No. 50.] 
217 
no value. Allow me to say, sir, that I know of no way in which you 
could render a more essential service to the public, more especially to 
farmers, than by enabling them to convert their unproductive and 
unsightly bogs and morasses into luxuriant fields and sources of wealth. 
I consider my peat grounds by far the most valuable part of my farm ; 
more valuable than my wood lots for fuel, and more than double the 
value of an equal number of acres of my uplands, for the purposes of 
cultivation. 
" In addition to these, they furnish an inexhaustible supply of the 
most essential ingredient for the manure heap. A statement of the uses 
to which I have appropriated peat lands, and my management of them, 
though very imperfect, may serve to give you a partial conception of 
their value and uses, and at the same time enable you to see how im- 
portant it is that the farming community should have more information 
on this subject. 
In the first place, they are valuable for fuel. I have for twenty 
years past resorted to my peat meadows for fuel. These, with the 
prunings from my fruit trees, and the brush from my uncleared lands, 
have given me my whole supply. The prunings and brush are bound 
in bundles and housed ; and with the help of a small bundle of these 
faggots, and peat, a quick and durable fire is made. It gives a sum- 
mer-like atmosphere, and lights a room better than a wood fire. The 
smoke from peat has no irritating effect upon the eyes, and does not 
in the slightest degree obstruct respiration, like the smoke of wood ; 
and it has none of that drying, unpleasant effect of a coal fire. The 
ashes of peat are, to be sure, more abundant, but not more trouble- 
some, and are less injurious to the furniture of a room, than the ashes 
of coal. . 
" The best peat is found in meadows, which have for many years 
been destitute of trees, and brush, and well drained, and where the sur- 
face has become so dry, and the accumulation of decayed vegetable 
matter so great, that but little grass or herbage of any description is seen 
upon the surface. If the meadows are suffered to remain in a wet and 
miry condition, the wild grasses and coarse herbage will continue to 
grow, and the peat be of a light and chaffy texture, filled with undecay- 
ed fibrous roots. By draining they become hard, and the peat becomes 
compact and solid, and the cutting out and carrying off greatly facilitat- 
ed. A rod square, cut two splittings deep, each splitting of the depth 
[Assembly, No. 50.] 28 
