AFPENDIX. xxiii

en cultivated there can be no doubt of the utility of me.

Peat is already employed by some farmers, who aul it from the bogs direct to their lands, but thus pplied, it seldom is of much value The water that rains from newly dug peat frequently contains the lphate ofIion, and ”acids by no means favourable vegetation, and dry peat imparts little to the soil xcept vegetable matter. Burning peat and applying we ashes in compost with unburnt peat, deleterious cids are neutralized and the mass brought into a tate of fermentation. Lime has a similar but more owerful efi'ect. Peat may be very advantageously rown into the barn yard, to absorb the urine that usually allowed to escape, and being mixed with e excrement of animals its properties are improved ithout much loss in the value of the stable manure.

' Muscle mud is a most valuable fertilizer, an allu- ‘um containing living and dead shells, the latter eing in a state of decomposition. It contains a. con- derable quantity ofphosphate and carbonate oflime, necessary to wheat and other kinds ofgrain.

Marsh mud or alluvium of the sea, is abundant at c mouths of the rivers and creeks, and contains umina, and silex with lime and decomposed marine ants. From its tenacity it is peculiarly adapted to ht sandy soils. In Nova Scotia it is employed as manure on wheat growing lands with permanent vantage. One hundred loads per acre laid on ring the autumn, will be pulverised during the osts of winter and incorporated with the soil in the suing spring. Black mud or muck consists chiefly decomposed vegetables, and is properly classed ith peat.

Lime may be obtained by burning oyster shells umerous on many of the shores). The bones and al of fish are also employed as manure, and during 6 process of putrefaction, the gases are retained a covering ofclay or earth.