PEAT LANDS. 91 



can be done, it is the cheapest mode of correcting a soil 

 and making it permanently better. When the surface 

 soil is too clayey or heavy, it may sometimes be cor- 

 rected by ploughing so deep as to mix up with it a 

 lighter and more sandy soil. This process is attended 

 with very little expense, compared with that of carting 

 one kind of soil upon another from a distance. It is 

 believed that all mixtures of soils are beneficial — 

 unless, perhaps, you have already a perfect mixture — 

 and the new compound is generally put into a partial 

 state of fermentation, which is always promotive of 

 vegetable growth. 



PEAT LANDS. 



Whenever you find a peat bottom that can be 

 drained, you may be sure of a good bottom for grass as 

 you would be after travelling and pitching your tent in 

 Michigan or Illinois. If the meadow is not abundant 

 in springs, your ditches may be two rods apart, and in 

 some cases more. It is not advisable to make them 

 nearer than is necessary, for we occasionally want to 

 plough these meadows, and frequent ditches are in our 

 way. 



In a dry summer, the cheapest mode of bringing to 

 fertility these lands is to pare and burn them ; and when 

 you have a good burn, the ashes will be a sufficient 

 manure for years. Paring is sometimes performed with 

 a paring plough — the share having two wings, one 

 branching to the right like a common plough-share, and 

 the other to the left — the coulter in the centre, and no 

 mould-board to your plough. 



When this is in good order, one yoke of cattle will 

 draw it through large hassocks where three yoke would 



