76 PEAT GARDENS 



not use in America. In England these words convey no unpleasant 

 suggestion, because mosquitoes and malaria are practically non- 

 existent. But here they are a national curse. It may take a 

 hundred years and millions of dollars to subjugate these foes. 

 Therefore I have ventured to propose the phrase "peat gardens," 

 because "peat" has only pleasant suggestions. It makes one 

 think of acres of heather, the smell of burning peat, the clean, cool 

 cushions of sphagnum moss, of orchids, pitcher plants, and the 

 shyest beauties of the heath family. 



The name "peat garden" is defective, however, in two re- 

 spects. For peat in Europe is made by heather, while American 

 peat is composed of fern root. Our peat is not so easy to use for 

 fuel, and not so good for cultivating certain plants, especially 

 greenhouse orchids. But the main objection to the phrase "peat 

 garden" is that it must be used to cover two very different ideas, 

 viz., the peat bog and the muck swamp. The latter is the commoner 

 and less agreeable thing, for the soil is likely to be sour, and is full 

 of the organisms of decay, while the waters of a sphagnum bog are 

 antiseptic. They contain no bacteria or other organisms of decay, 

 and that is why oak trees which have been blown into Irish bogs 

 have remained in perfect condition for hundreds and even thousand 

 of years. These sphagnum bogs are becoming rarer as the value 

 of land increases, and it behooves us to save every one we can. 

 For they are little wonder worlds of beauty and can never be re- 

 placed. I wish that every one who has to deal with damp* ground 

 could visit with me the bog garden of Sir Henry Yorke, in Bucking- 

 hamshire. For at every step one's prejudices melt away until one 

 is quite entranced by the revelations of a new and overwhelming 

 kind of beauty. I dare say there are larger and older bog gardens, 

 but even in its new state I am sure you would enjoy it. 



