ON THE AGRICULTURAL USES OF PEAT AND
SWAMP MUCK.
After the foregoing account of the composition of peat, we may proceed
to notice:
1.--_The characters that adapt it for agricultural uses._
These characters are conveniently discussed under two heads, viz.:
Those which render it useful in improving the texture and physical
characters of the soil, and indirectly contribute to the nourishment of
crops,--characters which constitute it an _amendment_ to the soil (_A_);
and
Those which make it a direct _fertilizer_ (_B_).
A.--Considered as an amendment, the value of peat depends upon
_Its remarkable power of absorbing and retaining water, both as a liquid
and as a vapor_ (I):
_Its power of absorbing ammonia_ (II):
_Its effect in promoting the disintegration and solution of mineral
ingredients, that is the stony matters of the soil_ (III): _and_
_Its influence on the temperature of the soil_ (IV).
The agricultural importance of these properties of peat is best
illustrated by considering the faults of a certain class of soils.
Throughout the State of Connecticut, for instance, are found abundant
examples of light, leachy, hungry soils, which consist of coarse sand or
fine gravel; are surface-dry in a few hours after the heaviest rains,
and in the summer drouths, are as dry as an ash-heap to a depth of
several or many feet.
These soils are easy to work, are ready for the plow early in the
spring, and if well manured give fair crops in wet seasons. In a dry
summer, however, they yield poorly, or fail of crops entirely; and, at
the best, they require constant and very heavy manuring to keep them in
heart.
Crops fail on these soils from two causes, viz.; _want of moisture_ and
_want of food_. Cultivated plants demand as an indispensable condition
of their growth and perfection, to be supplied with water in certain
quantities, which differ with different crops. Buckwheat will flourish
best on dry soils, while cranberries and rice grow in swamps.
Our ordinary cereal, root, forage and garden crops require a medium
degree of moisture, and with us it is in all cases desirable that the
soil be equally protected from excess of water and from drouth. Soils
must be thus situated either naturally, or as the result of improvement,
before any steadily good results can be obtained in their cultivation.
The remedy for excess of water in too heavy soils, is thorough drainage.
It is expensive, but effectual. It makes the earth more porous, opens
and maintains channels, through which the surplus water speedily runs
off, and permits the roots of crops to go down to a considerable depth.
What, let us consider, is the means of obviating the defects of soils
that are naturally too porous, from which the water runs off too
readily, and whose crops "burn up" in dry seasons?
In wet summers, these light soils, as we have remarked, are quite
productive if well manured. It is then plain that if we could add
anything to them which would retain the moisture of dews and rains in
spite of the summer-heats, our crops would be uniformly fair, provided
the supply of manure were kept up.
But why is it that light soils, need more manure than loamy or heavy
lands? We answer--because, in the first place the rains which quickly
descend through the open soil, wash down out of the reach of vegetation
the soluble fertilizing matters, especially the nitrates, for which the
soil has no retentive power; and in the second place, from the porosity
of the soil, the air has too great access, so that the vegetable and
animal matters of manures decay too rapidly, their volatile portions,
ammonia and carbonic acid, escape into the atmosphere, and are in
measure lost to the crops. From these combined causes we find that a
heavy dressing of well-rotted stable manure, almost if not entirely,
disappears from such soils in one season, so that another year the field
requires a renewed application; while on loamy soils the same amount of
manure would have lasted several years, and produced each year a better
effect.
We want then to _amend_ light soils by incorporating with them something
that prevents the rains from leaching through them too rapidly, and also
that renders them less open to the air, or absorbs and retains for the
use of crops the volatile products of the decay of manures.
For these purposes, vegetable matter of some sort is the best and almost
the only amendment that can be economically employed. In many cases a
good peat or muck is the best form of this material, that lies at the
farmer's command.
I.--_Its absorbent power for liquid water_ is well known to every farmer
who has thrown it up in a pile to season for use. It holds the water
like a sponge, and, according to its greater or less porosity, will
retain from 50 to 100 or more _per cent._ of its weight of liquid,
without dripping. Nor can this water escape from it rapidly. It dries
almost as slowly as clay, and a heap of it that has been exposed to sun
and wind for a whole summer, though it has of course lost much water, is
still distinctly wet to the eye and the feel a little below the surface.
