SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 27 



Again, in many places there will be found, overlying the 

 solid rock, stretches of pure, or almost pure, peat. Generally 

 these are of no value for planting ; but in this case also 

 the quality of the peat depends upon the nature of the 

 rock. Where the rock is of a hard close-grained nature 

 the peat is of the poorer quality, and the softer and more 

 easily decomposed the rock is, the peat is correspondingly 

 the better. On slopes where rocks of a softer nature are 

 partly exposed, the peat becomes mixed with a certain 

 amount of mineral substances from the rock, and such 

 slopes are not infrequently quite good planting subjects. 

 Indeed, it would appear that the value of the peat for 

 planting purposes is governed in most cases by the nature 

 of the underlying soil or rock more than by its actual 

 depth. 



On flat bogs where the soil or rock is out of reach, the 

 draining necessary to render the land plantable can, as a 

 rule, only be undertaken at a prohibitive cost; but even 

 on deep peat there will be found some areas which are 

 quite worth draining. These places can best be judged by 

 the nature of the surface growth. Again, peat on a high 

 flat, with slopes of good soil leading from it, frequently 

 renders parts of these slopes more or less useless through 

 the drainage from the higher bog running over or per- 

 colating through the soil, which will often be found to be 

 quite acid. This effect can only be counteracted by good 

 drainage along the margin of the peat, and by carrying 

 down the water collected in well-defined channels. Ex- 

 perience has proved that the value of all soils, including 

 peat-bogs, may be most readily and correctly estimated by 

 u careful study of the natural herbage. In the succeeding 

 pages some notes on that phase of the subject gained from 

 observation will be offered. 



