MANURING PEAT-LANDS. 
14S 
ON MANURING PEAT-LANDS. 
The question often arises in the mind of the 
agriculturist, why do peat soils require an applica¬ 
tion of manure ? Experiment has almost invariably- 
proved, that if yard or mineral manures are copi¬ 
ously incorporated with peat soils, the favor is 
as promptly reciprocated as when they have been 
employed upon a diluvium, or alluvium soil. 
Individuals of practical information only, reason 
upon this subject, something after this wise; that 
the substance composing peat-beds once possessed 
vitality, and that all the essential elements for 
maintaining life and growth were present; conse¬ 
quently, these essentials must still abound in the 
semi-decayed body, and why should these soils re¬ 
quire additional organized matter in the form of 
yard-manure, to induce a good degree of produc¬ 
tiveness ? We conceive that there may be three 
reasons why productiveness is vastly augmented 
upon those lands by applying manures. Firstly, 
an excess of deleterious acids; secondly, want of 
appropriate inorganic nutriment; thirdly, want of 
one essential organic element. 
First, that there is excess of deleterious acids 
which retard the growth of cultivated crops. 
This proposition will be readily conceded, when 
we inquire from what class or classes of plants peat 
has originated. The first impulse given to a peat 
production, is the transportation of organic frag¬ 
ments by water to horizontal or slightly inclined 
grounds which produce a marsh. 
Mosses, lichens, and reeds, take root upon this 
marsh, flourish through the summer, but are stricken 
down by autumnal frosts, and are succeeded by a 
more luxuriant growth the following season. Thus 
the destruction and reproduction of these annuals 
are perpetuated, each season’s product becoming nu¬ 
triment for their successors. 
In a.few years, there is such an immense accu¬ 
mulation of organized matter from perishing cryp- 
togamous plants, and from the accessions made by 
water, that plants containing more w T oody tissue 
begin to thrive, such as the brake-fern • these dis¬ 
appear after a time, and are succeeded by marsh 
grasses (carexes), and stinted, low, land shrubs. 
These again are followed by larger shrubs and 
trees. 
Lastly, when the bed has become deep, some¬ 
what dryer and more perfectly decomposed, there 
emanate the sturdy oak, the saccharine maple, and 
majestic elm, the richest and most immense sponta¬ 
neous vegetable productions of the earth. 
By a cursory glance at the chemical nature of 
vhose plants which at different periods have flour¬ 
ished upon peat-beds, we discover in those first 
thriving, a super-abundance of oxalic and tartaric 
acid, which afford not the slightest nutriment to 
cultivated plants. On the contrary, their presence 
is exceedingly pernicious to plants abounding in 
animal nutriment. Again, in the carexes or stinted 
trees, acidiferous compounds predominate, which in 
constitution are diametrically opposed to those 
occurring in cultivated plants. 
If any considerable portion of these noxious com¬ 
pounds still remain in peat, by adding a substance 
that neutralizes their acidity, a mighty barrier to 
the prosperity of cultivated vegetation is removed. 
Hence, when yard-manure, abundant in alkaline 
compounds, is added to soils abounding in acids, a 
non-injurious compound results. The same pheno¬ 
menon occurs when gypsum or lime is incorporated 
with acidiferous soils. 
The second defect is a want of appropriate inor¬ 
ganic nutriment. Although peat contains an abun¬ 
dance of silex, which is an important constituent in 
vegetable development, it may not, and, as we shall 
contend, does not contain a sufficiency of other 
elements no less essential than silica, in vegetable 
economy. We may here introduce a physiological 
axiom, which will enable us to comprehend the 
phenomenon attending the application of mineral 
manures, and to better appreciate the value and 
certain indispensability of inorganic fertilizers. 
The truth is this; all plants require inorganic 
nutriment; each species will select those elements 
peculiar to itself; perfect development of any plant 
is not insured unless there is a sufficiency of every 
requisite element, be it ever so diminutive in quan¬ 
tity. The second and third clauses of this truth 
have a material bearing upon the condition and im¬ 
provement of peat-lands. 
Each plant electively gathers from the soil those 
elements most congenial to its own prosperity ; else 
how should the ash of wheat yield eight times the 
amount of magnesia that potatoe-tops do, or oats 
contain fifty-three per cent, of silica, and beans only 
one per cent.; and why should there be six per 
cent, of soda in mangel wurtzel, and no traces of 
this alkali in oats all grown upon the same soil ? 
Those organized bodies that now lie mouldering in 
peat beds were once hardy shrubs and forest-trees, 
requiring only those elements that would impart 
strength and inflexibility to their tissue, such as 
lime and silica; they predominate in the ash of 
forest-trees to the almost entire exclusion of mag¬ 
nesia, alumina, and phosphates, all of which are 
indispensable to a luxuriant growth of crops fur¬ 
nishing animal nutriment. 
That a deficiency of an essential element produ¬ 
ces an abortive crop, is strikingly illustrated in the 
culture of cereals; those sown upon soils contain¬ 
ing an abundance of organic matter, lime, and 
soluble silica, produce gigantic stalks destitute of 
grain ; by adding magnesia an exuberant growth of 
stalk is induced, bearing a withered grain, covered 
with an exceedingly tenacious epidermis. Again, add 
a compound yielding phosphoric acid to the soil, 
when a perfect plant is developed, bearing a due 
share of nutritious aliment; evidencing that the 
w r eal or woe of the crop was dependent upon the 
presence or absence of the last administered com¬ 
pound. 
Practical experience has long since established 
the fact that cereals do not flourish so well as a first 
crop upon reclaimed peat lands ; but that they are 
more successful after the land has received a dress¬ 
ing of yard or mineral manure, and has been ame¬ 
liorated by tillage with other crops. Can any 
other cause be assigned for the increment given to 
the cereals, than that a deficient element has been 
supplied by the yard, or mineral manure? From 
this view of the inorganic ingredients in peat-soils' 
we deduce two conclusions, showing the necessity 
of applying inorganic manures 