_Its absorbent power for vapor of water_ is so great that more than once
it has happened in Germany, that barns or close sheds filled with
partially dried peat, such as is used for fuel, have been burst by the
swelling of the peat in damp weather, occasioned by the absorption of
moisture from the air. This power is further shown by the fact that when
peat has been kept all summer long in a warm room, thinly spread out to
the air, and has become like dry snuff to the feel, it still contains
from 8 to 30 _per cent._ (average 15 _per cent._) of water. To dry a
peat thoroughly, it requires to be exposed for some time to the
temperature of boiling water. It is thus plain, as experience has
repeatedly demonstrated, that no ordinary summer heats can dry up a soil
which has had a good dressing of this material, for on the one hand, it
soaks up and holds the rains that fall upon it, and on the other, it
absorbs the vapor of water out of the atmosphere whenever it is moist,
as at night and in cloudy weather.
When peat has once become _air-dry_, it no longer manifests this avidity
for water. In drying it shrinks, loses its porosity and requires long
soaking to saturate it again. In the soil, however, it rarely becomes
air-dry, unless indeed, this may happen during long drouth with a peaty
soil, such as results from the draining of a bog.
II.--_Absorbent power for ammonia._
All soils that deserve to be called fertile, have the property of
absorbing and retaining ammonia and the volatile matters which escape
from fermenting manures, but light and coarse soils may be deficient in
this power. Here again in respect to its absorptive power for ammonia,
peat comes to our aid.
It is easy to show by direct experiment that peat absorbs and combines
with ammonia.
In 1858 I took a weighed quantity of air-dry peat from the New Haven
Beaver Pond, (a specimen furnished me by Chauncey Goodyear, Esq.,) and
poured upon it a known quantity of dilute solution of ammonia, and
agitated the two together occasionally during 48 hours. I then distilled
off at a boiling heat the unabsorbed ammonia and determined its
quantity. This amount subtracted from that of the ammonia originally
employed, gave the quantity of ammonia absorbed and retained by the peat
at the temperature of boiling water.
The peat retained ammonia to the amount of 0.95 of _one per cent._
I made another trial at the same time with carbonate of ammonia, adding
excess of solution of this salt to a quantity of peat, and exposing it
to the heat of boiling water, until no smell of ammonia was perceptible.
The entire nitrogen in the peat was then determined, and it was found
that the dry peat which originally contained nitrogen equivalent to 2.4
_per cent._ of ammonia, now yielded an amount corresponding to 3.7 _per
cent._ The quantity of ammonia absorbed and retained at a temperature
of 212 deg., was thus 1.3 _per cent._
This last experiment most nearly represents the true power of
absorption; because, in fermenting manures, ammonia mostly occurs in the
form of carbonate, and this is more largely retained than free ammonia,
on account of its power of decomposing the humate of lime, forming with
it carbonate of lime and humate of ammonia.
The absorbent power of peat is well shown by the analyses of three
specimens, sent me in 1858, by Edwin Hoyt, Esq., of New Canaan, Conn.
The first of these was the swamp muck he employed. It contained in the
air-dry state nitrogen equivalent to 0.58 _per cent._ of ammonia. The
second sample was the same muck that had lain under the flooring of the
horse stables, and had been, in this way, partially saturated with
urine. It contained nitrogen equivalent to 1.15 _per cent._ of ammonia.
The third sample was, finally, the same muck composted with white-fish.
It contained nitrogen corresponding to 1.31 _per cent._ of ammonia.[3]
The quantities of ammonia thus absorbed, both in the laboratory and
field experiments are small--from 0.7 to 1.3 _per cent._ The absorption
is without doubt chiefly due to the organic matter of the peats, and in
all the specimens on which these trials were made, the proportion of
inorganic matter is large. The results therefore become a better
expression of the power of _peat_, in general, to absorb ammonia, if we
reckon them on the organic matter alone. Calculated in this way, the
organic matter of the Beaver Pond peat (which constitutes but 68 _per
cent._ of the dry peat) absorbs 1.4 _per cent._ of free ammonia, and 1.9
_per cent._ of ammonia out of the carbonate of ammonia.
