1837] 



ARMERS' REGISTER. 



471 



the turf taken Irorn them may be applied to fill np 

 the low phuMis on the surtaco. And it" miu'li inc- 

 qnaiily shall still prevail, some ol' the knolls may 

 be |)ared, and what is taken lioin them laitl into 

 the lower places. 



The lime OLiu'ht, b}"- all means to be applied in 

 its most caustic stale, that it may the more pow- 

 erfully reiluce the coarse herhaije to putreliiction, 

 and convert if into the food of plants. If the 

 hme has become eflete belbre it is spread on the 

 sward, its etlec's in reducin<r the coarse herbage 

 will be much diminished; and the lime outrht to 

 remain a year or so upon the sward belbre it is 

 labored. 



If the surface of the jrround be tolerably smooth 

 and equal, the bent-moss may be plouiihed; but 

 if it abounds with inequalities, it will be much bet- 

 ter to diu; it with the spade. When ploughed the 

 first year, some delve it with spades the second, 

 to break the extreme tenacity of the furrows, and 

 reduce every inequality of the surlitce which can- 

 not be so easily done by the plouirh. But I would 

 rather advise the cultivator to labor the bent moss 

 with spades for the first year; as, in that case, the 

 soil can be cut and lormed much deeper than can be 

 done by the plouo-h; and when once it is cut into 

 spadefuls, it can be much easier ploui^hed for next 

 crop, than when it remains in tough liirrows, lorm- 

 ed by the plough. It ought to be labored in har- 

 vest, so as it may get the benefit of the winter 

 frosts, to reduce its texture, before it is dried into 

 peat. The earlier it can be sown, the better; and 

 as the mould will not be properly lormed, the 

 seed ought to be covered chiefly by hoeing for the 

 first year; and the roller ought to follow the hoe 

 CM" harrow, as it completes the covering of the 

 seed, and consolidates the soil to keep out the 

 drought. 



The ridges ought to be formed about thirty or 

 forty feet wide, made as regular as possible, I'ree 

 of heights and hollows, raised a few inches only 

 in the centre, and the furrows about a Ibot wide, 

 and eight inches deep. Nothing is more hurtful 

 to any species of moss, than the slightest inequal- 

 ity on the surlace of the ridges. The low places 

 ^ill be injured by two much damp, and the heights 

 by want of moisture. 



Three crops, at least, are necessary for the right 

 formation of the soil in bent moss. They may be 

 all of oats — that being the most certain and gen- 

 erally the most profitable crop; and it is impos- 

 sible the soil can be in the least degree exhausted 

 by such a course. I have known moss cropped 

 with oats, without rest, or intermitting crops, for 

 eight or ten years. But though the soil may not 

 be exhausted even by that barbarous course, it 

 becomes too loose, dry and open, and overrun 

 with couch grass. JVloss is always most productive 

 when kept in short rotation shifts, and in a moist 

 condition. 



Bent moss may be sown with grass seeds in 

 the third year; cut for hay one year and pastured 

 for two, or at most for three years: a small quan- 

 tity of hot lime (say thirty bolls or so, per acre) 

 may then be put on the sward; one, or at most two 

 crops of oats taken, when the field may be again 

 sown with grass-seeds. If moss is kept more 

 than two years (after the first course) in crop, it 

 becomes dry; or what the country people call 

 deaf : and if it is more than two or three seasons 

 in pasture, the rich grasses die away; the rushes 



and marsh logs spring np in the low; and the dry 

 i(_)gs, and even heather, in the higher places, and it 

 soon becomes wild. But ii one or I wo crops of oats 

 are taken; one crop hay; and one, two, or at most 

 three years pastare; the moss will be kept in most 

 productive slate; and, by the aid of a very small 

 (luanlity of lime, every five or six years, it may be 

 made to yield more grain, more hay, and as much 

 pasture-grass, as can be raised on any other des- 

 cription of soil. VV hat lijlly and misconduct must 

 it not then be, to allow one single acre of such 

 land to remain neglected! There are linv coun- 

 ties in Scotland, where there is not as much hcnt 

 and hill-moss, capable of high cultivation, as would 

 give employment to hundreds of liimilies to culti- 

 vate, and raise food lor thousands of additional inha- 

 bitants. Yet we continue to keep loo many of 

 our people coofied up in loom-sho| s, conon-niills, 

 and other unwholesome manuliicturies, to the in- 

 jury of their health and morals, while a market 

 cannot be found for the goods which they manu- 

 facture; and we are paying millions of our gui- 

 neas, every year, lor corn, to our most implaca- 

 ble enemies. The population of Scotland might 

 be o-reatly increased; the Ibod of man multi|)lied; 

 and the physical strength o[' the nation augment- 

 ed, to an incalculable extent, by the cultivation of 

 hill and bent moss. 



Of Flow Moss. 



Flow moss presents an aspect to the cultivator 

 so extremely Ibrbidtling, that, till within these lew 

 years, it was considered by all ranks of farmers as 

 incapable of being reclaimed, or rendered produc- 

 tive of grain or good grasses ; and it coniinued to 

 be, as it were by mutual consent, altogether aban-- 

 doned as to improvement. Hapnily, however, it- 

 has been ascertained, beyond all manner ol doubt, 

 that flow moss, if it can be laid dry on the surface, 

 is as capable as any oilier soil of being made to 

 yield the most valuable crops of the best ol grain, 

 roots, and grasses. 



Even the venerable Lord Karnes, the great 

 patriarch of agriculture, seems not to have per- 

 ceived that flow moss was capable of being re- 

 claimed, when he invented the ingenious mode, 

 still carried on by his son, of floating it into the 

 sea, in order to recover the subsoil which it cov- 

 ered. 



I was anxious to have ascertained who it was 

 that first discovered that flow moss was capable of 

 being lormed into a productive soil ; and, after 

 making much inquiry;; I have not been able to 

 procure evidence of that species of soil being 

 brought under cultivation, in any other place in 

 Scotland, so early as at Strathaven in the county 

 of Lanark ; and the person who first set the ex- 

 ample, was the late John Hamilton of Collin-hill, 

 at, or soon after the year 17-50. If it should be 

 alleged, as Ibrmerly, that I have discovered " a 

 sort ofdistrictal vanity" in this matter, I would an- 

 swer, that I should have been equally happy to have 

 traced that honor to my native couniy of Ayr. 

 But, though the agriculturists of that county began 

 early to improve bent moss, Mr. Hamilton, and 

 others about Strathaven, were before them in the 

 improvement of flow moss. If any other can claim 

 it prior to the middle ot'last ceniury, let iheiTi take 

 the honor, to whatever district it may be Ibund to 

 belong. 



