288 Dtt. ANGUS SMITH OX PEAT. 



On isolated pieces of rock I have seen peat grow to a 

 thickness of from i to 2 inches ; but there is no power to go 

 higher, apparently. In instances to be alluded to, the field 

 of peat, when large, is said to grow 12-15 feet above the 

 water-level ; the maximum depends on many conditions. 

 Such large masses are never dry, although narrow districts 

 are readily drained. 



The amount of inorganic supply from the air must be 

 small. If it were desired to increase the rapidity of 

 growth, the mode of acting would, I suppose, be the same 

 as is adopted in all cultivation, and soluble salts, or salts 

 not so insoluble as the hard rocks so often found in the 

 peaty districts of our island, would require to be used. It 

 is not improbable that a very large crop of fuel might 

 then be grown. 



And now, some one will say, why adopt this fantastical 

 idea ? Is it not better to clear the country of swamps, 

 remove peat- bogs by improving the drainage generally, and 

 raise the best crops we can ? 



It must not be supposed that a peat-bog is a swamp in 

 the sense used in southern climates : nor is it a marsh ; it 

 produces no marsh-fevers. The water itself is disinfecting, 

 and the peat wonderfully preserving. The air over it may 

 be damp, but little to be noticed in a damp country. The 

 peat-bogs may be inconvenient as being soft (sometimes 

 too soft to walk upon) during most of the year ; they may 

 be poor feeding-lands, producing little grass and sometimes 

 no available grass; but we must still respect them as 

 having long grown fuel for many of our countrymen, and 

 promising to grow it much longer. 



There are many parts of Scotland, certainly, where fuel 

 is cheaper in this than in any other form, large parts of 

 Ireland, and probably some of England, as well as of Wales. 

 Is it probable that the time will ever come when coals will 

 become cheaper in all these places ? This probability has 



