162 Cultivating and Improving Wastes. 



be overdone), and land, originally of no value, has thus been 

 rendered worth from L. 2 to L. 3 and even L. 4 per acre. 

 The horses upon such soil, must either be equipped with 

 wooden clogs, or the work performed in frosty weather, 

 when the surface of the moss is hard. 'Coarse obdurate 

 clay, (provincially till), is peculiarly calculated for this 

 process, as it melts with the weather, and by mixing mi- 

 nutely with the fibres of the moss, it keeps out the drought, 

 accelerates the decomposition of the moss earth, and when 

 it is blended with peat, and some calcareous matter, it con- 

 tains all the properties of a fertile soil ( 4S ). This is cer- 

 tainly an expensive method of improving land, unless the 

 substance to be laid upon it, is within 500 yards distance ; 

 but where it can properly be done, the moss thus ob- 

 tains solidity, and after it has been supplied with calcareous 

 earth, it may be cultivated, like other soils, in a rotation of 

 white and green crops. In the neighbourhood of populous 

 towns, where the rent of land is high, the covering substance 

 may be conveyed from a greater distance than 500 yards. 



5. Floating off the Surface of Peat-Bogs. This singular 

 mode of improving waste lands, is applicable only where there 

 is a command of water, and where the subjacent clay is of 

 a most fertile quality, or consists of alluvial soil. A stream 

 of water is brought into the moss, into which the spongy 

 upper stratum is first thrown, and afterwards the heavier 

 moss ; the whole is then conveyed, by the stream, into the 

 neighbouring river, and thence to the sea. The moss thus 

 got rid of, in the most remarkable instance of floating, (that 

 of Blair Drummond in Perthshire), was, on an average, 

 about seven feet deep. Much ingenuity was displayed in 

 constructing the machinery! to supply water for removing 

 the moss, previous to the improvement of the rich soil be- 

 low. It required both the genius and the perseverance of 

 Lord Kames to complete this scheme ; but by this singular 

 mode of improvement, about 1000 English acres have been 

 already cleared, a population of above 900 inhabitants fur- 

 nisheo^ with the means of subsistence, and an extensive dis- 

 trict, where only snipes and moor-fowl were formerly main- 

 tained, is now converted, as if by magic, into a rich and fer- 

 tile carse ( 46 ), or tract of alluvial soil, worth from L. 3 to 

 L. 4 per acre ( 47 ). But there are very few situations capa- 

 ble of this improvement. 



6. Rolling. The improvement of peaty or moory soils, 

 by rolling, in conjunction with the other operations above 

 explained, is of the highest importance. The greatest de- 



