simplest cultivator, and to remove objections that 

 omy, they are never fbund beyond the bounds of j seemed to stand in his way, has carried me fur- 

 the soil, or the reach of the moisture that passes i ther than I intended to have gone. 



from it, and is impregnated with vegetable matter. ,,, rr>L i ^\i ,x. 



W„ 1 „ii. ^„^ c ■ "^ . ,. \\\. Ihe I'Ses of Moss-earth. 



orms, and all* sorts of anuTialcnla, live upon [ ■' 



vegetable matter in the soil that has come under i Are, 1. Fuel; 2. Pasture j 3. Plantation ; 4. 



fermentation. It is in such situations that they | a G///rt;rt/>?</ so//; and, 5. Manure. I shull otiei a 



tew remarks on each ol these in their order. 



