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rections for preparing Manure from Peat ;" but I do not know whethef 

 much improvement has since been made, in the art of fermenting that 

 substance. The general complaint is, that it is nearly incapable of being 

 decomposed, by the small quantity of animal manure, which Lord 

 Meadowbank prescribes, that is, a third or fourth part ; and indeed, that 

 it cannot be decomposed at all, or reduced to the state of a fine dark- 

 coloured mould, in which neither peat nor dung is discernible. 



Having paid as much attention as most persons to this process, for 

 several years back, for both arboricultural and agricultural purposes, I 

 am satisfied, that the want of success, so generally experienced, is owing 

 to two causes chiefly ; first, the too moist condition of the peat, when it 

 is made up ; and secondly, the exhausted state of the dung employed in 

 the fermentation ; both of which, as stated in the text, prevent the an- 

 tiseptic quality of the moss from being counteracted, and the peat from 

 being rendered soluble. 



As to the first point, the moist state of the peat, it seems clear, as 

 Lord Meadowbank has observed, that, although no active fermentation 

 can take place without moisture, yet moisture may superabound ; and 

 therefore, it is necessary to wheel out the peat some weeks beforehand 

 from the pit, in order that the superfluity may be expelled, by exposure 

 to the atmosphere. In this state, however, I have seldom found, that I 

 could, by even thrice fermenting the mass, eflfectually decompose the 

 peat, and thereby reduce it to a friable mould. In order to remedy this, 

 I have successfully practised the following method of procuring peat- 

 moss of superior quality ; which, as it has succeeded with myself, I 

 shall shortly communicate, in the hope that it may prove of the same 

 use to others. 



Whoever has the command of this valuable substance, must be aware, 

 that, when dug out for fuel, it is done in sections or banks, from four to 

 six feet deep; where, after throvdng back the upper strata, on the spread- 

 field (as it is called), the peat is set out to dry. These masses of the 

 superincumbent strata, after some years' work, naturally extend, and 

 soon cover the field to a considerable depth. 'I'hey accumulate here 

 and there in irregular mounds ; and being exposed to the elements, and 

 particularly to frost, they gradually advance in decomposition, and 

 assume the appearance of a black mould, sometimes of a foot and eighteen 

 inches deep. In this desirable state it is to be carted away, and thrown 

 up in heaps, for the purpose of fermentation ; a process, which it is thus 

 prepared lo undergo at once, and with the one-half of the difficulty that 

 attends the pure peat, as prescribed by Lord Meadowbank. 



Besides this improvement, a great saving is made in dung and labour; 



