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never saw a moss, on the surface of which, furrows for the escapeof rain water had been made, and courses opened for springs toflow, where the crop was injured by too much moisture : but, onthe contrary, that he has seen many instances of the crop beinghurt, and sometimes altogether lost, for the want of moisture.According to his statement, all the cultivators of moss, of thegreatest experience, have found, and now acknowledge, that un-der-draining is not necessary ; and many of them have filled upthe drains which they had cut, at great expense.
The ingenious Mr Naismith notices, that the crops on mossland, fail first on the sides of ditches, and places elevated abovethe common level; therefore recommends to lay on clay or earthon such places, to prevent the drought from penetrating. Hethinks, that even the Ayrshire mode, of giving the ridges a highconvex form, is improper, as the crop usually fails in the middleof these high ridges; the soil being too loose, and parched bythe summer’s drought.
No draining has ever been attempted, on any of the improvedmosses at Strathaven, Garnkirk, Gartsheugh, Paisley, Hartfield,lliccarton, Rednock, Duntroon, and others described by MrAiton, except opening outlets for subterraneous springs, andchannels for the speedy escape of surface-water; and none ofthese mosses (though all of them are of great depth, level, andoriginally very wet) have, after being reduced to proper form onthe surface, been in the least injured by moisture. On the con-trary, in Paisley moss, where a greater number of deep furrowshad been opened, than are usually done in Scotland , they werefound to be hurtful, and have been filled up.
Moss is no doubt softer, and takes in more moisture, than anyother earth; but it also dries sooner, and to a greater depth,than any other species of soil. The drought will penetrate far-ther into a soil of cultivated moss, in one day, than it will do in-'to those of clay or loam in six days. The consequences are,that a few days of severe drought, in the early parts of summer,or even when the grain is ripening, is sometimes fatal to the cropon moss. Whenever a severe drought happens at the time mosscorn is ripening, it does not fill, as the farmers term it; but be-comes white, without forming grain. This is what, Dr Ander-son says, is termed witched corn, in Aberdeenshire . Even inseasons ordinarily damp, the crop is lost, or becomes witched, onthe verges of ditches or deep drains in moss ground. All this,Mr Aiton avers, proceeds from the want of moisture. The samething, he says, may be seen in every cultivated moss, where anylittle height is formed. This he adduces as an evidence to prove,that cultivated moss ought not to be under-drained. The greatdifficulty, he thinks, in cultivating that species of soil, is, not torender it dry, but to keep it from being too dry.
Where the flow is nearly level, and of course very wet, a few