498 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[xVo. 3 



mixed wilh green stable manure, the proportions 

 are two parts of peat mud to one of dut.g ; and I 

 am confident, from repeated experimont.'-, that a 

 load of this compost, well mixed and fermented, 

 will give as great a produce, and a more perma- 

 nent improvement to the soil, than the same quan- 

 tity of stable manure. In this opinion, I am not 

 nlone. Other accurate and intelligent cukivators, 

 have made similar experiments with similar 

 result?. 



"The vegetable substnnces of which peat is 

 composed having been decomposed in stagnant 

 water;!, they have not passed through a putrefac- 

 tive fermentation, and are therefore supposed to 

 retain much of their natural oils, gums and acids. 

 Peats, in this region, are also supposed to contain 

 portions of sulphate of iron, or copperas, oxide of 

 iron. Sic. This opinion is formed Irom noticing 

 the difference between the efTect produced by 

 using the peat mud on ground, when first taken 

 out of the meadow, and that which is produced 

 after fermentation, with stable manure, or by mix- 

 ing it with lime. The ashes of peat liave little or 

 no perceptible eifects, v*'hen used alone, but by 

 mixing them wilh lime, they become a valuable 

 manure. 



"That our peat may possess other and different 

 properties, which are in a great or less deo-rec in- 

 jurious to plants, is highly probable. These can 

 be detected and remedied only by the aid of sci- 

 ence. It is to the agricultural chemist, that the 

 practical farmer must look lor a developementof his 

 resources, to remove the obstacles which impede 

 his progress, and to impart that inlbrmalion which 

 will give confidence to action, and a successful is- 

 Eue to labor. 



"With an earnest desire that you may persevere 

 in your useful labors, 



I am, dear sir. 



With the highest respect. 

 Your obedient servant, 



E. Phiwney." 



Having, two years since, given Dr. N. C. Keep 

 some instructions, relating to the management of 

 peat compost, that i>:entleman communicated them 

 to his father, an old and intelligent farmer, resioin^ 

 at Longmeadow, upon the Connecticut river ; and 

 the experimental trial having been made to his 

 satislaction, he politely furnishes me with the fol- 

 lowing interesting statistics ; 



"To Charles T. Jackson, State Geolo- 

 gist, &c. 



"Deal' Sir : — Being much indebted to 3^ou for 

 information in re^jrird to the use of peat, as a ma- 

 nure, and the mode in which its acid properties may 

 be not only neutralized, but made a most valuable 

 food for plants, I beg leave to state, that in thelall 

 of 1836, I took from my bog about three cords of 

 peat, and placed it in a pile on the nearest solid 

 land, in the woods. It remained there undisturbed 

 until sometime in November, 1837. By the ac- 

 tii)n of the frost of the precedinu winter, and the 

 heat of the summer, it had lost much of its adhe- 

 sive pr.)perty, and was greatly reduced in weight. 



"I now brought it home, and while one was un- 

 loading, another sifted in liaie with the hand, (ii 

 having been previously slaked to a fine powder,) 

 at the rate of one bushel to a cord of peat. Lime 

 having been thus scattered evenly through the 



whole mass, nothing (ijrihcr was done to it until 

 about the middle of next iMay. Observing, afier 

 the manure had been removed ll-om the barn yard, 

 that a considerable quantity of water from the 

 rains hud collected itself in the lowest part of the 

 yard, (say six or ei<iht barrels,) 1 had the peat 

 removed into it. The ffarnet-colored wash of 

 the yard was rapidly and entirely absorbed. I al- 

 lowed it to remain in this situation until the first of 

 June, during which lime its color had chanured 

 from mahogany to a jet black. Fcrmentaliuii did 

 not take place. 



"By the successive action of the frost, lime, and 

 (he wash of the yard, the sensible qualities oi" the 

 peat had ver}' much changetl. When first taken 

 li-om the bog, it was pulpy and very adhesive — 

 could be spread like butter ; now it was a fine 

 powder, having entirely lost its peculiar adhesive 

 properties. 



"I used the manure thus prepared, for squnshea 

 — planting fifteen rods of ground, very sand}' and 

 much exposed to drouixht. After the mnnure had 

 been dropped, (one shovel full in a hill,) 1 sprin- 

 kled a little lime in each hill, directly upon the 

 peat. Upon this, I planted the autumnal marrow 

 sfjuash. The seeds came up well, and the plants 

 were of a healthy color. Some of the plan's were 

 entirely destroyed, aiid all of them badly eaten by 

 insects; the yellow bug was most def^iructive. 

 The plants, alter they had recovered from this 

 sliock, grew more rapidly than any that I had be- 

 fore witnessed. The color of the vines, and the 

 rapidity with whioli they covered tlie ground, were 

 most convincing pr(^ols to my mind that they were 

 perfectly healthy, and well supplied wilh nutriment. 

 In the severe drought which came on in the sum- 

 mer, these vines, for many weeks, did not appear 

 to suffer, while others of a similar kind in the 

 neighborhood, were dead and dying. The result 

 was, that notwithstanding the lo.ng continuance of 

 the drought, in which nearly all our potatoes, peas, 

 &c, were killed, these squashes were preserved, 

 and yielded a middling crop. 



"I also used the compost, as above, on inter- 

 vale land, near the Connecticut river, soil alluvial, 

 no stones or gravel — can be easily compressed, 

 does not bake in the sun — has been cultivated for 

 more than one hundred and fifty years, and yielda 

 a very scanty crop, without manure. The com- 

 port was spread over the ground, and ploughed in, 

 at the rate of nine cords to the acre of ground ; 

 thus prepared, I planted thirty rods with sugar 

 beets — distance between the rows, eighteen inches 

 — hills eight inches — one seed in a hill. The seeds 

 proved bad, not more than one-third coming up — 

 yet I had 116 bushels of beets; while above an acre 

 of the. same land, manured wilh the beet stable 

 manure, at the rate of twelve cords to the acre, 

 did not produce one hundred bushels. Two rowa 

 of potatoes were planted next the beets; the land 

 had been designed lor beets, and was prepared pre- 

 cisely the same. Between these two rows and more 

 than an acre inmicdialely adjoining, (where alaifje 

 quantity of best byrn-yard or aninsid niiinure was 

 used,) there was a very perceptible difference in 

 (iivor of the former. I also planted a fc;w hills of 

 potatoes on very sandy land, in the latter part of 

 June. Into the hilis I put peat, which had been 

 saturated wilh lye, fiom the bottom of a soap tub 

 — no lime. The tops of these {jotafoes, during the 

 whole drought, were of the most living green 



