] 64 Cultivating and Improving Wastes. 



necessary for three ; nor the lime, chalk, clay or gravel, upon 

 two acres, that should be employed in covering one ( 5 *). 



2. Not to begin on too great a scale, nor until by expe- 

 rience it be found, that the plan to be adopted is suitable 

 to the soil, situation, and climate ( 53 ). 



3. When the intention is to cultivate peat-moss, it ought 

 to be relieved of stagnant water, and converted into well- 

 formed ridges, at least one year before it is cropped. In 

 soft spongy flow-moss, it may be allowed to remain exposed 

 to atmospheric influence, for two years or more, before it is 

 put under crop. 



4. The ridges or mossy-soils, ought to be from sixteen to 

 even twenty feet in width, and raised in proportion. When 

 the bottom is of a retentive nature, the soil above it is apt 

 to retain a great superfluity of moisture, and to become wet 

 and spongy, and thus the dung, lime, or other manure is 

 prevented from operating successfully in the production of 

 useful plants. As a proof of the importance of this sugges- 

 tion, it may be observed, that very good crops of corn and 

 roots, have been raised in new land, on elevated lazy beds, 

 when they could not be procured on flat ridges. 



5. All mossy soils should be ploughed or dug in autumn, 

 that they may be exposed to rain and frost, and thus con- 

 verted into soil. If moss is for the first time put into culti- 

 vation in spring or summer, it dries into peat, which is a hard 

 substance, and not easily decomposed. 



6. If dung can be obtained from any neighbouring town 

 or village, it should be secured, that the land already culti- 

 vated may not be robbed of its manure ; but if part of that 

 valuable substance should be required, to commence improve- 

 ment on the moss, it would soon be repaid by the straw rais- 

 ed from the moss, and when the moss is reclaimed with lime, 

 &c. it will soon yield dung to the farm land. 



7. The last rule is, to lay down land, improved from waste, 

 more especially in high and bleak situations, as soon as pos- 

 sible into grass, and to retain it in that state, as long as it is 

 tolerably productive. In all lands naturally barren, or in 

 soils even of a medium quality, the rich grasses perish, and in- 

 ferior sorts spring up, if the land be not top-dressed with lime, 

 manured with dung, and cropped every seven or ten years; 

 but if occasionally manured and cropped for one or two years* 

 the moss plants are extirpated, and the pasture is complete- 

 ly renovated. 



It may be proper to add, that the improvement of waste 

 lands entirely depends on the amount of capital, judiciously 



