answers all the purposes of the firmest ramming or wadding. It has been used for upwards of ten years at Lord Elgin's extensive mining operations at Charlestown in Fifeshire, and also in removing immense bodies of rock from the Calton hill at Edinburgh, by Stevenson, an eminent engineer, whose article on the subject of blasting, in The Supplement to the Encyc. Brit., deserves the attention of such as use the process in working quarries or clearing rocky or stoney grounds.

SECT. III. Of improving Woody Wastes or Wealds.

4172. With surfaces partially covered with bushes and stumps of trees, ferns, &c., the obvious improvement is to grub them up, and apply the land to cultivation according to its nature.

4173. The growth of large trees is a sign that the soil is naturally fertile. It must also have been enriched by the quantity of leaves which in the course of ages have fallen and rotted upon the surface. Such are the beneficial effects of this process, that after the trees have been cut down, the soil has often been kept under crops of grain for a number of years without interruption, or any addition of manure. Land thus treated, however, ultimately becomes so much reduced, by great exhaustion, that it will not bear a crop worth the expense of seed and labor. (Communications to the Board of Agriculture, vol. ii. p. 257.) It is evident, however, that this deterioration entirely proceeds from the improvident management previously adopted. In reclaiming such wastes, the branches of trees that are felled are generally collected and burnt; and the ashes are either in whole or in part, spread on the ground, by which the fertility of the soil is excited. Indeed, where there is no demand for timber on the spot, nor the means of conveyance to any advantageous market, the whole wood is burnt, and the ashes applied as manure.

4174. Much coppice land has been grubbed up in various parts of England, and brought into tillage. Sometimes woods are grubbed for pasture merely. In that case the ground should be as little broken as possible, because the surface of the land, owing to the dead wood and leaves rotting time out of mind upon it, is much better than the mould below. It soon gets into good pasture as grass land, without sowing any seed. (Communications to the Board of Agriculture, vol. iv. p. 42.) But by far the most eligible mode of converting wood land into arable, is merely to cut down the trees, and to leave the land in a state of grass until the roots have decayed, cutting down with the scythe from time to time any young shoots that may arise. The roots in this way, instead of being a cause of anxiety and expense, as they generally are, become a source of improvement; and a grassy surface is prepared for the operation of sod-burning. (Marshal's Yorkshire, vol. i. p. 316.)

4175. Natural woods and plantations have been successfully grubbed up in Scotland. In the lower Torwood in Stirlingshire, many acres of natural coppice were cleared; and the land is now become as valuable as any in the neighborhood. (Stirlingshire Report,

p. 213.) On the banks of the Clyde and the Avon, coppices have been cut down, and after being drained, cultivated, and manured, the land has been converted into productive orchards. In Perthshire also, several thousand acres of plantations have been rooted out, the soil subjected to the plough, converted into good arable land, and profitably employed in tillage. (Perthshire Report, p. 329.)

It

a

541

4176. For pulling up or rending asunder the roots of large trees, various machines and contrivances have been invented. Clearing away the earth and splitting with wedges is the usual mode; but blasting is also, as in the case of rocks and stones, occasionally resorted to. For this purpose a new instrument, called the blasting-screw (fig. 541.) has been lately applied with considerable success to the rending or splitting of large trees and logs of timber. consists of a screw (a), an auger (b, c), and charging-piece (d). The screw is wrought into an auger-hole, bored in the centre of the timber; here the charge of powder is inserted, and the orifice of the hole in the log is then shut up or closed with the screw, when a match or piece of cord, prepared with saltpetre, is introduced into a small

d

hole (a), left in the screw for this purpose, by which the powder is ignited. The application of this screw to the purposes of blasting is not very obviously necessary, because, from what we have seen (4171.) it would appear that the auger-hole being charged with powder and sand, would answer every purpose. One great objection to the process of blasting applied to the rending of timber is, the irregular and uncertain direction of the fracture, by which great waste is sometimes occasioned. It may, however, be necessary

to resort to this mode of breaking up large trees, when cut down and left in inaccessible situations, where a great force of men and of implements cannot easily be procured or applied; and certainly it is one of the most effectual modes of tearing their stools or roots in pieces. (Sup. Encyc. Brit. art. Blasting.)