Similar experiments, by Anderson, on a Scotch peat, showed it to
possess, when wet, an absorptive power of 2 _per cent._, and, after
drying in the air, it still retained 1.5 _per cent._--[Trans. Highland
and Ag'l Soc'y.]
When we consider how small an ingredient of most manures nitrogen is,
viz.: from one-half to three-quarters of one _per cent._ in case of
stable manure, and how little of it, in the shape of guano for instance,
is usually applied to crops--not more than 40 to 60 lbs. to the acre,
(the usual dressings with guano are from 250 to 400 lbs. per acre, and
nitrogen averages but 15 _per cent._ of the guano), we at once perceive
that an absorptive power of one or even one-half _per cent._ is greatly
more than adequate for every agricultural purpose.
III.--_Peat promotes the disintegration of the soil._
The soil is a storehouse of food for crops; the stores it contains are,
however, only partly available for immediate use. In fact, by far the
larger share is locked up, as it were, in insoluble combinations, and
only by a slow and gradual change can it become accessible to the plant.
This change is largely brought about by the united action of _water_ and
_carbonic acid gas_. Nearly all the rocks and minerals out of which
fertile soils are formed,--which therefore contain those inorganic
matters that are essential to vegetable growth,--though very slowly
acted on by pure water, are decomposed and dissolved to a much greater
extent by water, charged with carbonic acid gas.
It is by these solvents that the formation of soil from broken rocks is
to a great extent due. Clay is invariably a result of their direct
action upon rocks. The efficiency of the soil depends greatly upon their
chemical influence.
_The only abundant source of carbonic acid in the soil, is decaying
vegetable matter._
Hungry, leachy soils, from their deficiency of vegetable matter and of
moisture, do not adequately yield their own native resources to the
support of crops, because the conditions for converting their fixed into
floating capital are wanting. Such soils dressed with peat or green
manured, at once acquire the power of retaining water, and keep that
water ever charged with carbonic acid: thus not only the extraneous
manures which the farmer applies are fully economized; but the soil
becomes more productive from its own stores of fertility which now begin
to be unlocked and available.
Dr. Peters, of Saxony, has made some instructive experiments that are
here in point. He filled several large glass jars, (2-1/2 feet high and
5-1/2 inches wide) with a rather poor loamy sand, containing
considerable humus, and planted in each one, June 14, 1857, an equal
number of seeds of oats and peas. Jar No. 2 had daily passed into it
through a tube, adapted to the bottom, about 3-1/4 pints of common air.
No. 3 received daily the same bulk of a mixture of air and carbonic acid
gas, of which the latter amounted to one-fourth. No. 1 remained without
any treatment of this kind, _i. e._: in just the condition of the soil
in an open field, having no air in its pores, save that penetrating it
from the atmosphere. On October 3, the plants were removed from the
soil, and after drying at the boiling point of water, were weighed. The
crops from the pots into which air and carbonic acid were daily forced,
were about _twice as heavy_ as No. 1, which remained in the ordinary
condition.
Examination of the soil further demonstrated, that in the last two
soils, a considerably greater quantity of mineral and organic matters
had become soluble in water, than in the soil that was not artificially
aerated. The actual results are given in the table below in grammes, and
refer to 6000 grammes of soil in each case:--
ACTION OF CARBONIC ACID ON THE SOIL.
-----------------------------------+-----------+--------+------------
| _No. 1, | |
| Without |_No. 2, | _No. 3,
_Substances soluble in water, etc._| Artificial| Common | Air and
| Supply of | Air | Carbonic
| Air._ | Added._|acid added._
-----------------------------------+-----------+--------+------------
Mineral matters | 2.04 | 3.71 | 4.99
Potash | 0.07 | 0.17 | 0.14
Soda | 0.17 | 0.23 | 0.28
Organic matters | 2.76 | 4.32 | 2.43
| | |
Weight of Crops | 5.89 | 10.49 | 12.35
-----------------------------------+-----------+--------+------------
It will be seen from the above that air alone exercised nearly as much
solvent effect as the mixture of air with one-fourth its weight of
carbonic acid; this is doubtless, in part due to the fact that the air,
upon entering the soil rich in humus, caused the abundant formation of
carbonic acid, as will be presently shown must have been the case. It
is, however, probable that organic acids (crenic and apocrenic,) and
nitric acid were also produced (by oxidation,) and shared with carbonic
the work of solution.
