iS3ti 



F A R Al E US' R ! : (J I S T K R . 



47.1 



frenileman who depcribos the mosa cultivation at i niire. Scarcely any other manure has ever been 

 Swinriiii^emuir, both seem to doubt the effects i applied, either lo the bent mosses on the estates 

 ot' (hiniT as a manure to moss; but nolhing,has [ of Grnu!j;ar, Glesnoek, and many oiheKs in Ar- 

 been better aseertaincd respeetinii it, than the pow- 1 jryleshire: or even to tiie deep flow mosses, that 

 erful etlects of dung; as manure to tiiat species ol'j have been reclaimed at Riccarton, Shoahon, 

 soil. No other manure will operate, so speedily, i MontjL^reinan, Giesnock, &c. &c. The most ex- 

 so powerfully, and with so much certainty, as tensive, and best. conducted improvements ot'niot^s, 

 duni; upon flow moss. Dunir was the Only ma- to be met with in Scotland, are on ilie estate of 

 nure applied to Strathaven moss, lor fifty years Ilarlfield, near Paisly, executed by Robert Ful- 

 afler it was first broken up. And when it is con- ton, esq.; and lin)e has been alrtiost the only ma- 

 sidered, thnt more tlian three-f.turth parts of what nure applied, euher to the hill, bent or How moss- 



had beirun to be cidiivated, was, durin<2; that pen 

 od, (Tcnendly in crop with oats, and yielded from 

 ten to Ht'teen bolls |)er acre, with no ot!ier itlanure 

 than about five or six tons of dunt^ per acre, put 

 on with the seed, every second year; it is but lair 

 to conclude, liom that instance alone, 'hat dung 

 oper.ates as an excellent and powerful manure to 

 the deepest and worst of flow moss. But many 

 other instances could be fj^iven, if necessary, of 

 the efiecl of dunij as a 

 soil. 



es. No other manure but lime has been used in 

 the im[)rovement of the dee'>est flow moss at Red- 

 nock house in Monteith, Perthshire, or at Dtui- 

 troon, and many others that I have carelully sur- 

 veyed, and described in my last publication. 



Earth, clay, sand, rolten-rnck, and every sub- 

 stance whatever, that linlls into powder, by the m- 

 flue.nces of the weather, forms an excellent ma- 

 nure to moss. Rich mould will no doubt have 

 anure to that species of; the spediest and o;reatest effects; but any other 

 earth, however sleril, or however liir below the. 



If dun^: can be obtained, a moderate dressing ! surface it may come, will penetrate the moss-turf; 

 ought, by all means, to be applied to flow moss, ' divide its vegetable fibres; give ii solidity; which, 

 the first time it is cropped. Other manures may ! it much wants; bring it into putrefaction; and reii- 

 (especially if it is exposed to the weather till the ' der it productive of grain and rich grasses. John 

 soil be well Ibrmed,) render even flow moss pro- i Mackenzie, esq. of Gariikirk, James Hill, esq. of 

 duclive; but nothing will produce an effect so } Gartsheugh, Dr. .Jefler}-, and others, who have 

 speedy and certain as dung^-which not only en- | made extensive and spirited improvements on 

 riches the soil, by communicating to it, its lertil- { deep flow mosses, in (he vicinity of Glasgow, and 

 izing qualities, but also bnnus the moss into a rendered them productive of the best crops of ail 

 stale of putreliiclion, thereby converting it into a sorts ofgrain^ applied considerable quantities of 

 manure tor itself. f'^yj or other earths, as manure to their mosses; 



Dung is generally spread on moss at the time 1 and with great success. Burnt elavj is said to be 

 the seeds are sown; and it usuall}' aets no other j a powerful manure to moss ; but I have not been 

 covering, but by the harrow. But as dung, when able to discover that it has ever been used to sucli 

 exposed to the sun and drought of spring, loses its j extent as is necessary to ascertain its effects, 

 best qualities, which are exhaled and carried off compared with the expense of preparing and lay- 

 in gas. It would be much better to put it on in Oc- Inn if on. 



tober or November, that it might be washed into 

 the soil before the Irosts come on, which are sup- 

 posed to injure the dung. 



Lime, and every species of calcareous earth, 

 operates as a powerful manure to moss. John 

 Naismith, esq., an author of much intelligence 



Tiionias Leislj, esq. of Luna in Shetland, in- 

 formed me, some time ago, that some mosses in 

 that part had been rendered productive and brought 

 into a state of putrefaction, by the application of 

 sea-ipater. 



Burning part of the moss, for manure to that 



and respectability, seems to have entertained 1 or any other soil, seems to me to be, of all modes 

 doubts of the elfects of lime as a manure to moss, ! of improvement, the most exceptionable.- When 

 from its not having succeeded \n some of his flow- 1 pure moss is burnt in the open air, nineteen parts 

 er-pot experiments, where he mixed one-fourth of out of twenty of its substance, is sent ofl'in a gas- 



hot lime with three-lburths of moss. But, what 

 ever might be the results, in experiments' where 

 the proportion of lime was by i'-Av too great, ! can 



eoiis state, and irrecoverably lost to ihe cultivator. 

 The real asfies of a ton of pure mo.sis, would not 

 fill a man's hat. The salts, &c. which they ccn- 



ventuteto say, with rtie utmost certainty, that lime, ' tain, ofenerally produce one threat crop, and one of' 

 and every calcareous =ubsTance, forms the very ! a very moderate value; after which, the moss be- 

 best of manure to moss. The acid in moss, and come.=^ very steril, and cannot so' easily be again 

 the alkali of lime, encounter, effervesce, destroy : rendered productive. 



each other, and form a neutral salt, which is j It is scarcely possible to redace peat "ompletely 

 highly propitious to vegetation. As the acid in ' to ashes,- even in a grate, and when perfectly dry. 

 moss is One of the chief causes of iis insolubility, , The one half of what falls into the ash-pit, is not 

 the reduction of that acid renders the vegetable ; ashes, but cinder, or ehar; and when the damp' 

 matter, of which moss is composed, soluble, and : moss is set on fire, without either being cut up or 

 thereby converts it into the food of plmits. It'j dried, as is generally done in Scotland, the pro- 

 moss is entirely destitute of a green sward, the portion of cinder, or char, must be greater, amt 

 operations o!' lime as manure, though certain, will I that of the real ashes smaller. These cinders,- 

 be slow. But on moss covered, with coarse her- i left in the soil, nre as insoluble as so much water- 

 bage, as bent moss, or where a sward of grasses, I sand, and nearly as light as their bulk of cork, 

 or green herbage, has been brough.t on by cultiva- i rendering the moPs soil more open and permeable" 

 tion, lime, and nothing but lime, ought to be ap- ' than belbre, the greatest ifefect to which it is iia- 

 plied. I have seen thousand? of acres of mop?:, of, ble. The 'consequences are, that wherever part 

 all descriptions, reclaimed, and rendered highly i of the moss has been burnt, the chief plant that it 

 productive, by the application of lime alone as ma- \ produces, in a lew years aficr, is the bryumpurpj - 

 Vol. V— 60 