4177. Land covered with furze, broom, and other shrubs, is generally well adaptedf r cultivation. The furze, or whin (Ulex europæus), will grow in a dense clay soil; and where they are found in a thriving state, every species of grain, of roots and grasses, may be cultivated with advantage. The broom, on the other hand, prefers a dry, gravelly, or sandy soil, such as is adapted for the culture of turnips. A large proportion of the arable land, in the richest districts of England and Scotland, was originally covered by these two plants; and vast tracts still remain in that state, which might be profitably brought under cultivation. For that purpose, the shrubs ought to be cut down, the ground trenched, or the plants rooted out by a strong plough, drawn by four or six horses, and the roots and shrubs (if not wanted for other purposes) burnt in heaps, and the ashes spread equally over the surface. (Com. to the B. of Ag. vol. ii. p. 260.) In many places, shrubs and brushwood may be sold for more than the expense of rooting them out. When coal is

not abundant, and limestone or chalk can be had, the furze should be employed in burning the lime that is used in carrying on the improvement. (Oxfordshire Report, p. 232.) It requires constant attention, however, to prevent such plants from again getting possession of the ground, when it is restored to pasture. This can best be effected, by ploughing up the land occasionally, taking a few crops of potatoes, turnips, or tares in rows, and restoring it to be pastured by sheep. In moist weather also, the young plants should be pulled up and destroyed. (Code.)

4178. Fern (Pteris and Osmunda) is a very troublesome weed to extirpate, as, in many soils, it sends down its roots into the under stratum, beyond the reach of the deepest ploughing; but it is a sign of the goodness of any soil, where it grows to a large size. June or July are the best seasons for destroying it, when the plants are full of sap, and when they ought to be frequently cut. They are not, however, easily subdued, often appearing after a rotation of seven years, including a fallow, and sometimes requiring another rotation, and cutting them repeatedly, before their final disappearance can be effected. Lime, in its caustic state, is peculiarly hostile to fern; at the same time, it can hardly be completely eradicated, but by frequent cultivation, and by green crops assisted by the hoe. (Oxfordshire Report, p. 234. and 240.)

4179. The heath (Erica) is a hardy plant, palatable and nutritious to sheep; and under its protection, coarse grasses are often produced. When young, or in flower, it may be cut and converted into an inferior species of winter provision for stock. But where it can be obtained, it is desirable to have grass in its stead. For that purpose, the land may be flooded, or the heath burnt in March or April, and kept free from stock for eighteen months; in consequence of which, many new grasses will spring up, from the destruction of the heath, and the enriching quality of the ashes. The improvement is very great; more especially if the land be drained, and lime or compost be applied. (Gen. Rep. of Scot. vol. ii. p. 359.) But if the land be too soon pastured, the grasses, being weak and tender, the sheep or cattle will pull them up with their roots, and the pasture is materially injured. (Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. iv. p. 465.) Where it is proposed to cultivate the land for arable crops, the lime applied should be in a finely powdered state, highly caustic, and as equally spread as possible. (Com. to the B. of Ag. vol. ii. p. 264.)

4180. Paring and burning is a speedy and effectual mode of bringing a surface covered with coarse herbage into a state of culture. Some have recommended making a compost of the pared surface, with lime; or building folds or earthen walls of the sods, which, by the action of the atmosphere, become friable and fertile; but these processes are slower and not so effectual as paring and burning. In coarse rough pastures, ant-hills frequently abound, which paring and burning effectually destroys. (Code.)

SECT. IV. Of Moors and their Improvements.

4181. Moorlands are of various descriptions. Sometimes they are in low and mild situations, where the upper soil is thin, or scantily supplied with vegetable mould; and where the bottom or under-stratum is impervious and barren. These, in general, may be reclaimed with more or less advantage, according as they are near manure or markets, and other means of improvement. Others, on the contrary, are in situations much elevated above the level of the sea; where the surface is covered with heath and other coarse plants, and frequently encumbered with stones. Such moors are seldom worth the expense of cultivation, and from their height are only calculated for woods or pasturage.