It is almost certain, that the acids of peat exert a powerful
decomposing, and ultimately solvent effect on the minerals of the soil;
but on this point we have no precise information, and must therefore be
content merely to present the probability. This is sustained by the fact
that the crenic, apocrenic and humic acids, though often partly
uncombined, are never wholly so, but usually occur united in part to
various bases, viz.: lime, magnesia, ammonia, potash, alumina and oxide
of iron.
The crenic and apocrenic acids (that are formed by the oxidation of
ulmic and humic acids,) have such decided acid characters,--crenic acid
especially, which has a strongly sour taste--that we cannot well doubt
their dissolving action.
IV.--_The influence of peat on the temperature_ of light soils dressed
with it may often be of considerable practical importance. A light dry
soil is subject to great variations of temperature, and rapidly follows
the changes of the atmosphere from cold to hot, and from hot to cold. In
the summer noon a sandy soil becomes so warm as to be hardly endurable
to the feel, and again it is on such soils that the earliest frosts take
effect. If a soil thus subject to extremes of temperature have a dressing
of peat, it will on the one hand not become so warm in the hot day, and
on the other hand it will not cool so rapidly, nor so much in the night;
its temperature will be rendered more uniform, and on the whole, more
conducive to the welfare of vegetation. This regulative effect on
temperature is partly due to the stores of water held by peat. In a hot
day this water is constantly evaporating, and this, as all know, is a
cooling process. At night the peat absorbs vapor of water from the air,
and condenses it within its pores, this condensation is again accompanied
with the evolution of heat.
It appears to be a general, though not invariable fact, that dark
colored soils, other things being equal, are constantly the warmest, or
at any rate maintain the temperature most favorable to vegetation. It
has been repeatedly observed that on light-colored soils plants mature
more rapidly, if the earth be thinly covered with a coating of some
black substance. Thus Lampadius, Professor in the School of Mines at
Freiberg, a town situated in a mountainous part of Saxony, found that he
could ripen melons, even in the coolest summers, by strewing a coating
of coal-dust an inch deep over the surface of the soil. In some of the
vineyards of the Rhine, the powder of a black slate is employed to
hasten the ripening of the grape.
Girardin, an eminent French agriculturist, in a series of experiments on
the cultivation of potatoes, found that the time of their ripening
varied eight to fourteen days, according to the character of the soil.
He found, on the 25th of August, in a very dark soil, made so by the
presence of much humus or decaying vegetable matter, twenty-six
varieties ripe; in sandy soil but twenty, in clay nineteen, and in a
white lime soil only sixteen.
It cannot be doubted then, that the effect of dressing a light sandy or
gravelly soil with peat, or otherwise enriching it in vegetable matter,
is to render it warmer, in the sense in which that word is usually
applied to soils. The upward range of the thermometer is not, indeed,
increased, but the uniform warmth so salutary to our most valued crops
is thereby secured.
In the light soils stable-manure wastes too rapidly because, for one
reason, at the extremes of high temperature, oxidation and decay proceed
with great rapidity, and the volatile portions of the fertilizer are
used up faster than the plant can appropriate them, so that not only are
they wasted during the early periods of growth, but they are wanting at
a later period when their absence may prove the failure of a crop.
B. The ingredients and qualities which make peat _a direct fertilizer_
next come under discussion. We shall notice:
_The organic matters including nitrogen (ammonia and nitric acid)_ (I):
_The inorganic or mineral ingredients_ (II):
_Peculiarities in the decay of Peat_ (III), _and_
_Institute a comparison between peat and stable manure_ (IV).
I.--Under this division we have to consider:
1. _The organic matters as direct food to plants._
Thirty years ago, when Chemistry and Vegetable Physiology began to be
applied to Agriculture, the opinion was firmly held among scientific
men, that the organic parts of humus--by which we understand decayed
vegetable matter, such as is found to a greater or less extent in all
good soils, and _abounds_ in many fertile ones, such as constitutes the
leaf-mold of forests, such as is produced in the fermenting of stable
manure, and that forms the principal part of swamp-muck and peat,--are
the true nourishment of vegetation, at any rate of the higher orders of
plants, those which supply food to man and to domestic animals.
