138 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
of men, if it be not that reason has left the field, and given 
place to empiricism ? If it is ever to be restored to its 
pristine rank, and a new Eden is to bloom, with its fruitful 
fields, it must be by bringing the Goo-like attribute of man 
to the task of renovation. I have always been startled with 
the gratuitous assumption, that knowledge and reason ware 
not to be the rules of agricultural labor. That any one 
knows enough to be a farmer, and that the concentrated 
experience of the world was not to be put in competition vnth 
the narrow circle of individual experience! Is it indeed so 
with any other science or art? Or should we not conceive 
it to be arrant folly for any one to pretend to learn any other 
business, without availing himself of the knowledge of others? 
I know that intelligent men make no such gratuitous assump¬ 
tions; but still there may be many, who are not aware of the 
application of certain sciences which I mention, to the im¬ 
provement of this most important of arts, or they may have 
lout a partial glimpse into the arcana of science. Others 
may have formed an opinion, that since science is confessedly 
imperfect, that it cannot meet the exigencies of the case, but 
that innovations upon ancient customs are fraught with 
danger. To such we may reply, that enough is already 
known to render the art great service, and that knowledge 
is marching on with such rapid strides, that we should hasten 
in our movements, lest all hope of overtaking her should be 
lost. 
I knew a gentleman once, who stated that he was waiting 
for the science of chemistry to come to a stop, before he 
engaged in the study. It was then comparatively easy to 
acquire the mass of information requisite for the comprehen¬ 
sion of that science. But now look back to the accumulated 
knowledge on this subject, which has loaded our shelves with 
ponderous volumes. Is there now any better opportunity of 
overcoming the difficulty ? So it will shortly be with scien¬ 
tific agriculture. But comparatively few are the records 
now—but with the new impulse it has received, in a few 
years it will cause “ meek-eyed patience to fold her arms in 
despair,” when contemplating the mass of materials that will 
be collected for our instruction. “Little by little the bird 
makes its nest;” and so must we gradually collect the ma¬ 
terials of knowledge. Let the young farmer, therefore, 
be on the alert, and not let the rest of the world get the start 
of him in his art. Agricultural colleges are required through¬ 
out our country, and the time is not far distant when we 
shall see them in full operation. Analytical chemistry and 
geology will be among the essential principles of a farmer’s 
education. Botanical knowledge will teach the peculiarities 
of plants, and their adaptation to peculiar soils; and che¬ 
mistry will teach us so to modify our soils as to produce such 
results as are required. In the mean time, a few profession¬ 
al men must take the burthen upon their shoulders, and aid 
the farmer in his first steps in science. Mutual aid and good 
fellowship, will make the burthen light, and both parties 
will profit by their association. The farmer, attached^ to 
one spot, has great advantages in obtaining facts, which 
more fully illustrate the knowledge of that particular district. 
The facts so obtained, are to be collated and duly explained, 
so as to become capable of forming general rules or princi¬ 
ples, for the guidance of others. Soils remarkable for pecu¬ 
liar vegetation, luxuriant or barren, form subjects of particu¬ 
lar interest, capable of explanation by chemical analysis.— 
The present state and future condition of a soil, can in a 
certain degree be ascertained by a knowledge of their geo¬ 
logical origin, and the nature of the chemical reactions which 
will take place in it. Advantage may sometimes be taken 
of defects in soils, to render them the most powerfully be¬ 
neficial. Thus, in the town of Saco, there is an intervale 
plain, belonging to Mr. I. Jordan, having several remarka¬ 
ble substances in it, which nothing but a knowledge of geo¬ 
logy and chemistry could explain or improve. There is a 
kind of clay marl, filled with minute and almost invisible 
particles of pyrites or bi-sulphuret of iron, composed of 54 
parts sulphur and 46 of iron. The marl also contains three 
per cent of carbonate of lime, and the remainder is clay. 