4182. Moors which are not placed in high or bleak situations, where the surface is closeswarded, or covered with plants, and where the subsoil is naturally either not altogether wet, or capable of being made sufficiently dry at a moderate expense, may not only be reclaimed, but often can be highly improved by the common operations of farm culture;

by paring and burning; by fallow and liming; or by trenching or deep ploughing. Vast improvements on different sorts of moory lands have been made in Yorkshire, where there are immense tracts of moors. It is stated in The Agricultural Report of the North Riding of Yorkshire, that an improvement was made upon Lockton moor, on a quantity of land of about seventy acres, which would not let for more than 1s. per acre, before it was enclosed. Of this forty-eight acres were pared and burnt, and sown with rape, except about an acre sown with rye; the produce about sixty quarters. The rye grew very strong, and in height not less than six feet, and was sold, while standing, for five guineas the acre. The land was only once ploughed, otherwise the crop of rape would probably have been much better. One hundred and twenty chaldrons (each thirty-two bushels) of lime were ploughed into the field; which, for want of more frequent ploughing, probably was not of the service it otherwise might have been. Part of the land was afterwards sown down with oats and grass seeds; the former of which afforded but a moderate crop, the latter a very good one, and has since produced two loads, 120 stones each, per acre. The seeds sown were rye-grass, rib-grass, white clover, and trefoil; of these, the first succeeded amazingly, the others not so well; potatoes throve very well; turnips not equal to them. A farm-house has been built upon it, which now, along with five acres more of the same kind of land, is let on lease at thirty pounds per annum. The soil consisted, in general, of benty peat, upon red gritstone, with a mixture of clay upon limestone; this last is, in some places, at a considerable depth, in others, sufficiently near the surface for lime to be burnt on the premises.

SECT. V. Of Peat Mosses, Bogs, and Morasses, and their Improvement.

4183. Mossy and boggy surfaces occupy a very considerable portion of the British isles. In Ireland alone there are of flat red bog, capable of being converted to the general purposes of agriculture, 1,576,000 acres; and of peat soil, covering mountains, capable of being improved for pasture, or beneficially applied to the purposes of plantation, 1,255,000 acres, making together nearly three millions of acres. Mossy lands, whether on mountains or plains, are of two kinds; the one black and solid, the other spongy, containing a great quantity of water, with a proportion of fibrous materials.

4184. Black mosses, though formerly considered irreclaimable, are now found capable of great melioration. By cultivation, they may be completely changed in their quality and appearance; and from a peaty, become a soft vegetable earth of great fertility. They may be converted into pasture; or, after being thoroughly drained, thriving plantations may be raised upon them; or, under judicious management, they will produce crops of grain and roots; or, they may be formed into meadow-land of considerable value.

4185. Flow, fluid, or spongy mosses, abound in various parts of the British isles. Such mosses are sometimes from ten to twenty feet deep, and even more, but the average may be stated at from four to eight. In high situations, their improvement is attended with so much expense, and the returns are so scanty, that it is advisable to leave them in their original state; but where advantageously situated, it is now proved that they may be profitably converted into arable land, or valuable meadow. If they are not too high above the level of the sea, arable crops may be successfully cultivated. Potatoes, and other green crops, where manure can be obtained, may likewise be raised on them with advantage.

4186. Peat is certainly a production, capable of administering to the support of many valuable kinds of plants. But to effect this purpose, it must be reduced to such a state, either by the application of fire, or the influence of putrefaction, as may prepare it for their nourishment. In either of these ways, peat may be changed into a soil fit for the production of grass, of herbs, or of roots. The application of a proper quantity of lime, chalk, or marl, prepares it equally well for the production of corn. (Code.)

4187. The fundamental improvement of all peat soils is drainage, which alone will in a few years change a boggy to a grassy surface. After being drained, the surface may be covered with earthy materials, pared and burned, fallowed, dug, trenched, or rolled. The celebrated Duke of Bridgewater covered a part of Chatmoss, with the refuse of coal-pits, a mixture of earths and stones of different qualities and sizes, which were brought in barges out of the interior of a mountain; and, by compressing the surface, enabled it to bear pasturing stock. Its fertility was promoted by the vegetable mould of the morass, which presently rose and mixed with the heavier materials which were spread upon it. (Marshal on Landed Property, p. 46.)

4188. The fenny grounds of Huntingdonshire are in some cases improved by applying marl to the surface. Where that substance is mixed with the fen soil, the finer grasses florish beyond what they do on the fen soil unmixed; and when the mixed soil is ploughed, and sown with any sort of grain, the calcareous earth renders the crops less apt to fall down, the produce is greater, and the grain of better quality than on any other part of the land. (Huntingdonshire Report, p. 301.)

