X. 
PLANTATIONS ON BOG OR PEAT SOIL. 
THERE exists a very great difference in the quality of bog or 
peat soil. Some sorts are much more congenial to the growth 
of trees than others. The prevailing cause of the sterility is 
generally the excess of moisture which it contains, and the 
quality of the soil is often greatly influenced by the nature of 
the springs of water with which it is submerged. In bog or 
moss there is also a great difference, dependent on its com- 
position. That which is pure, free of sand, and possessed of 
little inorganic matter, is least adapted for the growth of 
wood, and it not unfrequently occurs that the barren soil is 
accompanied with a bare and bleak exposure. Here we have 
a combination of hostile elements, above and below ground, 
which it requires plants the most tenacious of life to with- 
stand. 
Before forming a plantation on moss land it should be com- 
pletely drained. This operation is often required to be made 
a year or two before the plants are inserted. Open ditches 
are the best and cheapest for the purpose, and, if possible, 
they should be made down into the hard subsoil. The closer 
they are made to one another they will be the more effectual. 
I have drained moss with open ditches ten yards asunder, and 
on an average eight or nine feet deep, when in less than two 
years the soil collapsed fully three feet, and became well 
adapted for plantation. Where moss is much shallower, and 
the ditches can be easily formed into the subsoil, that material 
brought up forms a valuable mixture for the growth of plants 
in general after it has been exposed to the influence of the 
weather. After bog land has been drained, when it is very 
