On the Improvement of Peat Soils. 



399 



earth will produce much greater effects in forming a solid soil 

 than the farmer may imagine possible : the facility with which 

 roads are made across the extensive deep Scotch peat-mosses 

 and the great Irish bogs in some degree illustrates the same fact 

 — the bog when once dried is found to require only a thin layer 

 of gravel to make an excellent road. It is true that these are apt 

 to tremble pretty considerably under the feet of the plough- 

 horses, but they bear the heaviest carriages with perfect safety, 

 even in places where the bog of peat is of a depth of from 20 to 

 40 feet. 



Peat-moss lands are commonly divided by the deep ditches or 

 channels by which they are drained. If hedges are necessary, 

 there is some difficulty in raising them of quick, or any of the 

 ordinary hedge-row plants, until the peat is thrown up into banks 

 for some little time and is tolerably decomposed. A little manure, 

 either earthy or from the farm-yard, materially adds, I have found, 

 to their rapidity of growth, and is certainly not an expense thrown 

 awa3^ With hedges thus formed the failure of the young 

 plants is but rare — the hedge is much more quickly formed — the 

 expensive use of hurdles is diminished. The same remarks apply 

 to the timber-trees : for such soils, birch, the larch, the Spanish 

 chestnut, w^ith a very slight dressing with lime, or marl, or clay, 

 will do well on well -drained peat ; and if the earthy additions are 

 liberally bestowed, such plantations very rarely fail to abundantly 

 reward in more ways than one the possessor of the estate for all 

 the expense he has bestow^ed in their formation. 



These I have found to be the chief points to be attended to in 

 the improvements of peat soils, a description of barren waste which 

 perhaps abounds more in these islands than in any other Euro- 

 pean kingdom of equal extent. Their improvement, either by 

 converting them into cultivated fields or for the formation of 

 timber-plantations, is a question of national importance ; for every 

 bog that is thus added to the farmer's possessions not only enlarges, 

 as regards a supply of food, the internal resources of the state, 

 but increases the demand for agricultural labour, banishes un- 

 wholesome stagnant waters, purifies the atmosphere, and even 

 renders the climate of the district perceptibly milder. 



