230 



Farming of Cumberland, 



holes from whence peats had been dug. Thej were then a 

 fruitful source of fever and ague ; and the late Dr. Joshua Dixon 

 attributed the greater part of the sanitary improvement of White- 

 haven since that period to the effective drainage of these meadows 

 by Mr. Benn, the agent to the late Earl of Lonsdale. 



Since the use of coal became general for fuel, peat-mosses have 

 been considered of little value in this county : but the Earl of 

 Lonsdale's recent experiment on Bowness Flowe gives the affair 

 a more promising aspect. Such mosses as are still in a state of 

 active vegetation with the Sphagnum family of plants, are totally 

 valueless in their present state for all except the sportsman's pur- 

 poses. Those which have ceased growing and are black and 

 compact with age and decomposition produce ashes which are 

 prized by the cottars as of a very fertilizing nature for their gar- 

 dens ; but the ashes are invariably small in quantity compared 

 with the bulk of peat consumed, and their enriching effect is of 

 short duration. 



It might be worth while to call in the aid of science to ascertain 

 the best mode of manufacturing ashes on a large scale, as well as 

 their true value as manure. Large quantities of peat ashes are 

 used in Holland, which are mostly brought down the Rhine from 

 Germany, and are extensively applied to manure the crops. 

 They form a considerable article of traffic in Belgium for agri- 

 cultural purposes. 



In Ireland dried or charred peat seems likely now to be turned 

 to a profitable account as a disinfecting agent, and as such is 

 partially in use on some Cumberland farms. 



In various parts of the county peat is found, which (the water 

 having been abstracted by some cause or other) has become a 

 black, friable earth. This is nearly akin to humus, and, when 

 dry, is such an excellent absorbent of farm-yard liquids as to 

 become when thus saturated little short of manure itself. If peat 

 can be so prepared as to mix with and absorb the faecal accumu- 

 lations now wasted in the sewers of our great cities and towns, 

 an almost unlimited supply of fertilising matter might be obtained 

 at a cost comparatively insignificant, and as valuable as guano, 

 and certainly greatly superior to many of the chemical nostrums 

 frequently advertised. The subject is well worthy the consi- 

 deration of those having peat-mosses on their estates, as many of 

 them may contain the source of fertility within themselves, 

 derived from what is at present not only unprofitable, but, as 

 in the case of Solway Moss before alluded to, dangerous and 

 injurious. 



Woods and Plantations form a portion of the rural economy of 

 every county (but in which the tenant-farmer has a very limited 

 interest, though the surface occupied in this way is not of small 



