258 APPENDIX TO PART I. 



** Should Science, indeed, succeed in settling the true 

 cause of the deterioration of crops, and the most advan- 

 tageous order of their succession, it is unnecessary for me 

 to point out how important a boon she would confer upon 

 the agriculturist. 



*'So extremely various, indeed, are the systems upon 

 which the rotation is carried on in different countries, that 

 no fixed principle would appear to regulate them, and the 

 whole may be considered, as being founded much more 

 upon the authority of long usage and tradition, than upon 

 any actual comparison of the relative advantages of those 

 resorted to in various places. 



"This inquiry may therefore be pointed out, as being 

 one of those lines of investigation, in prosecuting which 

 the scientific chemist may be expected to benefit the prac- 

 tical farmer." 



PEAT COMPOST. 

 (Seep. 118, and 185.) 



According to the statement of Messrs. Phinney and 

 Haggerston, as contained in the Report on the Geological and 

 Agricultural Survey of Rhode Island, by Dr. C. T. Jack- 

 son, a compost made of three parts of peat and one of sta- 

 ble manure, is equal in value to its bulk of clean stable 

 dung, and is more permanent in its effects. 



Dr. Jackson deems it essential that animal matters of 

 some kind should be mixed with the peat, to aid the de- 

 composition and produce the requisite gases. Lime de- 

 composes the peat, neutralizes the acids, and disengages 

 the ammonia. The peat absorbs the ammonia, and be- 

 comes in part soluble in water. The soluble matter, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Jackson, is the apocrenate of ammonia ; 

 crenate of ammonia and crenate of lime being also dis- 

 solved. With an excess of animal matter and lime, free 

 carbonate of ammonia is formed. 



The peat should be laid down in layers with barn-yard 

 manure, night-soil, dead fish, or any other animal matter, 

 and then each layer strewed with lime. In Dr. Jackson's 

 Report, he has presented highly valuable results from the 

 use of this compost, which deserve the attention of every 

 agriculturist. He gives the following details of the man- 



