MANURING PEAT LANDS, 523 



posed, Ihcre emanate the sturdy oak, the saccharine maple and the majestic 

 elm, the richest and most immense spontaneous vegetable productions of the 

 earth. 



By a cursory <?lancc at the chemical nature of those plants which at different 

 periods have liourishod upon peat beds, we discover in those first thrivinij, a su- 

 perabundance of oxalic, tartaric and citric acids, all of which allbrd not the 

 slightest nutriment to cultivated plants; on the contrary, their presence is ex- 

 ceedingly pernicious to plants abounding in animal nutriment. Again, in the 

 carexcs or stinted forest-trees acidiferous compounds predominate, which in con- 

 stitution are diametrically opposed to those occurring in cultivated plants. 



If any considerable portion of these noxious compounds shall remain in peat, 

 by adding a substance that neutralizes their acidity, a mighty barrier to the pros- 

 perity of cultivated vegetation is removed. 



Hence, when yard-manure abundant in Alkaline compound is added to soils 

 abounding in acids, non-injurious compounds re?ult ; the same phenomenon oc- 

 curs Avhen gypsum or lime is incorporated v\-iih acidiferous soils. 



The second defect is a want of appropriate inorganic nutriment. Although it 

 contains an abundance of silex, which is an important constituent in vegetable 

 development, it may not and, as we shall contend, does not contain a sulhciency 

 of other elements no less essential than silica in vegetable economy. We may 

 here introduce a physiological axiom, which will enable us to comi)rehend the 

 phenomenon attending the application of mineral manures, and to better appre- 

 ciate the value and certain indisj)ensability of inorganic fertilizers. 



The truth is this: all plants require inorganic nutriments; each species will 

 select those elements peculiar to itself; perfect development of any plant is not 

 insured unless there is a sufficiency of every requisite element, be it ever so di- 

 minutive in quantity. The second and third clauses of this truth have a mate- 

 rial bearing upon the condition and improvement of peat lands. Each plant 

 electively gathers from the soil those elements most congenial to its own pros- 

 perity ; else how should the ash of wheat yield eight times the amount of mag- 

 nesia that potato-tops do ? or oats contain 53 per cent, of silica, and beans only 1 

 per cent. ? And why should there be 6 per cent, of soda in mangel-wurzel and 

 no traces of this alkali in oats, all grown upon the same soil. Those organized 

 bodies that now lie mouldering in peat beds were hardy shrubs and forest-trees, 

 requiring only those elements that would impart strength and inflexibility to 

 their tissue, such as lime and silica ; they predominate in the ash of forest-trees 

 to the almost entire exclusion of magnesia, alumina and phosphates, all of which 

 are indispensable to a luxuriant growth of crops furnishing animal nutriment. 



That a deficiency of an essential element produces an abortive crop is striking- 

 ly illustrated in the culture of cereals : those sown upon soils containing an 

 abundance of organic matter, lime, and soluble silica, produce gigantic stalks 

 destitute of grain; by adding magnesia, an exuberant growth of stalk is induced 

 bearing a withered grain, covered Avith an exceedingly tenacious epidermis ; again, 

 add a compound yieldinff phosphoric acid to the soil, when a perfect plant is de- 

 veloped, bearing a due share of nutritious aliment — evidencing that the weal or 

 woe of the crop was dependent upon the presence or absence of the last adminis- 

 tered compound. 



Practical experience has long since established the fact that cereals do not 

 flourish well as a first crop upon reclaimed peat lands, but that they are more 

 successful after the land has received a dressing of yard or mineral manures, and 

 has been ameliorated by tillage with other crops. Can any other cause be as- 

 signed for the increment given to the cereals than that a deficient element has 

 been supplied by the yard or mineral manure ? From this view of the inorganic 

 ingredients in peat soils we deduce two conclusions showing the necessity of ap- 

 plying inorganic manures. 



First, that the organized substance constituting peat, in its primeval or vital 

 state, contained only traces of several inorganic constituents that are found 

 abundant in cultivated plants ; second, that a portion of these diminutive con- 

 stituents have, during the process of decomposition, combined with pernicious 

 acids, and are consequently unavailable nutriment. Now to the third defect in 

 peat soils for the production of cultivated crops, viz., the want of one essential 

 organic element. 



. (1043) 



