38 BULLETIN 502, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
ing the land to grasses and clover with rye or oats is believed to be 
the cheapest and best of any of the several methods practiced. 
The several types of coniferous forests, such as the tamarack 
(Larue sp.), the northern white cedar or arbor vitae (Thuja sp.). 
and the spruce and pine (Picea-Prnus spp. ) of northern bogs, the cedar 
(Chamaecy par-is sp.) and the cypress (Taxodlum sp.) of coastal and 
southeastern swamps, or the mixed type which is characterized by 
various conifers and deciduous hardwood species, must remain at 
present without further description. In texture and color the sev- 
eral peat materials appear to have much in common, though they 
are derived from the dominant species of trees representative of the 
region. The sharper contrasts are undoubtedly more prominent in 
the woody and resinous components and other plant remains, as well 
as in the condition of their decay and in the manner of the accumula- 
tion, that is. whether the deposits are the result of river inundation 
or formed in isolated tracts, fed by seepage and springs, where 
drainage features are correspondingly very different. Table I con- 
tains the more important chemical data for a type of European 
conifer-forest peat. 
