On the Improvement of Peat Soils. 



395 



of them lying on a level with the sides of the drains, and in conse- 

 quence the roots of many cultivated crops are apt to penetrate, 

 under the shallow-drain system, into the corrosive water of the 

 peat, which they never do without material injury. 



For it is not, let me again remind the farmer, the mere presence 

 of too much water which renders the peat-moss sterile, but the 

 noxious, astringent, irony quality of that water. Some of the richest 

 water-meadows of the valleys of the Kennett and the Itchen, in 

 Berkshire and Hampshire, are formed on a deep stratum of peat, 

 merely covered with a shallow dressing of chalk mixed with bog- 

 earth ; and these are periodically flooded and kept for many 

 days soaking in the bright rapid waters of the Kennett and the 

 Itchen : but then the excellent managers of those prolific mea- 

 dows take especial care that no stagnant mineral waters shall be 

 allowed to corrode the extreme roots of their grasses ; deep drains 

 and lands laid in elevated ridges carry off all these, and keep the 

 surface-soil clear of the red oxide of iron and green vitriol, which 

 are sure to accumulate in situations where chalk mixed with 

 iron-pyrites exists in the immediate neighbourhood. It is only 

 necessary to observe the bright, irony, rusty incrustations of the 

 deepest drains of many of these celebrated meads to be convinced 

 of the nature of the mineral substance against which their skilful 

 owners are so sedulously and successfully guarding. 



In the construction of open drains (and some peat-mosses re- 

 quire hardly any other) the improver must be guided by the 

 extent of his field : the larger the peat-moss the more capacious 

 must be the open channels and the greater the fall of the water. 

 It is well to avoid forming these too narrow, so as to make the 

 current of drainage- water too rapid ; for the soft, peaty soil is 

 not able to bear even a moderately rapid flow of water. 



The materials for under- draining must also vary with the nature 

 of the moss and the facilities afforded by the district. Tiles and 

 stones are certainly the best. The bog itself generally affords 

 heath and rushes : these, when well made, keep open for a long 

 period : they both decay in such places with very considerable 

 slowness. 



There is hardly a situation to be found in which the drainage of 

 the peat cannot in some form or other be profitably effected. If 

 the surface of the peat is below the adjoining river, or in hollows, 

 then the well or boring system of Elkington, or even mechanical 

 power, as windmills or steam-engines, may be successfully fol- 

 lowed. And again, in many situations where peat-bogs are not 

 far distant from copious rivers, I am certain that great things are 

 to be effected not only by draining the bog- waters, but by raising 

 those of the river on to the surface of the peat. In those localities 

 where this kind of water is to be rertdily procured (especially if 



