262 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



place,) is two dollars, landed in the pen. Five loads are about 

 equal to one ton of coal. The method of preparing this peat is 

 to turf off the top, spongy part, that is near a foot thick in the 

 bogs, or the same thickness of soil when in a mowing meadow ; 

 then dig out the quantity you wish to make into a bed, — say 

 five feot wide, five inches thick, and as long as your space to dry 

 on will admit ; — now cart on water" and hitch the horse to a 

 long-toothed harrow, soften and break up the whole mass till as 

 soft as plastering mortar ; then smooth the bed off by drawing 

 a shovel all over it, to produce a glazed surface, that sheds the 

 rains ; now, with a hay-fork, commence and check the bed all 

 over, the width of the tines giving size of pieces. In about a 

 week it will be dry enough to separate several inches apart ; in 

 about two weeks more drying, it is fit to cart into houses, built 

 with open cracks between the slats on the sides, about half way 

 up to the top, after the manner of corn cribs. 



When a machine can be invented that will grind up and throw 

 off the pieces, with the water pressed out, in a like manner to 

 making bricks, and as fast, then peat will tend to supersede coal, 

 unless the latter be much less in price than at present. 



I will close this report by introducing David Folger, who will 

 give his method of farming, in nearly his own language : 



" My farm contains thirty acres, — is all mowing land, — twenty 

 acres have been in my possession some years ; twelve acres I 

 have owned only two years ; at the time of purchase it was 

 very much run down, so that on mowing nine acres 1 got only 

 three tons of hay. In the remarks and the facts I state I shall 

 confine myself to the last two years. First, as to my land and its 

 treatment. It is in lots containing from two to five acres — except 

 the twelve acre lot. Lot number one, containing four acres, is 

 mostly heavy loam over clay. This has not been ploughed since 

 in my possession — some ten years. It has been top-dressed with 

 stable manure two years in three ; have never cut less than three 

 tons of the best English hay to the acre, then rich feed for the 

 cows till winter. 



" I think there is great advantage in top-dressing such lands ; 

 we get uniform crops of excellent hay, and luxuriant feed after 

 mowing. I find wood-ashes excellent for this kind of land. 

 Lot number two contains five acres, two of which is meadow. 