In 1840, Liebig, in his celebrated treatise on the "Applications of
Chemistry to Agriculture and Physiology," gave as his opinion that these
organic bodies do not nourish vegetation except by the products of their
decay. He asserted that they cannot enter the plant directly, but that
the water, carbonic acid and ammonia resulting from their decay, are the
substances actually imbibed by plants, and from these alone is built up
the organic or combustible part of vegetation.
To this day there is a division of opinion among scientific men on this
subject, some adopting the views of Liebig, others maintaining that
certain soluble organic matters, viz., crenic and apocrenic acids are
proper food of plants.
On the one hand it has been abundantly demonstrated that these organic
matters are not at all essential to the growth of agricultural plants,
and can constitute but a small part of the actual food of vegetation
taken in the aggregate.
On the other hand, we are acquainted with no satisfactory evidence that
the soluble organic matters of the soil and of peat, especially the
crenates and apocrenates, are not actually appropriated by, and, so far
as they go, are not directly serviceable as food to plants.
Be this as it may, practice has abundantly demonstrated the value of
humus as an ingredient of the soil, and if not directly, yet indirectly,
it furnishes the material out of which plants build up their parts.
2. _The organic matters of peat as indirect food to plants._ Very nearly
one-half, by weight, of our common crops, when perfectly dry, consists
of _carbon_. The substance which supplies this element to plants is the
gas, carbonic acid. Plants derive this gas mostly from the atmosphere,
absorbing it by means of their leaves. But the free atmosphere, at only
a little space above the soil, contains on the average but 1/2500 of its
bulk of this gas, whereas plants flourish in air containing a larger
quantity, and, in fact, their other wants being supplied, they grow
better as the quantity is increased to 1/12 the bulk of the air. These
considerations make sufficiently obvious how important it is that the
soil have in itself a constant and abundant source of carbonic acid gas.
As before said, _organic matter, in a state of decay_, is the single
material which the farmer can incorporate with his soil in order to make
the latter a supply of this most indispensable form of plant-food.
When organic matters decay in the soil, their carbon ultimately assumes
the form of Carbonic acid. This gas, constantly exhaling from the soil,
is taken up by the foliage of the crops, and to some extent is absorbed
likewise by their roots.
Boussingault & Lewy have examined the air inclosed in the interstices of
various soils, and invariably found it much richer (10 to 400 times)
than that of the atmosphere above. Here follow some of their results:
CARBONIC ACID IN SOILS.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Key:
A - _Volumes of Carbonic acid in 100 of air in pores of Soil._
B - _Cubic feet of air in acre to depth of 14 inches._
C - _Cubic feet of Carbonic acid in acre to depth of 14 inches._
D - _Volumes of Carbonic acid to 100 of air above the soil._
E - _Cubic feet of air over one acre to height of 14 inches._
F - _Cubic feet of Carbonic acid over one acre to a height of 14 inches._
--------------------------------------------------------+-----+------+----
_Designation and Condition of Soil._ | A | B | C
--------------------------------------------------------+-----+------+----
Sandy subsoil of forest |0.24 | 4,326| 14
Loamy " " " |0.82 | 3,458| 28
Surface soil " " |0.86 | 5,768| 56
Clayey soil of artichoke field |0.66 |10,094| 71
Soil of asparagus bed, unmanured for one year |0.79 |10,948| 86
" " " " newly manured |1.54 |10,948| 172
Sandy soil, six days after manuring, and three | | |
days of rain.|2.21 |11,536| 257
" " ten " " " " " | | |
" " " |9.74 |11,536|1144
Compost of vegetable mold |3.64 |20,608| 772
| | |
_Carbonic Acid in Atmosphere_ | D | E | F
|-----+------+----
|0.025|50,820| 14
--------------------------------------------------------+-----+------+----
From the above it is seen that in soils containing little decomposing
organic matters--as the forest sub-soils--the quantity of carbonic acid
is no greater than that contained in an equal bulk of the atmosphere. It
is greater in loamy and clayey soils; but is still small. In the
artichoke field (probably light soil not lately manured), and even in an
asparagus bed unmanured for one year, the amount of carbonic acid is not
greatly larger. In newly manured fields, and especially in a vegetable
compost, the quantity is vastly greater.
