HO 
On the Influence of Water 
as to the practical use which I submitted to him might be made 
of observations on the temperature of soils. It was at this period 
I resolved to commence some experiments on the subject, but a 
fitting opportunity did not occur till 1837. 
My oivn Experiments. — The site of the few experiments which 
I have now to describe as made by myself, was a peat-bog called 
Red Moss,* near Bolton-le-Moors, in Lancashire, in its nature 
identical with Chat Moss, and approaching, in many parts of it, 
to that consistence which would cause it, in Scotland, to be desig- 
nated a flow-moss, from its semifluid character. The depth of 
the bog, at the spot where the thermometers were inserted, was 
nearly 30 feet; and its temperature from 12 inches beneath the 
surface, downwards to the bottom, was uniformly 46°. I never 
found any variation to occur in the results afforded by thermome- 
ters placed at various depths during nearly three years' observa- 
tions ; excepting in the winter of 1836, when the thermometer 
nearest the surface fell to 44° for a few days. 
To this uniformity of temperature throughout the mass of the 
natural bog, I shall, subsequently, have to call your attenticm very 
particularly, as it seems to stamp with certainty the fact, that the 
more elevated temperatures, marked by the thermometers in the 
cultivated bog soil, were solely due to the change effected in its 
mechanical condition, and to the removal of stagnant water. 
There were no springs, so far as I could ascertain, in this bog, 
nor could I ever perceive that water rose from the bottom of any 
drain cut in it. The substratum, on which the bog had accu- 
mulated and reposed, consisted of a retentive white marl, abun- 
dantly mixed with limestone gravel. The temperature of the 
water drawn from the bottom of a coal-pit contiguous to the bog, 
and 300 feet deej), was 54° ; and that from a bore, or Artesian 
w ell, near my house, and 160 feet deep, was invariably 52°. 
The exposure of the bed in which the thermometers were 
sunk was perfect. There existed no bush higher than a tuft of 
heather within a radius of half a mile : not a ray, therefore, of the 
sun's light and heat, could be intercepted (except by clouds) 
between his rismg and setting. 
The preparation of the bed was as follows : — The surface had 
been ploughed in 1836 by the steam-})lough, to a depth of 
9 inches, and was well j)ulverized. A plot of about 216 square 
yards area, clear of the drains, was divided into twelve beds in- 
tended for experimental culture. Each bed was 6 yards in 
length by 3 yards in breadth ; and each was insulated from its 
neighbour, and from the surrounding bog, by an open drain, 
* It was on this moss tliat the writer undertook the constiiiction and 
conduct of Mr. Heathcoat's patent machinery lor cultivating bogs by 
steam-power. 
