No. 2. 



Improvement of Peat Lands. 



45 



land. Much of it, indeed, is on a level sur- 

 face, but extensive tracts of bog are elevated 

 into hills of considerable height, composed 

 wholly of peat, and that often, as I have 

 seen, to the depth of six, and even ten feet 

 on the summit. 



Peat, properly so called, as my readers 

 well know, is a deposit of vegetable matter, 

 composed, in general, of a particular kind of 

 plants, which have decayed under water, 

 and containing much of the element which 

 is called tannin, which preserves it in the 

 state in which it is found, often impregnated 

 with iron, or other mineral substances, and 

 charged with acids unfriendly to vegetation. 

 In its natural condition, it produces only a 

 coarse kind of herbage, distasteful and in- 

 nutritious, or is covered with a short moss ; 

 in Ireland, in many cases, by heath, alike 

 worthless for any purpose of feed. It is re- 

 tentive of water like a sponge, and is very 

 difficult of being reduced, so as to furnish a 

 good bed for a sweet and healthy vegetation. 

 In a wet condition, it is scarcely accessible; 

 in a dry state, it becomes too light and hard; 

 and though composed wholly of decayed ve- 

 getable matter, is in an inert condition, or 

 deficient in some elements essential in order 

 to render it productive. It is found of very 

 different depths; in some cases only a thin 

 stratum of decayed vegetable matter, of six 

 inches or a foot in depth, overlaying a bed 

 of white sand or gravel ; in others, a bed of 

 black spongy matter, of many feet, and often 

 of unascertained depth. 



Much of this land in England, Ireland, 

 and Scotland, has been redeemed, and made 

 highly productive. An eminent Scotch 

 farmer, to whom I had the honour of letters 

 of introduction, states that land which, in its 

 natural state, was not worth more than six- 

 pence an acre, in its improved condition is 

 now fully equal to three pounds per acre 

 This refers to the annual rent or income of 

 the land. This farmer has recovered two 

 hundred acres of peat bog. Much of it was 

 redeemed at a great expense, as it had been 

 cut over for fuel, and it was deemed import- 

 ant to fill up the holes which had thus been 

 left. Much of it was reclaimed at the ex- 

 pense of j£30, or $150, per acre ; but the 

 farmer considered himself amply remune- 

 rated by the improvement. Other lands, 

 which gave him not more than Is. 6rf., or 

 37^ cents, per acre, now give him 12s. to 

 14s., S3 to S3 50 per acre, annually. A 

 similar improvement is stated by a farmer in 

 West Somersetshire, whose peat land, before 

 comparatively valueless, now lets for j£3 to 

 £4 per acre. The improvements in the fen 

 land of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, 



which is in many parts a species of peat 

 land, have been followed by results equally 

 valuable. 



The extensive tracts of bog land in New 

 Jersey, lying between the city of New York 

 and Newark, in New Jersey, over which 

 both the turnpike and the railroads now pass, 

 open a field for improvements of the same 

 kind and of the most valuable description. 

 Partial attempts have been made already, 

 and their success is sufficiently encouraging. 

 But when the whole of this great extent 

 shall be dyked against the tide, and the 

 power of steam applied to its effectual drain- 

 age, the obtaining of a soil of the richest 

 description, so near to some of the best mar- 

 kets in the country, will be likely to afford 

 an ample compensation for any expense 

 which may be incurred. It may be said 

 that such improvements must be very dis- 

 tant in a country where immense tracts of 

 unoccupied land of the richest description, 

 remain to be had at very low prices ; but 

 the proximity to a great city, and to several 

 large and thickly inhabited towns, continu- 

 ally increasing in population, business, and 

 wealth, with almost unparalleled rapidity, 

 must give a value to such lands which can 

 scarcely be calculated, and keep far in ad- 

 vance of the competition of even the most 

 fertile lands in a remote interior. Indeed, 

 a slight inquiry will satisfy any one that the 

 value of lands in the neighbourhood of our 

 cities, for agricultural and horticultural pur- 

 poses, in spite of all the predictions founded 

 on the improved and unlooked-for modes of 

 conveyance by canals and rail-roads, has 

 been continually rising, and has by no 

 means reached the zenith. 



Three difficulties may be said to present 

 themselves in the redemption and improve- 

 ment of all peat lands; the first is their 

 wetness, and draining must be the first ope- 

 ration to be applied to them ; the second is 

 their want of compactness, for they are 

 often too light and spongy for the growth of 

 plants, though this defect will be partially 

 remedied by the draining of them ; and the 

 third is the removal of some pernicious 

 quality, some mineral acid, which is preju- 

 dicial to the growth of the best vegetation, 

 or the supply of some element of vegetation 

 which is requisite in the cultivation of any 

 other plants than that of which the moss 

 itself is formed. Peat, though wholly a ve- 

 getable substance, and properly speaking, a 

 compact mass of humus — in itself furnish- 

 ing, under a proper form of preparation, a 

 useful manure, — is still deficient in the ele- 

 ments necessary for the growth of the finer 

 grasses, the esculent vegetables, and the 



