AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



^ 



PUHLFSHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agbicultuhal Wakehouse.) 



voii. xvni.j 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 11, 1839. 



AGRICULTURAL, 



From the Third Aunual Report on the Geology ofMaine. 



MANURE FROM PEAT AND LIME. 



Peat also occurs abundantly in the same meadow, 

 and by a litt'o chemical skill may be converted in- 

 to an excellent manure by means of a mixture of 

 lime and a little barn-yard manure, ov any ani.mal 

 niatter. Thus three or four cords of the peat mix- 

 ed with one cord of animal manure, and treated 

 with a cask or two of slaked lime, will make a com- 

 post superior in value to five cords of the best sta- 

 ble manure alone. They ought to be placed in al- 

 ternating layers, thus : 



PEAT, 



LIME, 



IMMAL MANURE, 



The whole forming a regular compost heap. The 

 chemical reactions which follow are chiefly thus : 



The lime extricates a large quantity of gaseous 

 ammonia from the animal matter, which is absorbed 

 by and enters into combination with the peat, and 

 is thus retained ready for use in the state of ulmate 

 or geat of ammonia — (a most powerful manure) — 

 and the lime becomes completely carbonated of air 

 slaked by the carbonic acid given out during fer- 

 mentation, and in this state is a proper and perma- 

 nent ameliorator of the )5oil. The peat is convert- 

 ed into a powder and soluble pulp, and becomes 

 more suitable for tlie nutriment of plants. While 

 it lime and animal matter was used in excess, we 

 shall have also a considerable quantity of carbon- 

 ate of ammonia in the peat, a well known and pow- 

 erful saline inanuie. 



In case the soil is sandy, the clay marl, neutral- 

 ized with lime, is the most proper amendment for it, 

 and such is generally the condition of the fields in 

 Saco, so that by a proper use of this marl, the 

 happiest effects may be realized by the farmers in 

 that town. 



I could quote other instances of the kind, but the 



Ltringtvn, Jununrij 30, 1830. 

 Dr. Charles T. Jackson, 



Dear Sir — I herewith send you a sample of my 

 peat. I am very desirous of availing myself of the 

 benefit to be derived from a chemical analysis of 

 the same, which you kindly offered to make. 



A more intimate knowledge of the nature and 

 properties of peat, which can be obtained only by a 

 scientific examination of its constituent parts, would 

 enable farmers more justly to appreciate this valu- 

 able species of land. It is from a want of this 

 knowledge, that our extensive tracts of low mead- 

 ow and swamp lands have hitherto been esteemed 

 of little or no value. Allow me to say, sir, tliat I 

 know of no way in which you could render a more 

 essential service to the public more especially to far- 

 mers, than by enabling them to convert their un- 

 productive and unsightly bogs and morasses into 

 luxuriant fields and sources of wealth. I consider 

 my peat grounds by far the most valuable part of 

 my farm — more valuable than my wood lots for 

 fuel, and more than double the value of an equal 

 number of acres of my uplands, for the purposes of 

 cultivation. 



In addition to these, they furnish an inexhausti- 

 ble supply of the most essential ingredient for the 

 manure heap. A statement of the uses to which I 

 have appropriated peat lands, and my management 

 of them, though very imperfect, may serve to give 

 you a partial conception of their value and uses, 

 and at the same time enable you to see how Impor- 

 tant it is that the farming community should have 

 more information on this subject. 



In the first place they are valuable for fuel. I 

 have for twenty years past resorted to my peat mead- 

 ows for fuel. These, with the i)runings of my fruit 

 trees, and the brush from my uncleared lands, have 

 given me my whole supply. The prunings and 

 brush are bound in bundles, and housed, and with 

 the help of a small bundle of these faggots, and 

 peat, a quick and durable fire is made.' It gives a 

 summer-like atmosphere, and lights a room better 

 than a wood fire. The smoke from peat has no ir- 

 ritating eftect upon the eyes, and does not in the 

 slightest degree obstruct respiration, like the smoke 

 of wood ; and it has none of that drying, unpleas- 

 ant effect of a coal fire. The ashes of peat are, to 

 be sure, more abundant, but not more troublesome, 

 and are less iniurious to the furniture of a room. 



when dried. It may be cut from May to Septem- 

 ber. If the weather in autumn be very dry, the 

 best time for cutting will be from the middle of Au- 

 gust to the middle of September. If cut the latter 

 part of summer, or early in autumn, it dries more 

 gradually, and is not so liable to crack and crum- 

 ble, as when cut early in summer. The pieces are 

 taken out with an instrument inade for the purpose, 

 from two to three inches square ; and if of good 

 quality will shrink about one-half in drying. It is 

 considered a day's work for a man, a boy and a 

 horse, to cut out and spread a rod square. The 

 man cuts it out, and lays it upon a light kind of 

 drag, made for the purpose, and it is drawn off by 

 the hoisc, and spread by the boy as thick as the 

 pieces can lay singly. After becoming dry enough 

 to handle without breaking, it is made into piles, 

 cob-house fashion,, of from twelve to twenty pieces 

 in a pile. It will then require about four weeks of 

 dry weather to render it fit to- be housed for use. 

 The top or turf is thrown back into the pits from 

 which the peat is taken ; and if well leveled, and 

 the ground drained, it will, after the first year, give 

 a large crop of foul meadow, or other lowland grass. 

 Poat taken from land which has been many years 

 drained, when dried, is nearly as heavy as oak 

 wood, and bears about the same price in the mar- 

 ket. The value of peat and swamp lands for til- 

 lage, is now pretty well known and acknowledged. 

 Some years since, I occasionally sold to my neigh- 

 bors a few rods .of my peat land, yearly, to be cut 

 out for fuel, at three dollars per rod, being at the 

 rate of four hun'lred and eighty dollars per acre ; 

 but finding this sum to be less llian its value for 

 cultivation, especially when laid to grass, I have 

 declined making further sales at that price. T have 

 raised upon my reclaimed meadows seventyfive 

 bushels of corn, five hundred bushels of potatoes, or 

 from four to five tons of the best hay, at a first and 

 second cutting, to the acre, at a less expense of la- 

 bor and manure, than would be required to produce 

 half this crop upon uplands. To render these 

 lands productive, they should be thoroughly drain- 

 ed, by digging a ditch around the margin of the 

 meadow, so as to cut off the springs and receive 

 the water that is continually flowing in from the 

 surrounding uplands. If the meadow be wide, a 

 ditch through the centre may be necessary, but 

 this will be of no use without the border ditches. 