The organic matters which come from manures, or from the roots and other
residues of crops, are the source of the carbonic acid of the soil.
These matters continually waste in yielding this gas, and must be
supplied anew. Boussingault found that the rich soil of his kitchen
garden (near Strasburg) which had been heavily manured from the
barn-yard for many years, lost one-third of its carbon by exposure to
the air for three months (July, August and September,) being daily
watered. It originally contained 2.43 _per cent._ At the conclusion of
the experiment it contained but 1.60 _per cent._, having lost 0.83 _per
cent._
Peat and swamp-muck, when properly prepared, furnish carbonic acid in
large quantities during their slow oxidation in the soil.
3. _The Nitrogen of Peat, including Ammonia and Nitric Acid._
The sources of the nitrogen of plants, and the real cause of the value
of nitrogenous fertilizers, are topics that have excited more discussion
than any other points in Agricultural Chemistry. This is the result of
two circumstances. One is the obscurity in which some parts of the
subject have rested; the other is the immense practical and commercial
importance of this element, as a characteristic and essential ingredient
of the most precious fertilizers. It is a rule that the most valuable
manures, _commercially considered_, are those containing the most
nitrogen. Peruvian guano, sulphate of ammonia, soda-saltpeter, fish and
flesh manures, bones and urine, cost the farmer more money per ton than
any other manures he buys or makes, superphosphate of lime excepted, and
this does not find sale, for general purposes, unless it contains
several _per cent._ of nitrogen. These are, in the highest sense,
nitrogenous fertilizers, and, if deprived of their nitrogen, they would
lose the greater share of their fertilizing power.
The importance of the nitrogen of manures depends upon the fact that
those forms (compounds) of nitrogen which are capable of supplying it to
vegetation are comparatively scarce.
It has long been known that peat contains a considerable quantity of
nitrogen. The average amount in thirty specimens, analyzed under the
author's direction, including peats and swamp mucks of all grades of
quality, is equivalent to 1-1/2 _per cent._ of the air-dried substance,
or more than thrice as much as exists in ordinary stable or yard manure.
In several peats the amount is as high as 2.4 _per cent._, and in one
case 2.9 _per cent._ were found.
Of these thirty samples, one-half were largely mixed with soil, and
contained from 15 to 60 _per cent._ of mineral matters.
Reducing them to an average of 15 _per cent._ of water and 5 _per cent._
of ash, they contain 2.1 _per cent._ of nitrogen, while the organic
part, considered free from water and mineral substances, contains on the
average 2.6 _per cent._ See table, page 90.
The five peats, analyzed by Websky and Chevandier, as cited on page 24,
considered free from water and ash, contain an average of 1.8 _per
cent._ of nitrogen.
We should not neglect to notice that peat is often comparatively poor in
nitrogen. Of the specimens, examined in the Yale Analytical Laboratory,
several contained but half a _per cent._ or less. So in the analyses of
Websky, one sample contained but 0.77 _per cent._ of the element in
question.
As concerns the state of combination in which nitrogen exists in peat,
there is a difference of opinion. Mulder regards it as chiefly occurring
in the form of _ammonia_ (a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen), united
to the organic acids from which it is very difficult to separate it.
Recent investigations indicate that in general, peat contains but a
small proportion of ready-formed ammonia.
The great part of the nitrogen of peat exists in an insoluble and inert
form: but, by the action of the atmosphere upon it, especially when
mixed with and divided by the soil, it gradually becomes available to
vegetation to as great an extent as the nitrogen of ordinary
fertilizers.
It appears from late examinations that weathered peat may contain
_nitric acid_ (compound of nitrogen with oxygen) in a proportion which,
though small, is yet of great importance, agriculturally speaking. What
analytical data we possess are subjoined.
PROPORTIONS OF NITROGEN, ETC., IN PEAT.
---------+-------------+------------+------------+---------+------------
| | | Total |Ammonia, |
| | Analyst. | Nitrogen. |per cent.|Nitric acid.
