MOSSES. 



MOSS LAND. 



saturated with lime, so much the better." The 

 best proportions, according to the experiments 

 of Dr. Higgins, are 3 parts of fine sand, 4 pa-ts 

 of coarse sand, 1 part of quicklime, recently 

 slacked, and as little water as possible. The 

 stony consistence which mortar acquires is 

 owing partly to the absorption of carbonic acid, 

 but principally to the combination of part of 

 the water with the lime. This last circum- 

 stance is the reason that, if to common mortar 

 one-fourth part of lime, reduced to powder with- 

 out being slacked, be added, the mortar, when 

 dry, acquires much greater solidity than it 

 otherwise would do. This was first proposed 

 by Loriot ; and afterwards Morveau found the 

 following proportions to answer best: 



Parts. 



Fine sand 3 



Cement of well-baked bricka 3 



Slacked lime ..... 2 



Unslacked lime 2 



10 



The same advantages may be obtained by 

 usiii 1 / MN little water as possible in slaking the 

 time. Higgins found that the addition of burnt 

 bones, in the proportion of not more than one- 

 fifth of the lime employed, improved mortar by 

 giving it tenacity, and rendering it less apt to 

 crack. 



When a little clay is added to mortar, it ac- 

 quires the important property of hardening 

 under water; so that it may be employed by 

 the farmer in those edifices which are con- 

 stantly exposed to the action of water. Lime- 

 stone is found not unfrequently mixed with 

 clay ; and in that case it becomes brown by 

 calcination, instead of white. These native 

 limestones are employed for making i 

 mortar; but good water mortar may be made 

 by the following process : Mix together 4 parts 

 of blue clay, 6 parts of black oxide of manga- 

 nese, and 00 parts of limestone, all in pow- 

 der. Calcine this mixture to expel the carbonic 

 acid; mix it with 60 parts of sand, and form it 

 into a mortar with a sufficient quantity of 

 water. The best mortar for resisting water is 

 made by mixing lime with puzzolano, a vol- 

 canic sand brought from Italy. Morveau in- 

 forms us that basaltes, which is very common 

 in this country, may be substituted for puzzo- 

 lano. It must be heated in a furnace, thrown 

 while red-hot into water, and then passed 

 through a sieve. 



MOSSES, in common language, are any 

 minute, small-leaved, cryptogamic plants. 

 Thus, club-moss is a lycopodium ; Iceland and 

 reindeer mosses are lichens; and the nume- 

 rous species of Jungermannia are all compre- 

 hended under the same term. But in systema- 

 tical botany no plants are considered mosses, 

 except such as belong to the natural order, 

 Sri/area or Miisci. Such plants are simple- 

 leaved ; without spiral vessels or stomata; with 

 a distinct axis of growth ; and with the spo- 

 rules, or reproductive matter enclosed in cases 

 called sporangia or thecce, covered by a cap or 

 calyptra. It is not a little singular that such 

 plants should have cases called staminidia, 

 containing powdery matter; among which are 

 found animalcules, not distinguishable from 

 105 



such as are called spermatic, and which swim 

 about freely in water. None of the mosses are 

 of any known use, except for the purpose of 

 packing plants, and surrounding their roots 

 when they are sent to a distance. They are 

 ' bad conductors of heat, and might be employ- 

 ed, instead of straw, to guard delicate-growing 

 plants from the influence of frost. 



MOSS LAND. Land abounding in peat 

 moss, but not so much saturated with water as 

 to become peat bog or morass. Many reme- 

 | dies have been prescribed for the destruction 

 j of moss. A good scarifying or harrowing, 

 with short, sharp tines, succeeded by a top- 

 dressing of salt or soot, is probably the most 

 efficacious : lime in any form is less powerful, 

 though (especially when combined with sand) 

 it remarkably promotes the growth of trefoil 

 tribes and other grasses, highly palatable to 

 cattle, but does not avail to the exclusion of 

 moss. Mr. Bishop of Perthshire, who has ob- 

 tained from the Highland Society of Scotland 

 a prize for an essay " On the Management of 

 Pasture in regard to the Destruction of Musci," 

 suggests as the most certain remedy, that a 

 great portion of the summer's grass should 

 remain unconsumed on the ground until the 

 following winter, when the barer it is eaten 

 before the new growth of spring, the finer will 

 be the following summer's grass. Breaking 

 up the land, and sowing appropriate grasses 

 after a course of culture, is a certain remedy, 

 but often a very inconvenient one. Mr. W. 

 Bell ives an account of certain experiments 

 which he carried on very successfully for con- 

 verting moss into manure by the application 

 of whale oil. 



Mr. A. Blackadder, speaking of the manures 

 for decomposing moss, says : Adjacent reck 

 strata ought to be carefully explored, as in ge- 

 neral they have each their corresponding earthy 

 covering, more or less adapted to the purposes 

 of vegetation. Where the rocks are of the 

 primitive class, or of the coal formation, their 

 disintegrated portions, and ofttimes their super- 

 ficial covers, are of inferior value as a soil ; 

 but even the rock-earth of the latter, as also of 

 clay-slate, lime, or even the old red sandstone, 

 though not previously mingled nor superim- 

 posed in the moss, are yet valuable as ingre- 

 dients of composts for top-dressing, as are also 

 those of the finer sandstone, greenstone, and 

 sea-sand containing calcareous matters in a 

 state of decomposition, or even where these 

 are absent. While sand laid over moss pro- 

 duces rapid decomposition, and consequent 

 vegetation, no such effect is produced by the 

 purer clays. Putrescent matters, whether ani- 

 mal or vegetable, possess the most powerful 

 influence. Lime, unless in compost, seems to 

 have no such effect on simple mosses ; and its 

 effects on mixed mosses, or those in a state of 

 partial decomposition, must depend on ihe 

 quantity of foreign matter and other circum- 

 stances. The value of moss greatly depends 

 on local circumstances, and particularly with 

 regard to the supply of operatives at the com- 

 mencement of improvements ; access to pu- 

 trescent manures ; markets for the sale of the 

 produce; soils affording materials for top- 

 dressing ; and turf suitable for wedge-drains 

 4 A 2 83? 



