wrought iron share or coulter, ground to a sharp 

 edge in the driest season, say in the month of Sep- 

 tember — roll down as hard as possible, carry on in 

 the winter a sufficient top-dressing of compost, 

 twenty cartloads to the acre, and in the spring plant 

 witli corn or roots, without disturbing the sod. — 

 When the com or roots are talien off, the surface is 

 made smooth with the cultivator, or hoe and har- 

 row, and late in November, or just before the heavy 

 frosts set in, sow with herd's grass and red-top 

 seed, half a bushel of the former and one bushel of 

 the latter to the acre. The field is then rolled, 

 which completes the process. If the plough does 

 not turn the sods smouth, it will be necessary to 

 follow it with the bog-hoe, tn level the uneven pla- 

 ces. By keeping the sod undisturbed in the culti- 

 vation, a more firm and compact surface is formed, 

 upon which o.xen or horses may work, generally, 

 without danger of miring. If the land is intended 

 for grass, without the intervention of a hoed crop, 

 the turf is turned over with the plough, as before 

 stated, in August or September, or as early as the 

 surface becomes dry enough to admit the o.\en or 

 horses upon it ; then follow with the bog-hoe, and 

 turn over such parts as the plough has left unturn- 

 ed, make the whole smooth with the hoe, and late 

 rn November, spread on a top-dressing of compost, 

 not less than twenty cartloads, made half of loam and 

 half of stable manure, to the acre; then sow the 

 grass seed, and bush, and roll down. If the ground 

 be miryj^o as to render the use of the plough 

 impracticable, the bog-hoe must be resorted to, and 

 the whole turned over by hand, and top-dressed, 

 and seeded to grass, as above stated. The cost of 

 turning over w,ith the hoe will be twenty dollars 

 per acre, at the usual price of labor. This mode of 

 culture completely subdues the natural wild grasses, 

 and gives a compact and rich surface of vegetable 

 mould, which will give an abundant crop of the 

 best English hay for four or five years, without the 

 aid of more manure. If the sod is disturbed and 

 attempted to be pulverized in the course of the cul- 

 tivation, the surface, when laid to grass, will be 

 loose and spongy — an extra top-dressing of loam 

 and manure will be required, and after all, the sur- 

 face will not become so compact, nor the produce 

 by any means so great. Should meadows be found 

 too soft and miry to admit of their being ploughed 

 in the summer or autunui, and the e.xpense of turn- 

 ing with the hoe should be thought too great, I 

 would advise ploughing in the spring, when the 

 frost is out, to the depth of three or four inches, 

 carting on the manure, and then sowing or plant- 

 ing at a convenient and proper season. °The art of 

 reclaiming these low meadows, consists in taking 

 off all the surplus water by judicious draining, and 

 in thoroughly exterminating the natural herbage 

 and grasses. This being effected, we have our 

 rich bottoms, equally as productive as the deep al- 

 luvials of the west, and obtained at a cost and sac- 

 rifice infinitely less. 



The third particular in which peat lands may be 

 considered valuable to the farmer, consists in "fur- 

 nishing him with a very important ingredient for his 

 compost. Peat is made up principally of decom- 

 posed vegetable substances, with a portion of the 

 lighler particles of vegetable mould, washed in from 

 the surrounding highlands. But when taken fresh 

 from the pit, it contains certain antiseptic properties, 

 injurious to vegetation, which must be absorbed or 

 neutralized, by a combinaticm with other substan- 

 ces, in order to render it food for plants. This 

 may in some measure be effected by exposure to 



the action of the air and frost. Where the sur- 

 rounding uplands are composed of gravel or sand, 

 the peat or swamp mud may be called silicious, and 

 is less valuable for manure, especially if the adja- 

 cent uplands rise abruptly ; when composed prin- 

 cipally of clay, the peat is aluminous — this is fre- 

 quently found resting on beds of marl, and is con- 

 sidered much richer, and more valuable for the 

 compost heap. 



I have annually, for some years past, used on fny 

 farm some hundreds of loads of peat mud, which is 

 either thrown into my hog stye or mixed with fresh 

 stable dung, or with lime. WI.en mixed with green 

 stable manure, the proportions are two parts of peat 

 lijud to one of dung ; and I am confident, from re- 

 peated experiments, that a load of this compost well 

 mixed and fermented, will give as great a produce 

 and a more permanent improvement to the soil than 

 the same quantity of stable manure. In this opin- 

 ion I am not alone. Other accurate and iutelli- 

 gent cultivators have made similar experiments 

 with similar results. 



The vegetable substances of which peat is com- 

 posed having been decomposed in stagnant waters, 

 they have not passed through a putrefactive fer- 

 mentation, and are therefore supposed to retain 

 much of their natural oils, gums and acid. Peats 

 in this region, are also supposed to contain portions 

 of sulphate of iron, or copperas, oxide of iron, &c. 

 This opinion is formed from noticing the difterence 

 between the effect produced by using the peat mud 

 on ground, when first taken out of the meadow, and 

 that which is produced after fermentation, with sta- 

 ble manure, or by mixing it with lime. The ashes 

 of jieat have little or no perceptible effects, when 

 used alone, but by mixing them with lime, they 

 become a valuable manure. 



