AGRICULTURE WITH CHEMISTRY. 183 



been discovered to be capable of being converted into the 

 most valuable of all manures, the importance of the 

 peat mosses in Great Britain and Ireland cannot, there- 

 fore, be too much impressed on the minds of the laud- ' 

 owners and occupiers of these countries. 



From experiments made with alkaline salts and peat, 

 it can be asserted, that the effects of such mixture, weight 

 for weight, are equal, if not superior to those of dung. 

 "The usual quantity of dung given to an acre of ground, 

 -when it is intended to manure it effectually, is about 

 eighteen tons. This it may, perhaps, receive once in five 



years. It will require a farm to be well managed, and in 



i. 



high cultivation, to admit of one-fifth of it to be annu- 

 ally so manured. 



The best cultivated land, by the return of its own ma- 

 nure, unless when a quantity of vegetable matter has 

 been accumulated, as described under the article of In- 

 .field Land, can do no more than keep itself in hearf: 

 -t>f course, nothing can be spared for the amelioration or 

 improvement of poor or waste lands. The rendering the 

 inert vegetable matter of peat mosses and fens service- 

 able to this purpose, though effe&ed at a greater expence 



than 



