502 TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION K. 



plants. The practical value of this treated peat iii) increasing the productivity 

 of moorlands has recently been demonstrated on a small scale. On the moors 

 above Entwistle, near Bolton, Lanes., there is an extensive bed of peat. Some 

 of this peat was bacterially treated and used on the adjoining moorland. One 

 portion dressed at the rate of one ton to the acre produced a crop of hay. 

 On another portion which had been ploughed and limed the previous year the 

 bacterised peat doubled the yield of oats and mangolds. 



The method of treating the peat is simple and inexpensive. The necessary 

 plant consists of shedding, bins in which to bacterise the peat, a disintegrator, 

 and a boiler and engine. For an^ outlay of 2501. a plant could be erected capable 

 of producing twenty to thirty tons of bacterised peat per week. As there are 

 unlimited amounts of mountain-peat available, the manufacture of bacterised 

 peat ought to be commenced at once in a number of peat districts. By con- 

 verting a waste material into a valuable manure and applying it to the neigh- 

 bouring poor land the home production of food vi'ould be materially increased. 



V. Reclamation of Peat-lauds in Carnarvonshire. 

 By Pi'ofessoi" J. Lloyd Williams and G. W. Eobinson. 



Scattered throughout the county of Carnarvon there are thousands of 

 acres of peaty soils. The character of the peat varies greatly, but there 

 can be no doubt that large areas could be reclaimed with profit and made to 

 contribute to the wealth of the nation. The types surveyed can be illustrated 

 from examples occurring in the South Carnarvonshire peninsula, extending in a 

 south-west direction from the foot-hills at the base of the Snowdon mass. 

 The reclaimable areas quoted are strictly confined to such as have already 

 shown by actual experiment that they are capable of yielding good results. 



I. The Quarry Districts along the Foot-liills of the. Snowdon Range. — Here, 

 at altitudes of 700 to 900 feet, are numerous large tracts of thin peat over a 

 hard, stony, boulder clay. The natural vegetation is chiefly Nardus, Molinia, 

 Festuca ovina, short heather, and ling and tormentil, with Sphagnum, cotton 

 grass, and sedges in the wetter parts. In spite of the unpromising appearance 

 of these tracts, frequent enclosui-es are walled off — small holdings reclaimed 

 during leisure hours. The massive stone walls indicate the nature of the 

 reclamation practised, for they consist of the boulders cleared from the waste. 

 No special methods are employed, but good crops of oats and potatoes are 

 grown, and, though in most cases only 'home' grass seeds are so-wn, these 

 yield good pa'sture and hay ; in two cases excellent crojas of timothy were 

 observed — one of these fields liad been laid down eight years previously. The 

 contrast between these oases of lush green and the brown heathery wastes 

 surrounding them is most striking. 



Along strips of hill-slopes, aggregating a length of about thirty miles, many 

 hundreds of these reclaimed holdings have been made by the quarrymen during 

 the last eighty years. The soil in many cases is a strong loam containing a high 

 proportion of organic matter. The following figures may be instructive : they 

 are the analysis, A of the soil of a small holding near Llanllyfni (Glan y Gors), 

 and B of the soil of the adjacent waste. 



Organic matter 



Nitrogen ....... 



Potash (K,0) 



Phosphoric acid (PoOJ .... 



The soil B is a thin peat over a bouldery loam, and somewhat wet. The 

 smaller proportion of organic matter in A may be due to the portion reclaimed 

 being originally less peaty, but it is also probable that it is to some extent 

 the result of aeration consequent on tillage. Generally speaking, the thin 

 peats are not extremely deficient in potash and phosphoric acid, although the 

 availability is rather low. In all the Carnarvonshire jjeats calcium carbonate 

 is entirely lacking. 



It will at once be recognised that this system of scattered quarrymen's 

 holdings is in essence the ' garden city ' idea — an excellent system, for, while 



