DR. ANGUS SMITH ON PEAT. 311 



In most treatises on peat there is an idea that it is a 

 mass of broken vegetation and a fortuitous accumulation of 

 rubbish. No one explains it, so far as I know, before Mr. 

 Aiton, so well ; he says, p. 25, " Moss-earth is nothing else 

 than an immense collection of the successive crops of aquatic 

 vegetables which have grown from year to year on the 

 surface in humid situations and at a low temperature." 



Although believing in the rapid growth of peat, he is not 

 inclined to believe the account quoted from the Phil. Trans, 

 of 1 7 1 1 , p. 296, that the Earl of Cromarty saw a field of old 

 withered firs in 1651, and in 15 years saw them broken 

 down and moss growing on the spot, which had become wet 

 by the stoppage of drainage, and in 48 years from the first 

 period saw peat cutting on the same spot for fuel. I see 

 no reason for refusal to believe quite as much as this ; and 

 the quoted accounts would lead us to believe in even shorter 

 periods. 



Kneaded peat, Mr. Aiton says, is the best of fuel. He 

 advises the making of peat-sheds to prevent exposure. 



' The Natural and Agricultural History of Peat-moss or 

 Turf-bog/ by Andrew Steele, Esq., of Crosswoodhill (Edin- 

 burgh, 1826), is an interesting volume, from which I draw 

 a few sentences. 



" I have myself observed the Sphagnum grow four feet in 

 a year, springing from the bottom, and covering the surface 

 of stagnant water of that depth. The Hypnum fluitans, 

 which also grows in water, and floats on the surface, has 

 been known to grow to two or three feet in length in a sea- 

 son, and to form a stratum of peat in 20 years " (p. 14) . 



" By replacing the surface-turf of a moss cut for fuel, I am 

 informed, a peat-moss near Cupar Angus grew again so as 

 to admit of being cut for fuel twice in fifty years V (p. 1 5) . 



" A great proportion of the mosses and mossy farms in 

 the lowlands retain the name of woods, though there does 

 not now exist a growing tree in their vicinity "(p. 27) . 