4189. Covering the surface of peat bogs with earth has been practised in several parts of Scotland. Clay, sand, gravel, shells, and sea ooze, two or three inches thick, or more, have been used, and land, originally of no value, has thus been rendered worth from 21. to 31. and even 4l. per acre. The horses upon this land, must either be equipped with wooden clogs, or the work performed in frosty weather, when the surface of the moss is hard. Coarse obdurate clay (provincially till), is peculiarly calculated for this process, as, when it is blended with peat, and some calcareous matter, it contains all the properties of a fertile soil. Clydesdale Report, p. 150, note.) This is certainly an expensive method of improving land, unless the substance to be laid upon it, is within 500 yards distance but where it can properly be done, the moss thus obtains solidity, and after it has been supplied with calcareous earth, it may be cultivated, like other soils, in a rotation of white and green crops. In the neighborhood of populous towns, where the rent of land is high, the covering substance may be conveyed from a greater distance than 500 yards. (Code.)

4190. Rolling peaty surfaces has been found to improve them. The greatest defect of soft soils is, that the drought easily penetrates them, and they become too open. The roller is an antidote to that evil, and the expense is the only thing that ought to set bounds to the practice of this operation. It also tends to destroy those worms, grubs, and insects, with which light and fenny land is apt to be infested. The roller for such soils ought not to be heavy, nor of a narrow diameter. If it be weighty, and the diameter small, it sinks too much where the pressure falls, which causes the soft moss to rise before and behind the roller, and thus, instead of consolidating, it rends the soil. A gentle pressure consolidates moss, but too much weight has a contrary effect. A roller for moss ought therefore to be formed of wood, the cylinder about four feet diameter, and mounted to be drawn by two or three men. Three small rollers working in one frame, (fig. 542.), have sometimes been so drawn. If horses are employed, they ought to have clogs or pattens, if likely to sink. The oftener the rolling is performed, on spongy soils as long as the crops of corn or grass will admit of it, the better, and the more certain is the result.

542

4191. An extensive tract of moss in the county of Lancashire has been recently improved by the celebrated Roscoe of Liverpool, in a very spirited and skilful manner. Chatmoss in that county is well known; its length is about six miles, its greatest breadth about three miles, and its depth may be estimated from ten to upwards of thirty feet. It is entirely composed of the substance well known by the name of peat, being an aggregate of vegetable matter, disorganized and inert, but preserved by certain causes from putrefaction. On the surface it is light and fibrous, but becomes more dense below. On cutting to a considerable depth, it is found to be black, compact, and heavy, and in many respects resembling coal. There is not throughout the whole moss the least intermixture of sand, gravel, or other material, the entire substance being a pure vegetable. About 1820, Roscoe began to improve Trafford moss, a tract of three hundred acres, lying two miles east of Chatmoss; and his operations on it seem to have been so successful as to encourage him to proceed with Chatmoss. In the improvement of the latter, he found it unnecessary to incur so heavy an expense for drainage as he had done in the former. From observing that where the moss had been dug for peat, the water had drawn towards it from a distance of fifty to a hundred yards, he conceived that if each drain had to draw the water only twenty-five yards, they would, within a reasonable time, undoubtedly answer the purpose. The whole of the moss was therefore laid out on the following plan.

4192. A main road, Roscoe states, "was first carried nearly from east to west, through the whole extent of my portion of the moss. This road is about three miles long and thirty-six feet wide. It is bounded on each side by a main drain, seven feet wide and six feet deep, from which the water is conveyed, by a considerable fall, to the river. From these two main drains, other drains diverge, at fifty yards distance from each other, and extend from each side of the road to the utmost limits of the moss. Thus, each field contains fifty yards in front to the road, and is of an indefinite length, according as the boundary of the moss varies. These field-drains are four feet wide at the top, one foot at the bottom, and four feet and a half deep. They are kept carefully open, and, as far as my experience hitherto goes, I believe they will sufficiently drain the moss, without having recourse to underdraining, which I have never made use of at Chatmoss, except in a very few instances, when, from the lowness of the surface, the water could not rea dily be gotten off without open channels, which might obstruct the plough."

4193. The cultivation of the moss then proceeds in the following manner :-" After setting fire to the heath and herbage on the moss, and burning it down as far as practicable, I plough a thin sod or furrow, with a very sharp horse-plough, which I burn in small heaps and dissipate: considering it of little use but to destroy the tough sods of the eriophora, nardus stricta, and other plants, whose matted roots are almost imperishable.

