382 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



" I have improved about 200 acres of peal- 

 bogs, the average not worth Gd. an acre in their 

 natural state, now worih fully 31. A considera- 

 ble part of it was very expensive to accomplish, 

 as it was necessary to fill up large holes (rom 

 which peat had been duir lor lijel ; many acres of 

 it cost me upwards of 30/. the acre ; but still this 

 ground remunerates me l(:)r the expenditure of so 

 large a sum, besides lemoving an ugly object in 

 the' middle of the low grounds in the neighbor- 

 hood of my residence ; every hollow, of which 

 there were many within a mile of the house, was 

 filled by an ugly, useless, black peat-bog. 



" I do not recollect whether I pointed out to you 

 some grass-fields that had been improved from 

 black moor-land, by first paring and burning, and 

 then ploughing the first season, the ground being 

 exposed to a winter's irost, and during the next 

 summer lay about 160 bushels of lime upon the 

 imperial acre, and sowing out the ground in July 

 or August with 5 bushels of the holcus lanalus 

 without taking a corn crop. The reason wliy 1 

 did not take crops of corn Irom moor-ground ge- 

 nerally having a peaty surlace ol 4 or 5 inches, 

 was to keep it in a compact state ; as i have Ibund 

 that soil of this kind, after bearing crops of corn 

 and being li-equenily ploughed, becomes so loose 

 and pulverized that the (eet of cattle completely 

 destroy tlie pasture, and that the roots of the 

 prass are injured by the loose slate of the ground. 

 This grass-land has given me upon the average 

 from 123. to 14s. per acre annually, in its original 

 state nut worth Is. Qd. The moor-ground upon 

 grauwacke after this improvement is much more 

 valuable than where the subsoil is sandstone, 



" 1 have employed lime as it is practised in Der- 

 byshire to great advantage upon the surlace of 

 moor-land ; but as it requires a very large dose of 

 iime, it can only be done where lime is cheap, as 

 it requires li-om 200 to 300 bushels of lime per 

 acre to destroy the great quantity of vegetable 

 matter in moor soils, which it soon accomplishes, 

 as is shown by tlie land being soon filled with 

 moles, which are drawn to it by the decayed vege- 

 table matter producing worms, the food of moles. 



"In Craven, in Yorkshire, lime is employed 

 very extensively as a top dressing even upon 

 limestone soil, 'l have Ibund that the cattle liied 

 upon pasture well top-dressed with lime much 

 quicker, and that the meat is much richer and bet- 

 ter mixed, than upon pastures apparently equally 

 productive of herbage. I remain, dear sir, yours 

 truly, C. G. Stuart IVIonteith. 



" The Rev. Dr. Buckland." 



It is certainly a very successful operation to 

 have improved, at whatever expense, 200 acres of 

 land from the value of sixpence per acre to that of 

 three pounds. I have lately seen as great an im- 

 provement upon the propeny of Mr. Blake, at 

 Upton, in West Somerseisliire. The peat-bogs 

 there lie on the slope of a hill. The mode of 

 treatment was this: — To underdrain at depths 

 varying fi-om 3 to 6 leet, to pure and burn the sur- 

 face, to grow turnips two years successively, dress- 

 ing twice with 60 bushels of lime fier acre, then 

 to lay the land down with grass seeds to perma- 

 nent pasture. 'The grass is let yearly at sums 

 varying from 3/. to 4Z. per acre. It is singular 

 that in one field so treated, and afterwards water- 

 ed, no trace of the peat remained in the upper 



part of the soil, which had become a pale-colored 

 earth — ! suppose by 'he entire destruction of the 

 peaty substance. The grass on this land is sweet 

 and close, like the turf ur»on chalk downs, and 

 the land almost as firm. This land is on the same 

 subsoil with Sir Charles Monteiih'e, the grau- 

 wacke or shillet, an 'mperltct clay-slate, which in 

 Somersetshire, as in Scotland, is considered lavo- 

 ratile to trrase. 



It is proved then, by the success of farmers ge- 

 nerally in the lians of our eastern counties, of Sir 

 Charles Monteith in Scotland, and ol Mr. Blake in 

 West Somerset, that pCMl, which by nature is the 

 most unpromisins of all wastes, can be profitably 

 improved, and even be raised to the rank of our 

 most productive soils. But, in order to efl^'ect this 

 great benefit, it is considered necessarj' ihat either 

 clay or lime should he applied to the surface — 

 which, however, ol the two is not certain. Find- 

 ing this variety of practice, I have endeavor- 

 ed, in the course of drawing up this statement, 

 to obtain fresh evidence in order to clear up 

 the point. I cannot say that I have succeeded in 

 clearing it up ; but the facts which have come to 

 my knowledge may serve as materials lor future 

 inquiry, and I ought therefore to lay them shortly 

 before the society. It occurred to me that, as the 

 Lincolnshire farmers, who had been so successful 

 in the use of clay, had derived no benefit Irom 

 the use of lime, the Lincolnshire clay possibly 

 contained lime already. Mr. Cooke, at my request, 

 sent me two specimens of clay from Digby Fen : 

 one of these, a very strong clay in appearance, 

 eti'ervesced much with muriatic acid, and consisted 

 entirely of finely-powdered lime mixed with fine 

 sand. It Contained, I believe, scarcely any true 

 clay ; it is, in fact, a strong blue marl. The se- 

 cond specimen contained no lime at all, some true 

 clay, and a great deal of fine sand. Mr. Cooke 

 stated, as I expected, Ihat the first specimen was a 

 much more efieciive dressing than the second : 

 but I learned on the other hand Irom Handley thata 

 clay resembling Mr. Cooke's second specimen had 

 been used with ijrreat success by a relative of his 

 own ; and a clay of Mr Wingaie's, which I ex- 

 amined three years since, certainly contained no 

 lime at all. Lime, therefore, is not indispensable 

 tor the improvement of some peat. Dr. Buckland 

 suggested to me that such peat may contain lime 

 already ; and I have si<ice (bund his conjecture 

 perlt^ctly right in the (bllowinii instance. On my 

 mentioning to Mr. Wingaie that some of the Lin- 

 colnshire clay is in fact marl, he replied that he 

 had caned marl upon peat without benefit, but 

 had lound clay to answer upon the same peat. I 

 asked him therefore for specimens of the two sub- 

 stances. The marl, which had entirely failed, 

 proved 10 be a white tenacious marl, consisting 

 entirely of powdered lime, apparently unmixed 

 with any other description of earth. The blue 

 clay, which liad succeeded, was in fact a marl 

 also, containing a large quantity of lime mixed 

 wiih clay and fine sand. The peaty soil when 

 mixed with acid threw up bubbles copiously ; so 

 that, as Dr. Buckland had anticipated, it contain- 

 ed enough lime in its natural state. In another 

 part ol' the fens a white marl lies so near the sur- 

 face of the peat that it is purposely brought up by 

 the plough, and therefore forms what is locally 

 called gray-land, a soil of known feriility in that 

 district. I am not aware whether this peat con- 

 tains lime naturally. 



