254 HAMPSHIRE SOCIETY. 



process of reclamation. Beside the spade and the plough, the 

 axe often has an important office to perform in clearing off 

 wood and bashes. 



The first thing is to get rid of the water. It is true that a 

 certain amount of water is necessary for the germination and 

 the subsequent growth of plants, both as the medium of ali- 

 ment and as itself furnishing certain elements which enter into 

 their composition. But an excess of water operates as injuri- 

 ously on the fertility of land as does the excess of dryness. 

 And it is as important that the one should be corrected by drain- 

 ing, as it is that the other should be corrected by irrigation. 

 Whether the excess of water is on the surface, or on the sub- 

 soil, or issues from strata cropping out, draining, either from the 

 surface, or from the subsoil, or from strata sending forth springs 

 as at the bottom of hills, is the pioneer process for other im- 

 provements. 



The land requiring to be drained is not unfrequently found 

 to contain largely those elements which enter into the compo- 

 sition of valuable vegetable products. It often happens that 

 the finer parts of the soil are washed down from the hills. It 

 often happens too that from the falling leaves and the annual 

 decay of vegetation, there has been an immense accumulation 

 of vegetable matter on the surface, which, by proper means, 

 can be decomposed and thus be prepared to enter into other 

 crops, whether roots, grains, fruits, or grasses. For ages, the 

 work of saving has been going on. By the exclusion of air, 

 by a low temperature, by preservative qualities in the water or 

 soil perhaps, Providence with prescient care has laid by for 

 future use these immense stores of vegetable matter in the form 

 of peat for the nourishment of future plants ; just as Provi- 

 dence has also laid by immense stores of vegetable matter in 

 the form of coal, for the future use of man. In this way 

 nature has hoarded up treasures of untold value for those 

 and those only who know how to use them. 



It is true that in this preserved organic state, peat is unfit for 

 nourishing plants. But take a cart load of it from its place, 

 while in this state, in which can be seen the texture of the 

 leaves, the grain of the wood, the cortical layers, the stalks and 



