MANURES. 157 



in this vicinity is found in bogs or swamps, which in their 

 natural condition produce chiefly vegetation of a low order. 

 All localities where it is found have too much water for the 

 growth of valuable plants. Where the water is stagnant, moss 

 is often found as the principal vegetable growth. Different 

 species of this plant, in fact, form so large a portion of the 

 vegetation of bogs, that in England such places are frequently 

 called " mosses." The moss obtains a hold, shoots up a little 

 above the water, and as it grows from year to year, the lower 

 portion settles down and decays — forms " muck." Thus the 

 growth continues, and the decayed substance accumulates, 

 becoming more solid with age and pressure, till at length it 

 acquires the character of peat — may be cut in pieces which will 

 retain their shape when dried, and may be used for fuel. In 

 some instances we find that after bogs have acquired a certain 

 degree of firmness, some trees will grow on them. The cedar 

 swamps of this section may be cited as illustrations. The 

 larch, hemlock and pine sometimes grow in such places, but 

 where stagnant water abounds, are stunted and small. 



It is evident that muck which is formed under such circum- 

 stances cannot abound in fertilizing matter. We know that 

 the manure which is made by animals while eating poor herbage 

 is of inferior quality compared with that made while ihe 

 animals are fed with the best grasses, green or dry ; but here 

 is a case where the vegetation is so poor that it would be 

 rejected by animals, and the manure it would make, on decom- 

 position, must be correspondingly low in the scale of fertilizing 

 power. The fragments of the trees alluded to can hardly 

 improve it, as the resinous matter they contain resists decom- 

 position, and they form, also, tannic acid, which is injurious to 

 vegetation. 



In other cases, the substance of bogs has accumulated, and 

 the quantity of water, from various causes, lessened, till other 

 kinds of trees — as maple, birch and ash — take root and grow. 

 The leaves and branches, which fall from these trees and decay, 

 form a richer substance than that of the moss and the cedar in 

 the former case. If, from the absence of trees, herbage plants 

 spring up, they are of a character which indicates the improve- 

 ment of the soil over that on which moss is the principal 

 growth. Muck from such localities, especially where there is 



