SO
It is quite obvious, that the rich clay soil on which this flow-moss is incumbent, was formerly part of an ancient forest, bytome believed to have been a portion of the Sylva Caledonia,and of which a large extent is said to have been cut down by theRoman army under Severus, to deprive our Caledonian ancestorsof the shelter afforded by these fastnesses, whence they oftenharassed the Legions in their endeavours to enslave the countrybeyond the Forth. Without attempting any theory of the for-mation of this moss or peat soil, from the decay of aquatic ve-getables in the water which had stagnated among the fallen treesfourteen hundred years ago, through the stoppage of differentrivulets, it is sufficient for our present purpose to mention, that,under a depth of ten or twelve feet of worthless flow-moss, be-sides the remains of birch, alder, willow, and hazel, great num-bers of large oaks are still found almost entire, some of whichare sixty feet long in the bole or stem. The external white woodonly of these trees is decayed, while the heart remains still freshand strong, but of a black colour, probably from an impregna-tion of iron combined with the tannin from the oak and mossplants. These oaks are found lying on the clay soil under themoss, in all possible directions, as if cut down ; but their rootsremain entire and fixed in the earth in their original situations;and in some places five or six roots of large oaks are found in apiece of ground not exceeding twenty yards diameter. *
On discovering the value of the rich soil, overwhelmed underthese waste and worthless mosses, ingenious men have at differenttimes speculated upon the practicability of removing the gatheredmoss, that they might cultivate and bring to profit the rich soilon which the moss is incumbent. Several attempts have beenaccordingly made with this view, with more or less success. Inthe fertile parish of Airth, where there was a moss of 400 or500 acres of this description on the estate of Kersie, the lateLari of Dunmore cleared about 100 acres some considerabletime ago, and the present Earl is now continuing to clear the re-mainder with much diligence ; but the means employed by hisfather and him for this purpose are not mentioned in the Stir-lingshire Report. About twenty-six years ago, when travellingfrom Stirling to Bothkennar, through "the carse road, we remem-ber to have seen an extensive field of moss, then in the act of re-moval, by keeping up all round its borders, during the dry sea-son, an extensive line of smouldering fire, into which the peatearth was gradually thrown by means of spades. But of thisplan we have seen no account, and were not then in any degreeinterested in agricultural improvements. The particular ob'ectof the present article, is to give an account of a more exp ;di-tious inode of procedure for removing the moss, in which the
9 Sfirlingshirc Rep. p. 40,