6 MB. NEWnALL's ADDRESS. 



tain kind of fish may be taken along the shore, with seines, in great 

 quantities, and be made valuable in the formation of compost, or in 

 the direct application to the land. The bays and inlets along the 

 coast abound in beds of muscle, of great value ; and in different 

 sections of the county there are vast deposites of peat, amounting 

 in the aggregate, to many thousand acres. Providence seems to 

 have made ample provision by these bogs for the fertilization of the 

 soil for ages to come. While in tropical climates the decay of vege- 

 table matter is complete, and becomes resolved into its original ele- 

 ments, in this temperate region the process is less rapid, and in cer- 

 tain situations abounding with water, the decomposing process is ar 

 rested, and peat accumulates. In this situation it abounds with a- 

 cidity and is inert when applied as the food of plants. Within a few 

 years, peat lands were considered among the least valuable, having 

 been sold from five to ten dollars an acre, while their intrinsic value 

 is hundreds, nay, thousands of dollars for the purpose of manure ; 

 to say nothing of their value as an article of fuel, some of which is 

 but little inferior to coal. This substance to be rendered available 

 in agriculture, should be dug in the autumn and exposed to the 

 ameliorating influences of the atmosphere during the severity of the 

 winter. Farmers having barn cellars (and none should be without) 

 will find that by using this material largely under their stables, to 

 absorb the liquid and mix with the solid deposits of their animals, 

 they may double or triple the amount of their manure, and the quality 

 will be far better than that not protected from the wasting influence 

 of the elements. The whole may be well mixed and suffered to 

 ferment so far as to expel any remains of acidity and the whole mass 

 becomes equally valuable for all thin and gravelly soils as clear ani- 

 mal manure, and having a more permanent effect. 



The great stumbling block in the way of agricultural improve- 

 ment has been the want of a knowledge of the vegetable economy, 

 of the structure and growth of plants. Did farmers fully realize the 

 indispensable necessity of supplying food to plants to promote their 

 growth, that they do to feed animals, we should immediately see the 

 cwmraencemcnt of an improved husbandry. 



While many of the learned of every age have been engaged in 

 disputes upon questions of no practical importance, the science of 

 agi-iculturc has been greatly overlooked ; and though they have been 



