10 



When hot, or newly calcined lime is broken into pieces 

 of a small size, and mixed with peat, moderately humid, 

 heat is disengaged, and that heat, by the slacking of the 

 lime, when it is applied in too great a proportion, is so 

 increased, as completely to reduce the peat to charcoal, 

 and to dissipate, in a gassious state, all its component 

 parts, excepting the ashes, part of the carbonaceous 

 matter, and such a portion of fixable air, generated in 

 the process, as is absorbed by the lime, by which that 

 substance is made to return to the state of chalk. No 

 benefit can, therefore, arise by this method of preparing 

 peat with lime, the object not being to destroy and dissi- 

 pate in a gassious state the component parts of the peat, 

 but to make such a combination with the lime, and the 

 gas generated in the process, as will, on the application 

 of the mixture to ground, promote the growth of 



plants. 



i 



This object is best attained by mixing newly made, and 

 completely slacked lime, with about five or six times its 

 weight of peat, which should be moderately humid, and 

 not in too dry a state. In this^ case, the heat generated 

 will be moderate, and never sufficient to convert the 



peat 



