1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



37 



ting hogs, you will recollect, are fed upon the barn floor, aud cleaned into the cellar, where the sows 

 run belore they pig. 



Nathaniel Ingkrsoll. 

 J. S. Skinner, Esq. 



Pumn. 



Common passage, 3 feet wide. 



I I 

 I I 



Passage 3 feet wide. 



Trough to feed sows when they run in the cellar. 





CQ 



Yard for sucking pigs, 

 and also approach to 

 cellar. 



Gate. 



11 



12 



c_ 



o" 



From the Farmers' Magnzine. 

 REVIEW OF "essays ON THE NATURAL HIS- 

 TORY AND ORIGIN OP PEAT MOSs" By the 



Reverend R. Rennie. 



Philosophers are not at one with regard to the 

 nomenclature of soils. It is plain, however, so 

 far as regards practical and useful purposes, thai 

 soils may be classed as clay, gravel, sand, and 

 peat earth; and that to one or other of these soils, 

 the numerous varieties to be found in the British 

 isles are less or more allied, though the decrree of 

 affinity betwixt them is, in many cases, ditficult to 

 be ascertained. Loam has generally been treated 

 of as an original soil, though we are disposed to 

 view it as an artificial one, produced by the appli- 

 cation of calcareous matter and animal and vege- 

 table manures. Even peat earth may be con- 

 verted into a soft black loam, and rendered fertile 

 and productive by different processes; such as 

 draining, liming, and mixing it with clay or any 

 other soil, which has a stouter body, or contains a 



greater portion of vegetable substance. From 

 these circumstances, a degree of confusion pre- 

 vails respecting the nature and properties of seve- 

 ral soils, which renders every description of them 

 more abstruse than at first sight might be expect- 

 ed. Even the admixture of surface and substra- 

 tum by deep ploughing, augments the confusion, 

 and serves to produce a change in the original 

 soil, of considerable magnitude. 



It is only with one of the varieties of soil, howe- 

 ver, which we at this time have any business, 

 namely, peat earth, or moss; but whe"n it is con- 

 sidered, that this variety forms the surface of at 

 least one-sixth of Great Britain, the subject will 

 appear of such importance as to call for the most 

 minute and serious inveslijiaiion. After all, we 

 are not sure whether peat earth should be consi- 

 dered as a primary or original soil: we are rather 

 disposed to view it as an artificial one, and pro- 

 duced by certain substances deposited on the sur- 

 face of the earth. On these points philosophers 

 are greatly at variance, entertaining such discor- 



