184 A TREATISE ON THE CONNECTION OF 



than is at present incurred by any application or dressing 

 to ground, could not fail to answer the expectation of the 

 farmer, and must be considered as one of the most va- 

 luable improvements that has hitherto occurred in the 

 annals of husbandry.. 



The primary step towards improving a peat moss, is- 

 to take off by proper channels the great feeder of water... 

 This is to be effected by conducing one or more princi- 

 pal drains through the moss, and by water courses on the 

 solid or dry land, immediately above the level of the 

 moss, so that it shall not be inundated by the surface 

 water or springs of the surrounding higher lands, and* 

 shall afterwards only require to be freed from the water 

 that shall fall on its superficies. This being accomplished, . 

 the intermediate parts of the bog should be drained, 

 partly by open and partly by covered drains ; care being 

 taken, that they are not made so deep as to lay the moss 

 or bog too dry ; by which the peat, becoming oxygenated^ 

 and thence insoluble, would be incapable of yielding food 

 to vegetables. By the opposite extreme, unprofitable 



^^j. 



grasses and aquatic vegetables are produced. It is there- 

 fore an objedt.of great importance, in effecting the drain- 

 age,, 



