DK. ANGUS SMITH ON PEAT. 289 



surely ceased. The cheapening would require an ex- 

 tension of railway- and boat- communication which the 

 scattered inhabitants of peat-growing districts cannot be 

 expected to support. 



Landowners need not, therefore, look too much to the 

 outer world for fuel ; but on hilly places and many other 

 parts it seems their interest to keep up a system which 

 has so far succeeded, and which the present aspect of things 

 does not prove to be easily superseded. I certainly would 

 recommend the careful preservation of a certain amount of 

 peat-grounds, and also experiments on the mode of acce- 

 lerating the growth. 



Since a failure to obtain fuel would render the places 

 spoken of simply uninhabitable, it is dangerous to presume 

 much on any other source, and it is only wise, in my opinion, 

 to retain the supply which is known to be lasting. The 

 supply of peat is sometimes said to be inexhaustible. It is 

 not so; the supply of a district is for the farmers around very 

 frequently easily exhausted. It is only by fostering growth 

 that any long cultivation can be expected of many parts ; 

 whilst there are some enormous bogs which are so far from 

 habitations that it does not seem probable that there will 

 be any benefit in removing them until surrounding condi- 

 tions change. An advantage of the peat is, that it can be 

 cultivated near one's house and used when required. The 

 disadvantage is, that it cannot afford much carriage. It 

 may be found to be the final and most convenient method, 

 in all the northern part of this country, to have a field 

 growing fuel at the side of others growing corn and 

 potatoes ; and it certainly is in some places the most con- 

 venient method at present. The habit, however, is going 

 out more than is safe ; and the mode of cultivation never 

 has been sufficiently systematic. 



So far as I know, there never has been any attempt to 

 assist or to stimulate the growth, either by irrigation in 



