Geology of Massachusetts. 39 
Lexington; and in large quantities. Peat is abundant in Seekonk, 
Uxbridge, Cohasset, Duxbury, Hingham, Medfield, Walpole, Wren- 
tham, Dover, Framingham, Sudbury, Topsfield, Ipswich, and Nan- 
tucket. 
It exists and has been dug in greater or less quantities in Pittsfield, 
Leverett, Shrewsbury, Lancaster, Southborough, Hopkinton, Med- 
way, Halifax, Stoughton, Boylston, Reading, Milton, Needham, Con- 
cord, Billerica, Bedford, Waltham, Watertown, Acton, Wilmington, 
Danvers, Chelmsford, Hamilton, and in nearly all the towns in Barn- 
stable county; certainly in Yarmouth, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, 
Wellfleet, and Truro. I have marked on the Map, only the most 
important localities. 
The value of peat for fuel, is generally known; but J apprehend that 
it is not generally known that a still more important use may be made 
of it in agriculture. Peat swamps in Massachusetts are commonly 
surrounded by light and poor land. While the swamp itself contains 
too much vegetable matter, imperfectly decomposed, the land around 
it contains too little. All that is needed, therefore, is to employ the 
excess of the one, to supply the deficiency of the other. Hence, 
as an English writer remarks, ‘“ peat or vegetable matter, should be 
carried from the peat moss to the poor soil, and the surface mould 
from the poor soil to the peat moss.” ‘The peat ought indeed to be 
converted into manure, by lying awhile in a barn yard, or by mixing 
lime, or other substance with it; and there are particular directions 
to be observed as to the whole process, which this is not the proper 
place to explain. But they can be learned in works on agriculture ; 
and whoever undertakes thus to make use of peat, without learning 
the results of enlightened experience on the subject, will probably 
fail in his object. But since great benefit has been derived from 
the use of peat as a manure, in England and Ireland, no reason can 
be assigned why it may not thus be ee in this country with equal 
success. 
I cannot but regard the existence of so large quantities of peat, 
on Cape Cod and Nantucket, as a great blessing to the inhabitants. 
Yet from the little of it, which I observed to be dug there, I am ap- 
prehensive they do not realize its value. Most of the soil in those 
counties is precisely of that kind, which needs the admixture of much 
vegetable matter. If the peat swamps could be drained, and after 
the removal of a portion of the peat, be covered with lighter and 
warmer soil, but few years would elapse before they would become 
