52 PEAT. 



penetrate and prepare the whole of it for the nour- 

 ishment of plants. The amount possessed will not 

 necessarily effect the first crop ; but it may soon 

 become so exhausted that it will not produce another. 

 Upon the amount of humic acid which is contained 

 in the soil will depend the length of time in which 

 it will continue to produce good crops. 



Humus, by absorbing oxygen from the atmosphere, 

 is able to furnish the plant with carbonic acid, 

 which is thus produced, and also with oxygen. 

 While there are soils which are unfertile from want 

 of humus, yet this element, which exists in such 

 vast quantities in the peaty deposits of swamps, 

 would, if mixed with them, render all such fertile. 

 Dr. Dana says that " the fact that peat, or turf, is 

 very soluble in alkali, seems not to be known among 

 our farmers. The usual practice of mixing lime 

 with peat is decidedly the worst which can be fol- 

 lowed, as the geine, which forms the largest part 

 of peat bogs, forms with lime a compound which 

 is very insoluble. With allumina geine forms a 

 compound still more insoluble than with lime ; and 

 though the vegetable matters in combination with 

 these earthy bases are actually absorbed by the roots 

 of growing plants, still the geine is in a state much 

 less favorable than when in combination with al- 

 kali. If we mix the lye of wood ashes with peat, 

 we form a dark-brown vegetable solution ; the al- 

 kaline properties are completely neutralized by the 



