86 TRANSACTIONS. ' 1S97-8. 



must precede the production of fuel from the lower- beds of 

 the sphagmim bogs. I very, much fear that the want of sue- 

 cess which has so far attended the working of peat bogs for 

 fuel has been owing to the fact that the true nature of' the 

 upper parts of the "white turf'or "bastar-d peat" or moss litter as 

 we call it was not taken into- consideration. I am convinced 

 that the way to success lies first in the utilization of the moss 

 litter for sanitary and agricultural purposes. Even in speak- 

 ing of that article I must, for want of time, restrict my re- 

 marks to two of its applications, both of which tend to the 

 enrichment of arable land. 



1. It is used in town and country all over Europe for 

 bedding animals, and keeping the stables clean and inodorous. 

 It is thus a substitute for straw than which it possesses better 

 absorbent qualities. Its price is seldom higher than that of 

 straw with which it competes vigoroush'. Here in Ottawa' it 

 sells at about double the price and consequently the trade in 

 it is not very brisk. 



2. It is used as an absorbent, deodoriser and disinfectant 

 for all manner of domestic refuse, including human excreta 

 and kitchen offal. It has also been found convenient to 

 apply it in slaughter houses and factories, whose products are 

 of an evil smelling sort. Anyone can easily convince him- 

 self of its deodorising qualities by mixing a little of it with 

 kitchen refuse in summer time, by which means the lattfer is 

 kept inoffensive until removed. Not only does moss litter, on 

 account of its porous, spongy character, take up obnoxious 

 gases, but it can also absorb from to to 16 times its weight of 

 water. Drying by means of it, applied to organic substances, 

 is one of the best plans for arresting their decomposition. 

 (The lecturer next described the nature and constituents of 

 moss litter the production of humus from it and the advan- 

 tages of the latter in agriculture.) 



It will scarcely answer in these days of steam and elec- 

 tricity to say that "there is nothing new under the sun," but 

 so far as regards agriculture, the oldest of the arts, I believe 

 that modern investigation reveals very little not previously 

 known. Take the acquisition of the nitrogen of the atmos- 

 phere by the leguminosae, a fact now universally accepted by 

 agriculturists, that seems to have been known to the ancients 

 and a passage in Pliny shows that the Romans based their 

 practice on it. Neither is there anything entirely new in ihe 

 application of moss litter as an absorbent and deodordiser. When 

 Professor Macoun \yas collecting his specimens of sphagnum 



