10> 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Its absorlent power for vapor of water is so great 

 that more than once it has happened in Germany, 

 that barns or close sheds filled with dried peat, 

 sucji as is used for fuel, have been burst by the 

 swelling of the peat in damp weather, occasioned 

 by the- absoi-ption of moisture from the air. This 

 power is further shown by the fiict that when peat 

 has been kept all summer long in a dry room, 

 thinly spread out to the air, and has become like 

 dry snutf to the feel, it still contains 10, 20, 30, 

 and in some of the specimens I have examined, 

 even 40 per cent, of water. To dry a peat thor- 

 oughly, it requires to be exposed for some time to 

 the temperature of boiling water. It is thus plain 

 that no summer heats can dry up a soil which has 

 had a good dressing of this material, for on the one 

 hand, it soaks up and holds the rains that fall upon 

 it, and on the other, it absorbs the vapor of water 

 out of the atmosphere whenever it is moist, as at 

 night and in cloudy weather. 



2. Absorbent 2}ower for ammonia. Ali soils that 

 deserve to be called fertile, have the property of 

 absorbing and retaining ammonia and the volatile 

 matters which escape from fermenting manures, 

 but light and coarse soils may be deficient in this 

 power. Here again in respect to its absorptive 

 power for ammonia, peat comes to our aid. 



Prof. J. here details experiments which show 

 that peat will absorb from one to two per cent, of 

 ammonia. 



"We observe that the peat which is, naturally, 

 richest in ammonia, absorbs less, relatively, than 

 that which is poor in this substance. 



When we consider how small an ingredient of 

 most manures ammonia is, viz. : less than one per 

 cent, in case of stable manure, and how little of it 

 in the shape of guano for instance is usually applied 

 to crops — not more than 40 to 60 lbs. to the acre. 

 (The usual dressings with guano are from 250 to 

 400 lbs. per acre, and ammonia averages but 15 

 per cent, of the guano), we at once perceive that 

 an absorptive power of two or even one per cent, 

 is adequate for every agricultural purpose. 



8. The injiuence of peat in modifying the decay 

 of organic matters deserves notice. Peat itself in 

 its native bed or more properly the water which 

 impregnates it and is charged with its soluble prin- 

 ciples has a remarkable anti-septic or preservative 

 power. Many instances are on record of the bodies 

 of animals being found in a quite fresh and well- 

 preserved state in peat bogs, but when peat is re- 

 moved from the swamp, and so far dried as to be 

 convenient for agricultural use, is does not appear 

 to exert this preservative quality to the same degree 

 or even in the same kind. 



Buried in a peat bog or immersed in peat water, 

 animal matters are absolutely prevented from decay, 

 or decay only with extreme slowness ; but if cov- 

 ered with ptat that is no longer quite saturated 

 vv'ith water, tliMr decay is indeed checked in rapid- 

 ity, and the noisome odors evolved from putrefying 

 animal substances are not perceived, still decay 

 does go on, and in warm weather, no very long 

 time is needed to compV.te the process. 



The eftect of peat in modifying decay is analo- 

 gous to that of charcoal, and is probably connected 

 with its extreme porosity. If a piece of flesh be 

 exposed to the air during summer weather, it 



shortly putrefies and acquires an intolerable odor. 

 If it be now repeatedly rubbed with charcoal dust 

 and kept in it for some time, the taint which only 

 resides on the surface, may be completely removed, 

 and the sweetness of the D>eat restored, or if the 

 fresh meat be surrounded with a layer of charcoal 

 powder of a certain thickness, it will pass the hot- 

 test weather without manifesting the usual odor 

 of putrefying bodies. 



It does, however, waste away, and in time, com- 

 pletely disappears. It decays, but does not putrefy, 

 it exhales, not the disgusting gases which reveal 

 the neighborhood of carrion, but the pungent odor 

 of hartshorn. The gases which escape are the same 

 that would result if the flesh were perfectly burnt 

 up in a full supply of air, viz.: vapor of water, 

 carbonic acid, and ammonia. 



If we attend carefully to the nature of decaj 

 thus modified by charcoal dust, we find that it ie 

 complete, rapid but regular, and unaccompanied bj 

 unhealthful or disagreeable exhalations. 



Peat has all the efiects of charcoal with thif 

 advantage, that it permanently retains the ammo- 

 nia formed in decay, which, contrary to the gerer 

 ally received opinion, charcoal does not. 



From its absorptive power for water, it main 

 tains a lower temperature under the sun's hea 

 than dry charcoal or a light soil, and this circum 

 stance protracts and regulates the process of decaj 

 in a highly beneficial manner, so that if a muck 

 dressed soil receive an application of stable manure 

 fish, or guano, — in the first place, the ammonia an( 

 other' volatile matters cannot be formed so rapidb 

 as in the undressed soil, because the soil is moiste: 

 and decay is thereby hindered, — and in the seconc 

 place, when formed they cannot escape from tin 

 soil, but are fixed in it by the peculiar absorptivi 

 power of the vegetable acids of muck. 



4. Peat promotes the disintegration of the soil 



Every soil is a storehouse of food for crops ; bu 

 the stores it contains are only partly available fo: 

 immediate use. In fact, by far the larger share i; 

 locked up, as it were, in insoluble combinations 

 and by a very slow and gradual change does i 

 become accessible to the plant. This change ii 

 chiefly brought about by the united action of wate: 

 and carbonic acid gas, or rather of water hold 

 ing this gas in solution. Nearly all the rocks am 

 minerals out of which fertile soils are formed,— 

 which therefore contain those inorganic matteri 

 that are essential to vegetable growth, — thougl 

 very slowly acted on by pure water, are decom- 

 posed and dissolved to a much greater extent, tc 

 an extent, indeed, commensurate to the wants of 

 vegetation, by, water charged with carbonic acid gas, 



The only abundant source of carbonic acid in 

 the soil., is decaying vegetable matter. Hungry, 

 leachy soils, from their deficiency oi vegetable mat- 

 ter and of moisture, do not adequately yield their 

 own native resources to the support of crops, be- 

 cause the conditions for convertii:); their fixed into . 

 floating capital are wanting. Such soils dressed 

 with peat or green manured, at once acquire the 

 power of retaining water, and keep that water over- 

 charged with carbonic acid, thus not only the ex- 

 traneous manures which the farmer applies are' 

 fully economized ; but the soil becomes more pro- 

 ductive from its 6wn stores of fertility which now 

 begin to be unlocked and available. 



