40 



Economical Geology. 



monly surrounded by light and poor land. While the swamp itself 

 contains too much vegetable matter, imperfectly decomposed, the land 

 around it contains too little. All that is needed, therefore, is to em- 

 ploy the excess of the one, to supply the deficiency of the other. 

 Hence, as an English writer remarks, " peat or vegetable matter, 

 should be carried from the peat moss to the poor soil, and the surface 

 mould from the poor soil to the peat moss.' 1 The peat ought indeed 

 to be converted into manure, by lying awhile in a barn yard, or by 

 mixing lime, or other substance with it ; and there are particular di- 

 rections to be observed as to the whole process, which this is not the 

 proper place to explain. But they can be learned in works on agri- 

 culture ; and whoever undertakes thus to make use of peat, without 

 learning the results of enlightened experience on the subject, will 

 probably fail in his object. Eut since great benefit has been derived 

 from the use of peat as a manure, in England and Ireland, no reason 

 can be assigned why it may not thus be applied in this country with 

 equal success. 



1 cannot but regard the existence of so large quantities of peat, oil 

 Cape Cod and Nantucket, as a great blessing to the inhabitants. Yet 

 from the little of it, which I observed to be dug there, I am appre- 

 hensive they do not realize its value. Most of the soil in those coun- 

 ties is precisely of that kind, which needs the admixture of much 

 vegetable matter. If the peat swamps could be drained, and after the 

 removal of a portion of the peat, be covered with lighter and warm- 

 er soil, but few years would elapse before they would become fine 

 grass plats ; while the sandy and more elevated land, enriched by the 

 peat, would produce large crops of Indian corn, rye, and other veg- 

 etables. That this is not mere hypothesis, has been demonstrated on 

 a small scale, at least upon one farm, that of the Hon. John Reed, of 

 Yarmouth. Since the inhabitants of Cape Cod are beginning to 

 turn their attention more and more to the cultivation of the soil, may 

 we not expect that such a transformation will ere long be common. 



A few other mineral substances, interesting in an economical point 

 of view, may perhaps be appropriately noticed in this place. 



1. Granular Quartz and Sand for the Manufacture of Glass, 



From some unknown cause, the granular quartz in Cheshire, Berk- 

 shire County, is so much disintegrated, that it easily crumbles into a 

 beautiful white sand. This forms a good material for glass, and has 

 been employed for this purpose a number of years; formerly in 