When this substance is first dug up, it is without any saline 
taste, and nearly inert; but upon exposure to the air, it crum¬ 
bles, and after a while, becomes charged with copperas or 
sulphate of iron, which is formed by the oxidation of the sul¬ 
phur and the iron, by atmospheric action. While in its first 
stages, it acts as a powerful fertilizer, for the sulphuric acid 
is taken from the iron and combines with the lime, forming 
gypsum or sulphate of lime, while the oxide of iron is depo¬ 
sited. After a while, the copperas or sulphate of iron, con¬ 
stantly forming, gains the ascendency, and then has power¬ 
ful corrosive properties, nine or ten per cent of sulphuric acid 
being produced; and having no lime with which to combine, 
it attacks the roots of the plants and kills them. (See chemical 
analysis of this copperas marl.) Thus, as Mr. Jordan happily 
expressed himself, “it first makes the corn grow, and then 
eats off its roots and kills it.” Certain other plants of the 
gramince, are capable of withstanding this substance, if not 
in great excess; and hence herd’s grass, rye and wheat, are 
not so likely to be destroyed by it, since they are armed with 
a coat of mail composed of silex, which envelops their 
whole surface; but all herbaceous or tender plants are cut off 
by it. 
Here, then, we have a defect to remedy, and to turn to our 
account, and it is an extremely simple case, for we have only 
to add a sufficiency of lime to the copperas marl to render it 
one of the most valuable and powerful fertilizers. Thus a 
compost heap affords us an accessible remedy, and the enemy 
is soon tamed and made subservient to our will. The origin 
of this pyritiferous clay is at once explained by geology, 
which teaches us that it is composed of the fine particles of 
pyritiferous slate rocks, that have been deposited by water. 
So also the occurrence of nodules of shot and nut iron ore in 
it, and the mineral waters which flow from the meadows 
charged with sulphate of lime, explain themselves by the 
reaction of carbo late of lime upon sulphate of iron, an ex¬ 
change of elements taking place in accordance with the well 
known laws of chemical affinity. 
Peat also occurs abundantly in the same meadow, and by 
a little chemical skill may be converted into an excellent 
manure, by means of a mixture of lime and a little barn-yard 
manure or any animal matter. Thus three or four cords of 
the peat mixed with one cord of animal manure, and treated 
with a cask or two of slaked lime, will make a compost su¬ 
perior in value to five cords of the best stable manure alone. 
They ought to be placed in alternating layers, thus: 
PEAT, 
LIME, 
ANIMAL MANURE, 
PEAT, 
&C. 
The whole forming a regular compost heap. The chemical 
reactions which follow are chiefly thus;— 
The lime extricates a large quantity of gaseous ammonia 
from the animal matter, which is absorbed by and enters into 
combination with the peat, and is thus retained ready for use 
in the state of ulmate or geate of ammonia—(a most power¬ 
ful manure)—and the lime becomes completely carbonated 
or air slaked by the carbonic acid given out during fermenta¬ 
tion, and in this state is a proper and permanent ameliorator 
of the soil. The peat is converted into a powder and solu¬ 
ble pulp, and becomes more suitable for the nutriment of 
plants. While if lime and animal matter was used in ex¬ 
cess we shall have also a considerable quantity of carbonate 
of ammonia, in the peat, a well known and powerful saline 
manure. 
In case the soil is sandy, the clay marl, neutralized with 
lime, is the most proper amendment for it, and such is gene¬ 
rally the condition of the fields in Saco, so that by a proper 
use of this marl, the happiest effects may be realized by the 
farmers in that town. 
I could quote other instances of the kind, but the above 
fully illustrates my meaning, and will show how favorable 
an influence scientific knowledge would exert in agriculture, 
were it more generally appreciated. 
The principles which I have laid down, have been adopted 
by several distinguished farmers of Massachusetts, and their 
experience most fully corroborates the truth of the theory in¬ 
culcated. 
I need but appeal to the experience of one of our most in¬ 
telligent farmers in Massachusetts, Elias Phinney, Esq. of 
Lexington, to demonstrate the correctness of the rules we 
have laid down, with regard to the use of peat for compost 
manure, or to the beautiful farm of Benjamin Bussey, Esq. 
of Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, where similar results have been 
obtained. 
“ Lexington, January 30, 1839. 
