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both animal and vegetable health. In this ftate, all attempts tocultivate the furface will be vain. The native plants may be banilh-ed, or their growth fufpended ; but nothing but aquatic herbagecan fucceed. It is therefore indifpenfably neceflary to open properoutlets, to allow this excels of water to drain off; and thefe oughtto go to the deepnefs in which the water is contained in great ex-cels. Unlcfs where fprings arife in the bottom, deeper will be need-lefs expenfe; for towards the bottom, the fubftance being more de-cayed and compreffed by the fuperincumbent ftrata, lies more corn-pad, and contains lefa water ; and that water can have lcfs injuriouseffedt, as being farther removed from the furface. In the mofswhich has been the fubjeft of this Inquiry, the proportion of waterwas jj-ths of the whole, at 2 feet below the furface, and j-th lefs at5 feet lower. The water indeed efcapes very flowly through thenarrow' and intricate interfiices among the filaments of peat-mofs ;but the great excels is perpetually oozing away, and the folid fub-ftance, by degrees fubfides, and becomes move compact, and thusis better adapted to undergo future operations. Nor can the with-drawing of-this cold ftagnant water difqualify the mofs for retainingmoifture for the fupport of vegetation. That water is always in atemperature rather hurtful than nourilhing to cultivated plants : andthe power of retaining moifture fitter for the purpofe muft be com-municated, by improving the confiftence, by keeping the furfacelevel, and by making the furrows or furface drains ebb, and notmore numerous than neceflary, to carry away the fuperfluous rainwater.
Cor. 6 lh. As a mixture of earth accelerates the decomposi-tion of moss, and makes it capable of nourishing cultivated vege-tables,—as this effect is the greater as the proportion of earth islarger, and comes more fully in contact with the moss,—it wouldappear that the general fertility of the country would be moreaugmented by carrying away this substance, and preparing it asa manure for arable lands, than by cultivating it in a body. Ithas been fully evinced by the experience of many husbandmen,in different parts of the country, that moss, fermented accordingto Lord Meadowbank’s instructions, when plentifully applied oilthin hard soils, has greatly ameliorated them, not only improv-ing the contexture, but furnishing abundance of vegetable- ali-ment, and thus occasioning plentiful crops where very sparingones had formerly been produced. And it is evident that this,in a great measure, depended on the original conformation ofthe moss being annihilated, and its parts separated by the fer-mentation, so that the particles of the soil coming more imme-diately in contact with those of the moss, quickly decomposedthem : for the unbroken lumps in the compost remain in tiieground for years unaltered ; whereas that which has been ren-dered fine friable mould disappears in a short time. There is agreat extent of poor land throughout the country, which, though