The moss being thus brought to a tolerable dry and level surface, I then plough it in a regular furrow six inches deep, and as soon as possible after it is thus turned up, I set upon it the necessary quantity of marl, not less than two hundred cubic yards to the acre. As the marl begins to crumble and fall with the sun or frost, it is spread over the land with considerable exactness, after which I put in a crop as early as possible, sometimes by the plough, and at others with the horse-scuffle or scarifier, according to the nature of the crop, adding, for the first crop, a quantity of manure, which I bring down the navigable river Irwell, to the borders of the moss, setting on about twenty tons to the Moss land thus treated, may not only be advantageously cropped the first year with green crops, as potatoes, turnips, &c. but with any kind of grain; and as wheat has, of late, paid better to the farmer than any other, I have hitherto chiefly relied upon it, as my first crop, for reimbursing the expense.'

acre.

4194. The expense of the several ploughings, with the burning, sowing, and harrowing, and of the marl and manure, but exclusive of the seed, and also of the previous drainage and general charges, amounts to 187. 5s. per acre; and in 1812, on one piece of land thus improved, Roscoe had twenty bushels of wheat, then worth a guinea per bushel, and on another piece eighteen bushels; but these were the best crops upon the moss "Both lime and marl are generally to be found within a reasonable distance; and the preference given to either of them will much depend upon the facility of obtaining it. The quantity of lime necessary for the purpose, is so small in proportion to that of marl, that, where the distance is great, and the carriage high, it is more advisable to make use of it; but where marl is upon the spot, or can be obtained in sufficient quantity at a reasonable expense, it appears to be preferable." Roscoe is thoroughly convinced, after a great many different trials, that all temporizing expedients are fallacious; and "that the best method of improving moss land is by the application of a calc reous substance, in sufficient quantity to convert the moss into a soil, and by the occasional use of animal or other extraneous manures, such as the course of cultivation, and the nature of the crops, may be found to require.'

4195. Roscoe's contrivance for conveying on the marl, seems peculiar. It would not be practicable, he observes, to effect the marling at so cheap a rate, (H0l. per acre,) were it not for the assistance of an iron road or railway, laid upon boards or sleepers, and moveable at pleasure. Along this road the marl is conveyed in waggons with small iron wheels, each drawn by one man. These waggons, by taking out a pin, turn their lading out on either side; they carry about 15 cwt. each, being as much as could heretofore be conveyed over the moss by a cart with a driver and two horses.

4196. An anomalous mode of treating peat bogs was invented and practised by the late Lord Kaimes, which may be applicable in a few cases. This singular mode can be adopted only where there is a command of water, and where the subjacent clay is of a most fertile quality, or consists of alluvial soil. A stream of water is brought into the moss, into which the spongy upper stratum is first thrown, and afterwards the heavier moss, in small quantities at a time; the whole is then conveyed by the stream into the neighboring river, and thence to the sea. The moss thus got rid of, in the instance of Blair Drummond, in Perthshire, was, on an average, about seven feet deep. Much ingenuity was displayed in constructing the machinery, to supply water for removing the moss, previous to the improvement of the rich soil below. It required both the genius and the perseverance of Lord Kaimes, to complete this scheme; but by this singular mode of improvement, about 1000 English acres have been already cleared, a population of above 900 inhabitants furnished with the means of subsistence, and an extensive district, where only snipes and moor-fowl were formerly maintained, is now converted, as if by magic, into a rich and fertile carse, or tract of alluvial soil. Code.) In The General Report of Scotland, Appendix, vol. ii. p. 38, will be found a detailed account of this improvement.

SECT. VI. Of Marshes and their Improvement.

4197. A tract of land on the borders of the sea or a large river, is called a marsh: it differs from the fen, bog, and morass, in consisting of a firmer and better soil, and in being occasionally flooded. Marshes are generally divided into fresh water marshes and salt water marshes; the latter sometimes called saltings or ings: fresh water marshes differ from meadows, in being generally soaked with water from the subsoils or springs. 4198. Fresh water marshes are often found interspersed with arable land, where springs rise, and redundant water has not been carried off; and may be improved by a course of ditching, draining, and ploughing. Where large inland marshes are almost constantly covered with water, or the soil is extremely wet, they may be drained, as large districts in the fens of Lincolnshire have been, and made highly valuable. The object, in that case, is, by embankments, draining, and other means of improvement, to convert these marshes into pasture or meadow, or even arable lands; and where such improvements cannot be accomplished, the most useful woody aquatics, as willows, osiers, &c. may be grown with advantage.