“Dr. Charles T. Jackson —Dear Sir—I herewith send 
you a sample of my peat. I am very desirous of availing 
myself of the benefit to be derived from a chemical analysis 
of the same, which you kindly offered to make. A more in¬ 
timate knowledge of the nature and properties of peat, which 
can be obtained only by a scientific examination of its consti¬ 
tuent parts, would enable farmers more justly to appreciate 
this valuable species of land. It is from a want of this know¬ 
ledge, that our extensive tracts of low meadow' and swamp 
lands have hitherto been esteemed of little or 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 es¬ 
pecially to farmers, than by enabling them to convert their 
unproductive and unsightly bogs and morasses into luxuri¬ 
ant 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 purpose 
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 important 
it is that the farming community should have more informa¬ 
tion 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 of 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 summer- 
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, un¬ 
pleasant effect of a coal fire. The ashes of peat are, to be 
sure, more abundant, but not more troublesome, 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 surface has become so dry, and the accumula¬ 
tion 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 con¬ 
dition, the wild grasses and coarse herbage will continue to 
grow, and the peat be of a light and chaffy texture, fixed with 
undecayed fibrous roots. By draining they become hard, and 
the peat becomes compact and solid, and the cutting out and 
carrying off greatly facilitated. A rod square, cut two spit¬ 
tings deep, each spitting of the length of eighteen inches, 
will give three cords when dried. It may be cut from May 
to September. If the weather in autumn be very dry, the 
best time for cutting will be from the middle of August to 
the middle of September. If cut the latter part of summer, 
or early in autumn, it dries more gradually, and is not so 
liable to crack and crumble, as when cut early in summer. 
The pieces are taken out with an instrument made for the 
purpose, from two to three inches square; and if of good 
quality, will shrink about one-half in drying. It is considered 
a day’s work for a man, a boy and a horse, to cut out and 
spread a rod square. The man cuts it out and lays it upon a 
light kind of drag, made for the purpose, and it is drawn off 
by the horse, and spread by the boy as thick as the pieces can 
lay singly. After becoming dry enough to handle without 
breaking, it is made into piles, cob-house fashion, of from 
twelve to twenty pieces in a pile. It will then require about 
four weeks of dry weather to render it fit to be housed for 
use. The top, or turf, is thrown back into the pits, from 
which the peat is taken; and if well levelled, and the ground 
drained, it will, after the first year, give a large crop of foul 
meadow, or other lowland grass. Peat, taken from land 
which has been many years drained, when dried, is nearly 
as heavy as oak w'ood, and bears about the same price in the 
market. 
“The Value of peat and swamp lands for tillage, is now 
pretty well known, and acknowdedged. Some years since, 
I occasionally sold to my neighbors a few rods of my peat 
land, yearly, to be cut out for fuel, at three dollars per rod, be¬ 
ing at the rate of four hundred and eighty dollars per acre; 
but finding this sum to be less than its value for cultivation, 
especially when laid to grass, I have declined making further 
sales at that price. I have raised upon my reclaimed mea¬ 
dows, seventy-five bushels of corn, five hundred bushels of 
potatoes, or from four to five tons of the best hay, at a first 
and second cutting, to the acre, at a less expense of labor 
and manure, than w'ould be required to produce half this 
crop upon uplands. To render these lands productive, they 
should be thoroughly drained, by digging a ditch around 
the margin of the meadowy so as to cut oil' the springs, and 
receive the water, that is continually flowing in from the sur¬ 
rounding uplands. If the meadow be wide, a ditch through 
the centre may be necessary, but this will be of no use, 
without the border ditches. This being thoroughly done, 
and the surplus water all drawn off, the next step is to ex¬ 
terminate the wild grasses, and herbage of every kind, that 
grow upon the surface. To effect this, the method hereto¬ 
fore generally, and now by some pursued, is to cover wiih 
gravel or sand, top dress with manure, sow the grass seed, 
and then rake or bush it over. This, for the first year or 
two, will give a good crop of hay; but after this, I have 
invariably found that the more coarse and hardy kinds of 
wild grass would w T ork their way through the sand or gravel, 
and entirely supplant the cultivated grasses—when the w'hole 
must have another covering, or be abandoned as w'orthless. 
