THE GENESEE FARMER. 



11 



It is probable, nay almost certain, that the acids 

 of peat, exert a powerful decomposing and ulti- 

 mately solvent effect on the minerals of soil. 



5. The influence of peat on the temperature of 

 light soils dressed with it may often be of consid- 

 erable practical importance, A light dry soil is 

 subject to great variations of temperature, and 

 rapidly follows the changes of the atmostphere 

 from cold to hot, and from hot to cold. In the 

 summer noon a sandy soil becomes so warm as to 

 be hardly endurable to the feel, and again it is on 

 such soils that the earliest frosts take effect. If a 

 soil thus subject to extremes of temperature have a 

 dressing of peat, it will, on the one hand, not be- 

 come so warm iu the hot day, and on the other 

 hand it will not cool so rapidly, nor so much in the 

 nighty its temperature will be rendered more uni- 

 form, and on the whole more conducive to the 

 welfare of vegetation. This regulative effect on 

 temperature is partly due to the stores of water 

 held by peat. In a hot day this water is constant- 

 ly evaporating, and this, as aU know, is a cooling 

 process. At night the peat absorbs vapor of water 

 from the air, and condenses it within its pores, this 

 condensation is again accompanied with the evolu- 

 tion of heat. 



It appears to be a general, though not invariable 

 fact, that dark colored soils, other things being 

 equal, are constantly the warmest, or at any rate 

 maintain the temperature most favorable to vege- 

 tation. It has been repeatedly observed that on 

 light coloretl soils, plants mature more rapidly if 

 the soil be thinly covered with a coating of some 

 black substance. Thus Lampadius, Professor in 

 the School of Mines at Friberg, a town situated in 

 a mountaneous part of Saxony, found that he could 

 ripen melons, even in the coolest summers, by 

 strewing a coating of coal-dust, an inch deep, over 

 the surface of the soil. In some of the vineyards 

 of the Rhine, the powder of a black slate is em- 

 ployed to hasten the ripening of the grape. 



GiEARDiN, an eminent French agriculturist, in a 

 series of experiments on the cultivation of potatoes, 

 found that the time of their ripening varied eight 

 to fourteen days, according to the character of the 

 soil. He found, on the 25th of August, in a very 

 dark soil, made so by the presence of much humus 

 or decaying vegetable matter, twenty-six varieties 

 ripe; in" sandy soil but twenty, in clay nineteen, 

 and in a white lime soil only sixteen. 



It can not be doubted then, that the effect of 

 dressing a light, sandy or gravelly soil with peat, 

 or otherwise enriching it in vegetable matter, is to 

 render it warmer, in the sense in which that word 

 is usually applied to soils. The upward range of 

 the thermometer may not be increased, but the uni- 

 form warmth so salutary to our most valued crops 

 is thereby secured. 



In regard to the manner of applying muck, Prof. 

 Johnson observes : 



As to the time and manner of getting out peat, 

 the circumstances of each case must determine. 

 The month of August is generally the appropriate 

 time for throwing up peat, as then the swamps are 

 usually most free from water, and most accessible 

 to men and teams ; but peat is often dug to best 

 advantage in the winter, not only on account of the 

 cheapness of labor, and from there being less hurry 



with other matters on the farm at that season, but 

 alsb because the freezing and thawing of the peat 

 that is thrown out must probably aid to disintegrate 

 it and prepare it for use. 



Exposure or seasoning of peat. In most cases 

 the chief or only use of exposing the thrown up 

 peat to the action of the air and weather during 

 several months or a whole year, is to rid it of the 

 great amount of water which adheres to it, and 

 thus to reduce its bulk and weight, previous to 

 cartage. 



The general effect of exposure, as proved by my 

 analyses, is to reduce the amount of matter soluble 

 in water, and cause peats to approach in this re- 

 spect a fertile soil, so that instead of containing 2.4 

 or even 6 per cent, of substances soluble in water, 

 as at first, they are brought to contain but one- 

 half these amounts, or even less. This change, 

 however, goes on so rapidly after peat is mingled 

 with the soil, that previous exposure is rarely 

 necessary, and most peats may be used perfectly 

 fresh. 



The following extracts in regard to composting 

 muck will be read with interest : 



Preparation of Composts. — To a given quantity 

 of stable manure, two or three times as much 

 weathered or seasoned muck by bulk may be used. 

 The manure may either be removed from the 

 stables, and daily mixed with the appropriate 

 amount of muck, by shoveling the two together, at 

 the heap, out of doors ; or, as some excellent farm- 

 ers prefer, a trench, water tight, four inches deep 

 and twenty inches wide, is constructed in the stable 

 floor, imraetliately behind the cattle, and every 

 morning a bushel-basketful of muck is put behind 

 each animal. In this way the urine is periectly 

 absorbed by the muck, while the warmth of the 

 freshly voided excrements so facilitates the fer- 

 mentative process, that, according to Mr. F. IIol- 

 BROOK, of Brattleboro, Vt., who I believe first em- 

 ployed and described this method, much more much 

 can thus he well jjrepared for use in th« spring, 

 than by any of the ordinary modes of composting. 

 When the dung and muck are removed from the 

 stable, they should be well intermixed, and as fast 

 as the compost is prepared, it should be put into a 

 compact heap, and covered with a layer of muck 

 several inches thick. It will then hardly require 

 any shelter if used in the spring. 



On the farm of Mr. Pond, of Milford, Conn., I 

 have seen a large pile of this compost, and have 

 witnessed its effect as applied by that gentleman to 

 a field of sixteen acres of fine gravelly or coarse 

 sandy soil, which, from having a light cc lor and 

 excessive porosity, had become dark, unctuous, and 

 retentive of moisture, so that during the drouth of 

 1856, the crops on this field were good and con- 

 tinued to flourish, while on the contiguous land 

 they were dried up and nearly ruined. 



By reference to the Transactions of the Connecti- 

 cut State Agricultural Society for 1857, it will be 

 seen, in the very interesting report of the commit- 

 tee on farms and reclaimed lands, that on the farms 

 which received the high premiums, and the most 

 honorable mention, composts of muck and stable 

 manure are largely employed. 



Prof. Johnson pronounces the following cpinioa 

 of several farmers a "fact," and "one whieh da- 



