SECTION VI. 



423 



" Directions for Preparing Manure from Peat but I do not know 

 whether much improvement has since been made in the art of ferment- 

 ing that substance. The general complaint is, that it is nearly incap- 

 able of being decomposed by the small quantity of animal manure 

 which Lord Meadowbank prescribes, that is, a third or fourth part ; and 

 indeed, that it cannot be decomposed at all, or reduced to the state of a 

 fine dark-coloured mould, in which neither peat nor dung is discernible. 



.Having paid as much attention as most persons to this process, for 

 several years back, for both arboricultural and agricultural purposes, I 

 am satisfied that the want of success, so generally experienced, is owing 

 to two causes chiefly ; first, the too moist condition of the peat, when it 

 is made up ; and secondly, the exhausted state of the dung employed 

 in the fermentation ; both of which, as stated in the text, prevent the 

 antiseptic quality of the moss from being counteracted, and the peat 

 from being rendered soluble. 



As to the first point, the moist state of the peat, it seems clear, as Lord 

 Meadowbank has observed, that although no active fermentation can 

 take place without moisture, yet moisture may super ahoimd ; and 

 therefore, it is necessary to wheel out the peat some weeks beforehand 

 from the pit, in order that the superfluity may be expelled by exposure 

 to the atmosphere. In this state, however, I have seldom found that I 

 could, by even thrice fermenting the mass, eff'ectually decompose the 

 peat, and thereby reduce it to a friable mould. In order to remedy this^ 

 I have successfully practised the following method of procuring peat- 

 moss of superior quality ; which, as it has succeeded with myself, I 

 shall shortly communicate, in the hope that it may prove of the same 

 use to others. 



Whoever has the command of this valuable substance, must be aware 

 that, when dug out for fuel, it is done in sections or banks from four to 

 six feet deep ; where, after throwing back the upper strata on the 

 spread-field, (as it is called,) the peat is set out to dry. These masses 

 of the superincumbent strata, after some years' work naturally extend, 

 and soon cover the field to a considerable depth. They accumulate 

 here and there in irregular mounds ; and being exposed to the elements, 

 and particularly to frost, they^gradually advance in decomposition, and 

 assume the appearance of a black mould, sometimes of a foot and 

 eighteen inches deep. In this desirable state it is to be driven away,^ 

 and thrown up in heaps, for the purpose of fermentation ; a process, 

 which it is thus prepared to undergo at once, and with the one-half of the 

 difficulty that attends the pure peat, as prescribed by Lord Meadowbank. 



Besides this improvement, a great saving is made in dung and labour 

 — the one-half of the dung only being required to excite fermentation, 



