SECTION VI. 



425 



chemistry, was the first person who taught the method of preparing this 

 valuable compost, both cheaply and scientifically, in his useful work on 

 " The Connexion of Chemistry with Agriculture." From his residence 

 at one time in the higher districts of Lanarkshire, where peat-moss 

 abounds, he had a better opportunity than most of our chemists of 

 attending to its effects. I shall therefore give his directions, which are 

 taken from real practice, in his own words. Lime-compost, he observes, 

 is prepared " by mixing newly made and completely slaked lime 

 with about five or six times its weight of peat, which should be moder- 

 ately humid, and not in too dry a state. In this case the heat gene- 

 rated will be moderate, and never sufficient to convert the peat into 

 carbonaceous matter, or to throw off, in a state of fixable air, the acids 

 therein contained. The gases thus generated will be inflammable and 

 phlogisticated air, forming volatile alkali, which will combine, as it is 

 formed, with the oxygenated part of the peat that remains unacted on 

 by the lime, applied for this especial purpose in a small proportion. By 

 this mode of conducting the process a soluble saline matter will be 

 procured, consisting of phosphat and oxalat of ammoniac, whose bene- 

 ficial effects on vegetation are already well known to the agriculturist." 

 —Pp. 109, 110. 



It appears, from what has been said above, that an ignorance of the 

 true nature of these ingredients has probably disappointed the farmer, 

 not less than the planter, in the application of this excellent compound ; 

 which I can particularly recommend, either for a top-dressing for grass 

 grounds, or a valuable compost for the roots of trees. The proportion 

 of the lime to the peat-moss here given should be carefully observed ; 

 and it would be a great improvement, in order to ensure its full effect, 

 were the preparation to be made under cover, in a shed or outhouse 

 dedicated to the purpose — because a superabundance of rain, or too 

 great an exposure to the air, will prevent a due action of the lime upon 

 the peat. As is truly remarked by the ingenious nobleman above 

 referred to, the success of most operations, but more especially those of 

 a chemical nature, greatly depends on a sedulous observance of cir- 

 cumstances seemingly trivial ; and it is by the neglect of these that 

 the most important objects dependent on them are generally defeated.* 



I believe there are many gentlemen good planters, but ardent agri- 

 culturists, who, in perusing this essay, and perceiving what science 

 might accomplish towards the improvement of their parks, by means of 



* It is to be vmderstood that, in order to succeed in decomposing peat by 

 means of lime, the peat must be taken from an old spread-field, in the same 

 way as is dnected for dung-compost at page 423, last paragraph. 



