74Q PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



field ; which, for want of more frequent ploughing, was probably not of the service it otherwise might 

 have been. Part of the land was afterwards sown down with oats and grass seeds ; the former of which 

 afforded but a moderate crop, the latter a very good one, and has since produced two loads, 120 stones 

 each, per acre. The seeds sown were rye-grass, rib-grass, white clover, and trefoil ; of these, the first 

 succeeded amazingly, the others not so well ; potatoes throve very well; turnips not equal to them. A 

 farm-house has been built upon it, which now, alng with five acres more of the same kind of land, is let 

 on lease at thirty pounds per annum. The soil consisted, in general, of benty peat, upon red gritstone 

 with a mixture of clay upon limestone ; this last is, in some places, at a considerable depth, in others! 

 sufficiently near the surface for lime to be burnt on the premises. 



4540. Finlay son's rid-plough ( 2605.) has been found a valuable implement in 

 breaking up heath and moorlands, in Scotland. 



Sect. V. Peat Mosses, Bogs, and Morasses, and their Improvement. 



4541. Mossy and boggy surfaces occupy a very considerable portion of the British 

 Isles. In Ireland alone there are of flat red bog, capable of being converted to the 

 general purposes of agriculture, 1,576,000 acres ; and of peat soil, covering mountains, 

 capable of being improved for pasture, or beneficially applied to the purposes of plant- 

 ation, 1,255,000 acres, making together nearly three millions of acres. Mossy lands, 

 whether on mountains or plains, are of two kinds : the one black and solid ; the other 

 spongy, containing a great quantity of water, with a proportion of fibrous materials. 



4542. Black mosses, though formerly considered irreclaimable, are now found capable 

 of great melioration. By cultivation, they may be completely changed in their quality 

 and appearance ; and, from a peaty, become a soft vegetable earth of great fertility. 

 They may be converted into pasture ; or, after being thoroughly drained, thriving plant- 

 ations may be raised upon them ; or, under judicious management, they will produce 

 crops of grain and roots ; or, they may be formed into meadow-land of considerable 

 value. 



4543. Flow, fluid, or spongy masses, abound in various parts of the British Isles. Such 

 mosses are sometimes from ten to twenty feet deep, and even more, but the average may 

 be stated at from four to eight. In high situations, their improvement is attended with 

 so much expense, and the returns are so scanty, that it is advisable to leave them in their 

 original state ; but where advantageously situated, it is now proved that they may be 

 profitably converted into arable land, or valuable meadow. If they are not too high 

 above the level of the sea, arable crops may be successfully cultivated. Potatoes, and 

 other green crops, where manure can be obtained, may likewise be raised on them with 

 advantage. 



4544. Peat is certainly a production capable of administering to the support of many valuable kinds of 

 plants : but to effect this purpose, it must be reduced to such a state, either by the application of fire, or 

 the influence of putrefaction, as may prepare it for their nourishment. In either of these ways, peat may 

 be changed into a soil fit for the production of grass, of herbs, or of roots. The application of a proper 

 quantity of lime, chalk, or marl, prepares it equally well for the production of corn. {Code.) 



4545. The fundamental improvement of all peat soils is drainage, which alone will in a few years change 

 a boggy to a grassy surface. After being drained, the surface may be covered with earthy materials, 

 pared and burned, fallowed, dug, trenched, or rolled. The celebrated Duke of Bridgewater covered a 

 part of Chatmoss with the refuse of coal-pits, a mixture of earths and stones of different qualities and 

 sizes, which were brought in barges out of the interior of a mountain ; and, by compressing the surface, 

 enabled it to bear pasturing stock. Its fertility was promoted by the vegetable mould of the morass, which 

 presently rose and mixed with the heavier materials which were spread upon it, {Marshal on Landed 

 Property, p. 46.) 



4546. The fenny grounds of Huntingdonshire are in some cases improved by applying marl to the sur- 

 face. Where that substance is mixed with the fen soil, the finer grasses flourish beyond what they do on 

 the fen soil unmixed ; and when the mixed soil is ploughed, and sown with any sort of grain, the calca- 

 reous earth renders the crops less apt to fall down, the produce is greater, and the grain of better quality 

 than on any other part of the land. {Huntingdonshire Report, p. 301.) 



4547. Covering the surface cfpeat bogs with earth has been practised in several parts of Scotland. Clay, 

 sand, gravel, shells, and sea ooze, two or three inches thick, or more, have been used ; and land, originally 

 of no value, has thus been rendered worth from 2/. to SI. and even 4/. per acre. The horses upon this 

 land must either be equipped with wooden clogs, or the work performed in frosty weather, when the 

 surface of the moss is hard. Coarse obdurate clay (provincially till) is peculiarly calculated for this pro- 

 cess ; as, when it is blended with peat and some calcareous matter, it contains all the properties of a fertile 

 soil. {Clydesdale Report, p. 150, note.) This is certainly an expensive method of improving land, unless 

 the substance to be laid upon it is within 500 yards' distance ; but where it can properly be done, the moss 

 thus obtains solidity, and after it has been supplied with calcareous earth, it may be cultivated, like other 

 soils, in a rotation of white and green crops. In the neighbourhood of populous towns, where the 

 rent of land is high, the covering substance may be conveyed from a greater distance than 500 yards. 

 {Code.) 



4548. Rolling peaty surfaces has been found to improve them. The greatest defect of soft soils is, that 

 the drought easily penetrates them, and they become too open. The roller is an antidote to that evil, and 

 the expense is the only thing that ought to set bounds to the practice of this operation. It also tends to 

 destroy those worms, grubs, and insects, with which light and fenny land is apt to be infested. The roller 

 for such soils ought not to be heavy, nor of a narrow diameter. Tf it is weighty, and the diameter small, 



it sinks too much where the pressure falls, which causes the soft moss to rise 

 before and behind the roller, and thus, instead of consolidating, it rends the soil. 

 A gentle pressure consolidates moss, but toomucli weight has a contrary effect. 

 A roller for moss ought therefore to be formed of wood, the cylinder about four 

 feet diameter, and mounted to be drawn by two or three men. Three small 

 rollers working in one frame, {fig. 709.), have sometimes been so drawn. When 

 horses are employed, they ought to have clogs or pattens, if likely to sink. The 

 oftener the rolling is performed, on spongy soils as long as the crops of corn or 

 grass will admit of it, the better, and the more certain is the result. 



