560 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



of course it would not be allowed to grow so high 

 in ordinary cultivation, but its rapid growth (se- 

 veral inches in twenty-four hours) renders it very 

 valuable, if it succeeds in our climate, ol' which, 

 from the specimen 1 saw, I have no doubt what- 

 ever. 



It is time my lengthy paper came to a close. If 

 any one were to ask me where he could see excel- 

 lent practical, strong land farming, i would say — 

 Go 10 Ridgemont. 



Thornjield, Tliirsk. 



ON PEAT. 



From Uie London Farmnr's Magazine. 



Peat of moss is one of the most recent deposites 

 of the alluvial formation, of the origin of which 

 various opinions are entertained. Six kinds have 

 been enumerated. Some reckon it a primitive 

 Ibrmation, and of antediluvian origin ; others 

 think it a growing vegetable, which by its decay 

 causes the increase of the substance, and may 

 ultimately cover the earth ; and the more general 

 opinion ascribes it to the collection and decompo- 

 siiion of ligneous and aquatic vegetables brought 

 together by the destruction of Ibresis by wars, by 

 the axe, and by tempests, and accumulated by the 

 decay of those bodies, and of the plants, encou- 

 raged by their decomposition. Formations of 

 peat chiefly abound in moderately cold latitudes ; 

 they cover vast tracts of country in Scotland and 

 in Ireland, and are found in the different states of 

 solid peat, cut and dried lor fuel, and of a black 

 or brown color, extending to depths of lour to 

 twenty feet ; in boggy or flow moss, which is sup- 

 plied with too much water, and prevents the 

 consolidation ; and in many varieties of peat 

 earths of shallow depihs, lorming soils of that 

 name, sometimes cultivated and oltener unim- 

 proved—sometimes clad with a seamy covering of 

 heaths and coarse vegetation, and olien naked 

 and uncovered with any growing plant. The 

 theory of the Ibrmation of peat by the decomposi- 

 tion of the colleciion in hollow places of trees and 

 leaves, of veiretation, by the action of air and 

 water, and of the subsequent growth, has been 

 generally received as the most plausible; but we 

 find mosses of great extent on the tops of moun- 

 tains, and on high grounds, and even on decli- 

 vities, where no water can stand, and where no 

 collections could be formed. Trees of great size 

 have been found in mosses, and also shrubs of va- 

 rious kinds, and the leaves and Iruits are not un- 

 frequently met with in different stages of decay. 

 The mosses that are cropped as land are not 

 adapted for fuel, the composition is too friable 

 and earthy, and the circumstance of the fop of 

 many mosses being of a different color, and 

 spongy and fibrous, flavors the opinion that the 

 decomposition of the vegetable covering adds to 

 the bulk ofthe moss, as it appears to be in a more 

 recent state of decay than the bottom parts, which 

 have become a black, pulpy substance, from which 

 all traces of fibrous organization have com- 

 pletely disappeared. Formations of peat are found 

 in vast beds from four to twelve leet deep on level 

 grounds, and on declivities where no water stag- 

 nates, and where trees and vegetable matters suffi- 

 cient to form the moss can hardly be supposed to 



have grown, and where no remains are ever 

 found. Mosses generally rest on clays and marls, 

 and very often on gravels and clayey gravels with 

 white sand ; and theorists are driven to the sup- 

 position that there exists a predisposing cause 

 towards the Ibrmation of that substance in the 

 woods on which the moss commenced growing, 

 and in the climate, and in the subjacent Ibrma- 

 tion, and also in the production of the plants that 

 are adapted by the decay of their constituent 

 parts to afford the peaty substances. But all the 

 reasons yet given, the conjectures, theories, and 

 suppositions, are unable to account for the great 

 variety of the formations of moss, a solid mass, 

 black and pulpy from top to bottom, is often found 

 adjoining a fbrmaiion of spongy fibrous materials, 

 alike at the lop and on the substratum of clay, 

 and both existing under no apparent difiierence of 

 circumstances ; the Ibrmer bare and uncovered, 

 and incapable of supporting weight ; the latter 

 matted over with a thick growth of vegetables, 

 supporting heavy weights, and atlbrdinga pastur- 

 age 1o animals. The varieties are numerous ; 

 some afford fuel wholly, others are cultivated, 

 while many are unfii lor either purpose, and de- 

 scend by many gradations to a shallow stratum of 

 a few inches in depth, and are called turfy, moor- 

 ish, and peaty soils. The antiseptic quality of 

 peat is well known, and preserves substances from 

 decay ; unlike fens and marshes, the air is healthy 

 and salubrious, which shows that the moss is not 

 in a state of putrefaction. Moss grows and en- 

 larges upwards after being dug and carried away, 

 supposed by the plants dissolving by the macera- 

 tion and decay of iheir parts, and not by any pro- 

 cess analogous to putrefaction, lor they remain 

 without undergoing the usual chemical change. 

 The sterility of moss is ascribed to the want of 

 the putrid fermentation, for it is inflammable and 

 phosphorescent, qualities wholly removed from 

 bodies that have undergone the process of ultimate 

 decay. Moss and vegetable mould are reckoned 

 homogeneous subsiances, altered by the different 

 circumstances in which they are placed, and the 

 external agencies to which they are exposed ; but 

 this fact, when granted, gives no reason for moss 

 and mould being produced in adjoining situations, 

 where little or no difference in external circum- 

 stances would be supposed to exist. No living 

 animals exist in moss ; to form it, dampness and 

 astringency are required, and the water must be 

 antiseptic, which is said or thought to derive that 

 quality from the subsoil. But we are equally in 

 the dark whether the astringent and antiseptic 

 quality be derived from the subsoil, the climate, 

 or from the plants that grow on the place of form- 

 ation, or from the combined influence of all 

 these causes joined together; the scientific reason- 

 ings of theorists are generally overturned by facts, 

 and by the appearances of nature ; and after all 

 the opinions and conjectures that have been put 

 forth, the more reasonable and natural conclusion 

 would seem to be, that moss is an original forma- 

 tion, augmented, like other formations ofa similar 

 nature, by physical agencies still going on, and 

 that it has been produced and located by causes, 

 for a solution of which our wandering imagina- 

 tions may ever search in vain. J. D. 