That our peat may possess other and different 

 properties, which are in a great or less degree in- 

 jurious to plants, is highly probable. These can 

 be detected and remedied only by the aid of sci- 

 ence. It is to the agricultural chemist that the 

 practical farmer must look fur a development of his 

 resources, to remove the obstacles which impede 

 his progress, and to impart that information which 

 will give confidence to action, and a successful is- 

 sue to labor. 



With an earnest desire that you may persevere 

 in your useful labors, 



I am, dear sir. 



With tlie highest respect, 

 Your obedient servant, 



E. PHINNEY. 



Having two years since, given to Dr. N. C. Keep 

 some instructions relating to the management of 

 peat compost, that gentleman communicated them 

 to his father, an old and intelligent farmer, residing 

 at Longmeadow, upon the Connecticut river; and 

 the experimental trial having been made to his sat- 

 isfaction, he politely furnislies me with the follow- 

 ing interesting statistics : 



To Charles T. Jackson, State Geolorist, &c.. 



Denr Sir — Being much indebted to you for in- 

 formation in regard to the use of peat, as a manure, 

 and tlie mode in which its acid properties may be 

 not only neutralized but made a most valuable food 

 for plants, I beg leave to state, that in the fall of 

 18:5(), I took from my bog about three cords of peat, 

 and placed it in a pile on the nearest solid land in 

 the woods. It remained there undisturbed until 

 sometime in November, 1837. By the action ofthe 

 frost of the preceding winter, and the heat of the 



summer, it had lost much of its adhesive property, 

 and was greatly reduced in weight. 



I now brought it home, and while one was un- 

 loading, another sifted in lime with the hand, (it 

 having been previously slaked to a fine powder,) at 

 the rate of one bushel to a cord of peat. Lime hav- 

 ing been thus scattered evenly through the whole 

 mass, nothing further was done to it until about 

 the middle of next May. Observing, after the ma- 

 niiie had been removed from the barn-yard, that a 

 considerable quantity of water from the rains had 

 collected itself in the lowest part of the yard, (say 

 six or eight barrels,) I had the peat removed into 

 it. The garnet -colored wash of the yard was rap- 

 idly and entirely absorbed. I allowed it to remain 

 in this situation until the first of June, during which 

 time its color had changed from mahogany to a jet 

 black. Fermentation did not take place. 



By the successive action of the frost, lime, and 

 the wash ofthe yard, the sensible qualities of the 

 peat had very much changed. When first taken 

 from the bog it was pulpy and very adhesive — could 

 bespread like butter; now it was a fine powder, 

 having entirely lost its peculiar adhesive properties. 



I used the manure thus prepared, for squashes — 

 planting fifteen rods of ground, very sandy and 

 much exposed to drought. After the manure had 

 been dropped, (one shovel full in a hill,) I sprinkled 

 a little lime in each hill, directly upon the peat. — 

 Upon this I planted the autumnal marrow squash. 

 The seeds came up well, and the plants were of a 

 healthy color. Some of the plants were entirely 

 destroyed, and all of them badly eaten by insects ; 

 the yellow bug was most destructive. The plants, 

 after they had recovered from this shock, grew more 

 rapidly than any that I had before witnessed. The 

 color of the vines, and the rapidity with which they 

 covered the ground, were most convincing proofs 

 to my mind that they were perfectly healthy, and 

 well supplied with nutriment. In tlie severe drought 

 which came on in the summer, these vines, for 

 many weeks, did not appear to suffer, while others 

 of a similar kind in the neighborhood, were dead 

 and dying, 'i he result was, that notwithstanding 

 the long continuance ofthe drought, in which near- 

 ly all our potatoes, peas, &c. were killed, these 

 squashi'S were preserved, and yielded a middling 

 crop. 



I also used the compost, as above, on intervale 

 land, near the Connecticut river — soil alluvial — no 

 stones or gravel — can be easily compressed— does 

 not bake in the sun — has been cultivated for more 

 than one hundred and fifty years, and yields a very 

 scanty crop without manure. The compost was 

 spread over the ground and ploughed in, at the rate 

 of nine cords to the acre of ground : thus prepared, 

 I planted thirty rods with sugar beets — distance 

 between the rows, eighteen inches — hills eight in- 

 ches — one seed in a hill. The seeds proved bad, ' 

 not more than one-third coming up — yet I had 116 

 bushels of beets ; while above an acre of tlie same 

 land manured with the best stable manure, at the 

 rate of twelve cords to the acre, did not produce 

 one hundred bushels. Two rows of potatoes were 

 planted next the beets ; the land had been design- ' 

 cd for beets, and was prepared precisely the same. ■ 

 Between these two rows and more than an acre im- : 

 mediately adjoining, (where a large quantity of best m 

 barn-yard or animal manure was used,) there was * 

 a very perceptible difference in favor of the former. "^ 

 I also planted a few hills of potatoes on very sandy 

 land, in the latter part of June. Into the hills I 

 put peat, which had been saturated with lye, from 



