AGRICULTURE WITH CHEMISTRY. 203 



There can be no doubt, that when peat is rendered 

 completely soluble, and thus fitted to promote the growth 

 of plants, it will, when applied to the culture of the sugar- 

 cane, afford those substances which constitute sugar; 

 when these, by the process of vegetation, are afterwards 

 combined and united in due proportions. 



To send cargoes of peat in an unprepared state to the 

 West Indies, would be the height of folly and absurdity, 

 a^ no vessel could carry enough of so light a substance 

 even to ballast her. But as peat, when dissolved by alka- 

 line salts, and afterwards dried, may be brought to the 

 consistency of a solid dry gum, equal in weight perhaps 

 to forty or fifty lb. per cubic foot, the objedlion to its 

 lightness would thus be remedied, and it might be ex- 

 ported to the West Indies at a low return freight, or as 

 ballast. 



If there be any accumulated masses of vegetable mat- 

 ter, or peat, in the West India Islands, this manure might 

 certainly be prepared there, at a cheaper rate than in 

 Britain or Ireland. 



c c 2 The 



