Soil. 25 



at farthest, every eight years, both to prevent their con- 

 tracting a most injurious sourness and adhesion from plough- 

 ing in wet weather, and in order that, by exposure to the sun 

 and winds, during the summer months, they may be thorough- 

 ly pulverized, and aerated. By cultivation, joined to the cor- 

 rective influence of the atmosphere ( 85 ), they may thus be 

 brought into a state fit for bearing abundant crops of grain 

 and grass ( 8<s ). 



4. Peat. This substance is unquestionably of vegetable 

 origin. The difference between it and vegetable mould is 

 this, that mould is derived from finer substances, as the 

 leaves of trees, the remains of arable cultivation, and 

 the roots, as well as the leaves and stalks of the finer 

 grasses, which contain a large proportion of earthy matters ; 

 whereas peat is chiefly composed of various sorts of aquatic 

 plants, hard grasses and heaths, which, instead of rotting 

 on, or near the surface, are generally immersed in stagnant 

 water, and only partially decomposed. In valleys, peat- 

 moss has often a considerable proportion of vegetable earth 

 washed from the higher grounds. 



The classification of mossy or peaty-soils, has been treated 

 of by various authors, who have written on that subject, but 

 scarcely any two of them have concurred in opinion. Some 

 have arranged moss, by the diversity of its colour, some 

 by its density, some by its specific gravity, and some by 

 the materials of which it is composed. An author, who has 

 successfully explained the nature of peat, (Mr Aiton), re- 

 jects all distinctions, except those which relate to moss in 

 an agricultural point of view. He terms the thin black 

 mould, on dry moor-ground, "kill-moss;" that which is from 

 six inches to two feet in depth, and covered with a close 

 sward of green herbage, he terms " bent-moss ;" and the 

 deeper mosses, that have little herbage but heather, (Cal- 

 luna and Erica J, and moss fogs, as Sphagnum palustre, Hypna, 

 &c. he denominates "Jlow-moss." 



In converting peat into earth, it is a rule, more especially 

 for the first time, to plough or dig it in autumn, that it may 

 be effectually exposed to the winter's frost. If this founda- 

 tion of its future improvement be not commenced at a proper 

 season of the year, and if the peat be once hardened by the 

 summer's sun, it is hardly possible afterwards to decompose 

 it( 87 ). 



The crops best calculated for a reclaimed peat-bog or 

 moss, are, oats, rye, beans, potatoes, turnips, carrots, cole- 

 seed, white and red clover, and timothy. Wheat and bar- 



