194 REPORT OF THE 



this purpose by writers on scientific agriculture, but as it is nofc 

 my intention here to enlarge upon this subject, I only allude 

 to two. 



Firjt of all, the peat or muck should be thrown out and left 

 ■where it c.ui be exposed to the process of a'ternate soaking 

 and drying', and if possible also to the action of frost. 



Ssondly, it may be mixed with lime, which, as an alkalino 

 agent, will neutralize the acidity, and at the same time facili- 

 tate decomposition. When thus mixed, it is much more prompt- 

 ly prepared for use. The lime for this purpose has not to bo 

 quarried from a distant ledge and burned in a kiln. Nature has 

 placed it in the form of marl, in immediate juxtaposition with 

 the peat which needs its agency. Indeed the farmer can in 

 many cases load his cart.with the mixed deposits without even 

 moving his team from their tracks. I hardly know a more 

 striking adaptation of natural means for the accomplishment of 

 a, necessary object. The porous nature of our soils puffers 

 their soluble constituents to be carried away to the lower 

 levels, where peat and marl are accumulating, and where tho 

 growths of ages unknown, have been adding a thousand fold to 

 the nutritive elements brought down from the soils of the con- 

 tiguous hill slopes. These depositories of agricultural force, a 

 good economy will not fail to appreciate and apply to the recu- 

 peration of declining wheat lands. 



While, however, the application of peat as a fertilizer to tho 

 Boil is its most obvious use in a purely agricultural region, it 

 cannot be said that tliis is its principal, or even its most im- 

 portant application. Though in a country like our own, covered 

 with primiiive forests, the value of peat as a fuel is almost un- 

 known, the amount consumed in older countries is truly enor- 

 mous. The bogs ot Ireland are estimated to occupy 2,830,000 

 acres. Two million acres, at an average depth of nine feet, 

 assuming peat to be but one-sixth the value of coal, will furnish 

 an amount of f-el equal to 470,000,000 tons of coal, worth thir- 

 teen hundred millions of dollars. For the purposes of ordinary 

 fuel, tne raw peat is prepared by subjecting it between cloths, 



