VII.] 



FUNCTION OF LITTER 



183 



Peat moss Utter consists of humified vegetable 

 matter, being derived from the upper layers of a peat 

 bog, where the material still retains a good deal of its 

 original structure ; it forms a brown, spongy, fibrous 

 mass consisting almost wholly of organic matter. It 

 will absorb a greater amount of water than will an 

 equal amount of straw, up to about ten times its own 

 weight of water. Peat moss is also remarkable for its 

 power of absorbing ammonia even from the atmosphere, 

 so that a stable littered with peat moss will remain 

 sweet for a comparatively long time. Table LI I. shows 

 the result of an experiment in which two similar 

 stables carrying the same stock were littered — the one 



Table LH. — Ammonia in Stable per Million of Air. 



with straw, the other with peat moss, and the amount 

 of ammonia in the air was determined every day. 

 As will be seen, the peat moss proved a much 

 more efficient absorber of the ammonia produced than 

 the straw. The peat moss itself usually contains a 

 higher proportion of nitrogen than straw does, hence 

 the manure it makes appears to be correspondingly 

 richer, and this difference is often increased by its 

 longer retention in the stalls. But the peat moss 

 itself is very slow to decay, especially in dry soils, 

 so that it is doubtful whether its extra content in 

 nitrogen is of much value ; direct experiments, however, 

 are lacking to compare the relative value of manure 

 made from the same amount of feeding stuffs with peat 

 moss and straw respectively. Peat moss manure is 



