Improvement of Peaty Ground. 



411 



6cl. the acre in their natural state, now worth fully 3/. A considerahlc 

 part of it was very expensive to accomplish, as it was necessary to fill up 

 large holes from which peat had been dug for fuel : many acres of it cost 

 me upwards of 30/. the acre ; but still this ground remunerates me for 

 the expenditure of so large a sum, besides removing an ugly object in 

 the middle of the low grounds in the neighbourhood of my residence ; 

 every hollow, of which there were many within a mile of the house, was 

 filled by an ugly, useless, black peat-bog. 



" I do not recollect whether I pointed out to you some grass-fields that 

 had been improved from black moor-land, by first paring and burning, 

 and then ploughing the first season, the ground being exposed to a 

 winter's frost, and during the next summer laying about 160 bushels 

 of lime upon the imperial acre, and sowing out the ground in July or 

 August with 5 bushels of the holcus lanatus without taking a corn-crop. 

 The reason why I did not take crops of corn from moor-ground gene- 

 rally having a peaty surface of 4 or 5 inches was to keep it in a com- 

 pact state ; as I have found that soil of this kind, after bearing crops of 

 corn and being frequently ploughed, becomes so loose and pulverised 

 that the feet of cattle completely destroy the pasture, and that the roots 

 of the grass are injured by the loose state of the ground. This grass- 

 land has given me upon the average. from 12.9. to 145. per acre annually, 

 in its original state not worth Is. 6d. The moor-ground upon grau- 

 wacke after this improvement is much more valuable than where the 

 subsoil is sandstone. 



" I have employed lime as it is practised in Derbyshire to great advan- 

 tage upon the surface of moor-land ; but as it requires a very large dose 

 of lime, it can only be done where lime is cheap, as it requires from 200 

 to 300 bushels of lime per acre to destroy the great quantity of vegetable 

 matter in moor-soils, which it soon accomplishes, as is shown by the 

 land being soon filled with moles, which are drawn to it by the decayed 

 vegetable matter producing worms, the food of moles. 



" In Craven, in Yorkshire, hme is employed very extensively as a top- 

 dressing even upon a limestone-soil. I have found that cattle feed upon 

 pasture well top-dressed with lime much quicker, and that the meat is 

 much richer and better mixed, than upon pastures apparently equally pro- 

 ductive of herbage. 



" I remain, dear Sir, 



" Yours truly, 



" C. G. Stuart Monteith. 



" The Rev. Dr. Buckland.'' 



It is certainly a very successful operation to have improved, at 

 whatever expense^ 200 acres of land from the value of sixpence 

 per acre to that of three pounds. I have lately seen as great an 

 improvement upon the property of Mr. Blake^ at Upton, in West 

 Somersetshire. The peat-bogs there lie on the slope of a hill. 

 The mode of treatment Avas this : — To underdrain at depths vary- 

 ing from 3 to 6 feet, to pare and burn the surface, to grow turnips 

 two years successively, dressing tmce with 50 bushels of lime 



