so
longer, it is apt to become too dry, or what the country peoplecall deaf, and does not so well support vegetation as when pre-served in a moist saponaceous state. One crop of hay may benext taken ; after which the moss should be pastured for two years,or at most for three. Two years in pasture rots the moss, pre-vents it from becoming too dry and too loose, and renders it moremoist and solid. The herbage during the two or three first yearsis good and luxuriant; but by the fou- th year, the cultivatedherbage disappears, and the original moss plants rise up ; or, asthe country people say, the ground becomes wild. To preventthis, some fresh lime, say 130 to 160 Winchester bushels, oughtto be spread op the sward in the second or third year of grass;and after remaining a year on the ground, the moss ought to beploughed early in winter, and cropped in the ensuing spring.If oats are much wanted, two crops may be taken the secondtime the moss is broken up ; but on no account ought more thantwo to be taken, as over-cropping renders the moss too dry, toolight, and too open. Short rotations keep the moss moist, solid,and in a state for yielding good crops of grain, hay, and pasturegrass alternately. The utmost pains diim be taken to keep themoss from being poached by the feet of cattle during winter ;and indeed winter pasture, at no time, and in no case, oughtever to be suffered. If the cultivated moss is too soft to carrycows during the first summer of its grass crop, either a secondcrop of hay should be taken, or the aftermath pastured withsheep, which is the preferable system.
. 3. Of Flow-moss.
As Mr Alton justly observes, flow-moss does not present tothe cultivator a prospect so inviting as bent-moss, though it isnevertheless capable of being reclaimed, and made to turn togood account. This is not a mere speculative opinion, or ran-dom assertion, but a well founded fact, ascertained beyond alldoubt, and not in a few instances only, but by many examples,to the extent of several thousand acres in several different parts ofScotland and England. Draining of moss has always been consi-dered as the first and indispensably necessary step in its cultivation;but the necessity and advantages to be derived from that opera-tion have been greatly overrated. Moss is, without doubt, toosoft when wet, but it is also too soft and too light when dry. Ittakes in too much moisture in winter, but is also often injured bydrought in summer. Moss is seldom injured by moisture whilethe crop is growing, if the siuface is rightly formed, and a ventopened for the escape of the water w'hich falls upon the surface jthough often injured or rendered usc-less for want of moisture.All experienced cultivators of moss have found, and now ac-knowledge, that over draining is not necessary, and many ofthem have filled up the open casts or drains which they had cutat great expense. Where a flow-moss is nearly level, and very