71 



Court, 1 found the green patch at the top of the mountain, 

 far more splendid than when I saw it before. 



The circumstances attending this acre are most encou- 

 raging : the elevation was very great — an height to which 

 it cannot be necessary to ascend, until the improvement on 

 the skirts and lower regions are executed to a vast extent. 

 The heath, once exterminated, had not attempted to resume 

 possession ; the gramina had come forward of themselves, 

 without the encouragement we can so easily hold out to 

 them by draining and top-dressing. 



Let us then avail ourselves of the lesson taught us by 

 my noble host, and, with the object more directly in view, 

 take the necessary steps for converting the russet surface 

 of our mountain into a more cheerful green, and for making 

 what is now unproductive, taluab/e, as well as beautiful. 



I proceed to describe the soils we are to select, having 

 an option on which we shall commence our operations, 

 small at first, but which I hope we shall soon receive en- 

 couragement to extend widely. 



A characteristic feature by which peaty soil (more es- 

 pecially when spongy) differs from our common soil, is 

 its facility of absorbing a great quantity of water, and also 

 of parting with it ; hence light boggy soils are subject to 

 the extremes of zcet and drought. To such ^-iolent alterna- 

 tions Nature seems to have enabled heath to accommodate 

 itself, while they are fatal to all the vegetables we cultivate, 

 as well as the grasses. We must therefore avoid spongy 

 FIBROUS soil, and select the firmer peat, common in all 

 mountains ; as the turf we cut for fuel, at considerable 

 elevations, is far superior to what we obtain from our 

 lower mosses. 



We commence by exterminating the old possessor, heath, 

 by the best means we can devise, fire or spade ; indeed, 

 we often can pull them up by the roots, by hand. If the 