If to be planted with corn, or any of the root crops, my 
course has been to turn over the turf or sward with a plough 
having a wrought iron share or coulter, ground to a sharp 
edge, in the driest season, say in the month of September, 
roll down as hard as possible, carry on in the winter a suffi¬ 
cient top dressing of compost, twenty cart loads to the acre, 
and in the spring plant with corn, or roots, without disturb¬ 
ing the sod. When the corn or roots are taken off, the sur¬ 
face is made smooth with the cultivator, or hoe and harrow, 
and late in November, or just before the heavy frosts set in, 
sow with herd’s grass and red top seed, half a bushel of the 
former and one bushel of the latter to the acre. The field is 
then rolled, which completes the process. If the plough 
does not turn the sods smooth, it will be necessary to follow 
it with a bog hoe, to level the uneven places. By keeping 
the sod undisturbed in the cultivation, a more firm and com¬ 
pact surface is formed, upon which oxen or horses may work 
generally, without danger of miring. If the land is intended 
for grass, without the intervention of a hoed crop, the turf is 
turned over with the plough, as before stated, in August or 
September, or as early as the surface becomes dry enough 
to admit the oxen or horses upon it; then follow with the 
bog-hoe and turn over such parts as the plough has left un¬ 
turned, make the whole smooth with the hoe, and late in 
November, spread on a top dressing of compost, not less than 
twenty cart loads, made half of loam, and half of stable ma¬ 
nure, to the acre; then sow the grass seed, and bush, and 
roll down. If the ground be miry, so as to render the use 
of the plough impracticable, the bog hoe must be resorted 
to, and the whole turned over by hand, and top dressed, 
and seeded to grass, as above stated. The cost of turning 
over with the hoe, will be twenty dollars per acre, at the 
usual price of labor. This mode of culture completely sub¬ 
dues the natural wild grasses, and gives a compact and rich 
surface of vegetable mould, which will give an abundant 
crop of the best English hay for four or five years, without 
the aid of more manure. If the sod is disturbed and at¬ 
tempted to be pulverized in the course of the cultivation, 
the surface, when laid to grass, will be loose and spongy— 
an extra top dressing of loam and manure will be required, 
and after all, the surface will not become so compact, nor 
the produce by any means so great. Should meadows be 
found too soft and miry to admit of their being ploughed in 
the summer, or autumn, and the expense of turning with 
the hoe should be thought to be too great, I would advise 
ploughing in the spring, when the frost is out to the depth of 
three or four inches, carting on the manure, and then sow¬ 
ing or planting at a convenient and proper season. The art 
of reclaiming these low meadows, consists in taking off all 
the surplus water by judicious draining, and in thoroughly 
exterminating the natural herbage and grasses. This being 
effected, we have our rich bottoms, equally as productive as 
the deep alluvials of the west, and obtained at a cost and sa¬ 
crifice infinitely less. 
“ The third particular in which peat lands may be consider¬ 
ed valuable to the farmer, consists in furnishing him with a ve¬ 
ry important ingredient for his compost. Peat is made up prin¬ 
cipally of decomposed vegetable substances, with a portion 
of the lighter particles of vegetable mould, washed in from 
the surrounding highlands. But when taken fresh from the 
pit, it contains certain antisceptic properties, injurious to 
vegetation, which must be absorbed, or neutralized, by a 
combination with other substances, in order to render it food 
for plants. This may in some measure be effected by expo¬ 
sure to the action of the air and frost. Where the surround¬ 
ing uplands are composed of gravel or sand, the peat or 
swamp mud may be called silicious, and is less valuable for 
manure, especially if the adjacent uplands rise abruptly— 
when composed principally, of clay, the peat is aluminous— 
this is frequently found resting on beds of marl, and is con¬ 
sidered much richer, and more valuable for the compost 
heap. 
“ I have annually, for some years past, used on my farm 
some hundreds of loads of peat mud, which is either thrown 
into my hog-stye, or mixed with fresh stable dung, or with 
lime. When mixed with green stable manure, the propor¬ 
tions are two parts of peat mud to one of dung; and I am 
confident, from repeated experiments, that a load of this com¬ 
post, well mixed and fermented, w'ill give as great a produce, 
and a more permanent improvement to the soil, than the same 
quantity of stable manure. In this opinion, I am not alone. 
Other accurate and intelligent cultivators, have made similar 
experiments with similar results. 
“The vegetable substances of which peat is composed, 
having been decomposed in stagnant waters, they have not 
passed through a putrefactive fermentation, and are therefore 
supposed to contain much of their natural oils, gums and acids. 
Peats, in this region, are also supposed to contain portions 
of sulphate of iron, or copperas, oxide of iron, &c. This 
opinion is formed from noticing the difference between the 
