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XXXV. — Some Account of the Practice of English Farmers in 

 the Improvement of Peaty Ground. By Ph. Pusey^ M.P. 



Although the improvement of peat is not a subject that can be 

 of general interest, yet^ as there are large tracts of such land in the 

 country, and as I have had the advantage of observing in my own 

 neighbourhood the mode in which it has been improved by good 

 farmers, as well as of receiving information from members of our 

 Society who have reclaimed peat in other districts, I think it may 

 be of some use if I endeavour to describe their various methods of 

 management. Our science, we may hope, would gradually ad- 

 vance, if we could obtain faithful accounts of our actual practice 

 upon each variety of our soil. The peat I am most conversant with 

 follows generally the borders of all the rivulets in this level stone- 

 brash country. Along the margin of each sandy arable farm there 

 runs a belt of such poor marshy ground. Long after the meadows 

 are green in spring these pastures retain the brown of winter : in 

 summer they are covered with rushes and coarse grass, but are of 

 some use for the sheep in dry weather : in autumn they soon re- 

 turn to their withered hue ; and in winter again they are scarcely 

 to be passed on horseback. Almost every kind of tree has been 

 planted upon them in vain ; but the birch, the alder, and the 

 abele, not the least ornamental of our trees, I have found to grow 

 with some vigour : they are too poor for the willow. 



The first step of improvement is of course to acquire command 

 of the water and obtain an outfall by digging a straight ditch, about 

 8 feet wide, and 5 deep, down the middle of the hollow : this takes 

 the place of the winding stagnant rivulet that is frequently found 

 there. In wider bogs more of these ditches should be dug, and one 

 maybe placed on each side so as to divide the peat from the sound 

 land, and thus cut off the springs which ooze from the higher ground. 

 However slight the apparent fall of the ground, it is generally prac- 

 ticable, by carrying along the new watercourse to a sufficient length, 

 to reduce the level of the water 3 or 4 feet permanently below 

 the surface : this then is the first and indispensable step, the open 

 drainage ; the next is the under or close drainage : it has been 

 done on the Deanston principle, thorough-draining. The parallel 

 drains have been cut to a depth of 30 inches in the gravel under- 

 lying the peat, the materials being tiles and broken stones over 

 the tiles, covered v/ith a sod 16 inches below the surface ; the 

 distance between the parallel drains varying from 20 to about 80 

 feet. The levels are so flat that tiles have been often necessary. 

 It is essential that these drains should be formed before the sur- 

 face is broken up, that the work may be clean for the labourers : 

 winter and early spring will be the most convenient seasons. In 

 Lincolnshire, however, the heavy expense of under-draining has 