---------+-------------+------------+------------+---------+------------
1--Brown | | | | |
Peat|Air dry (?) |Boussingault| 2.20 | 0.018 | 0.000
2--Black | | | | |
Peat| " | " |Undetermined| 0.025 |Undetermined
3--Peat |Dried at 212 deg.|Reichardt[4]| " | 0.152 | 0.483
4--Peat | " | " | " | 0.165 | 0.525
5--Peat | " | " | " | 0.305 | 0.241
6--Peat | " | " | " | 0.335 | 0.421
---------+-------------+------------+------------+---------+------------
Specimens 3, 4 and 5, are swamp (or heath) mucks, and have been
weathered for use in flower-culture. 3 and 4 are alike, save that 3 has
been weathered a year longer than 4. They contain respectively 41, 56
and 67 _per cent._ of organic matter.
Sample 6, containing 86 _per cent._ of organic matter, is employed as a
manure with great advantage, and probably was weathered before analysis.
It contained 85 _per cent._ of organic substance.
More important to us than the circumstance that this peat contains but
little or no ammonia or nitric acid, and the other contains such or such
a fraction of one _per cent._ of these bodies, is the grand fact that
all peats may yield a good share of their nitrogen to the support of
crops, when properly treated and applied.
Under the influence of Liebig's teachings, which were logically based
upon the best data at the disposal of this distinguished philosopher
when he wrote 25 years ago, it has been believed that the nitrogen of a
fertilizer, in order to be available, must be converted into ammonia and
presented in that shape to the plant. It has been recently made clear
that nitric acid, rather than ammonia, is the form of nitrogenous food
which is most serviceable to vegetation, and the one which is most
abundantly supplied by the air and soil. The value of ammonia is however
positive, and not to be overlooked.
When peat, properly prepared by weathering or composting, is suitably
incorporated with a poor or light soil, it slowly suffers decomposition
and wastes away. If it be wet, and air have access in limited quantity,
especially if _lime_ be mixed with it, a portion of its nitrogen is
gradually converted into ammonia. With full access of air _nitric acid_
is produced. In either case, it appears that a considerable share of the
nitrogen escapes in the free state as gas, thereby becoming useless to
vegetation until it shall have become converted again into ammonia or
nitric acid. It happens in a cultivated soil that the oxygen of the air
is in excess at the surface, and less abundant as we go down until we
get below organic matters: it happens that one day it is saturated with
water more or less, and another day it is dry, so that at one time we
have the conditions for the formation of ammonia, and at another, those
favorable to producing nitric acid. In this way, so far as our present
knowledge warrants us to affirm, organic matters, decaying in the soil,
continuously yield portions of their nitrogen in the forms of ammonia
and nitric acid for the nourishment of plants.
The farmer who skillfully employs as a fertilizer a peat containing a
good proportion of nitrogen, may thus expect to get from it results
similar to what would come from the corresponding quantity of nitrogen
in guano or stable manure.
But the capacity of peat for feeding crops with, nitrogen appears not
to stop here. Under certain conditions, _the free nitrogen of the air
which cannot be directly appropriated by vegetation, is oxidized in the
pores of the soil to nitric acid, and thus, free of expense to the
farmer, his crops are daily dressed with the most precious of all
fertilizers_.
This gathering of useless nitrogen from the air, and making it over into
plant-food cannot go on in a soil destitute of organic matter, requires
in fact that vegetable remains or humified substances of some sort be
present there. The evidence of this statement, whose truth was maintained
years ago as a matter of opinion by many of the older chemists, has
recently become nearly a matter of demonstration by the investigations of
Boussingault and Knop, while the explanation of it is furnished by the
researches of Schoenbein and Zabelin. To attempt any elucidation of it
here would require more space than is at our disposal.
It is plain from the contents of this paragraph that peat or swamp muck
is, in general, an abundant source of nitrogen, and is often therefore
an extremely cheap means of replacing the most rare and costly
fertilizers.
II.--With regard to the _inorganic matters of peat_ considered as food
to plants, it is obvious, that, leaving out of the account for the
present, some exceptional cases, they are useful as far as they go.
In the ashes of peats, we almost always find small quantities of
sulphate of lime, magnesia and phosphoric acid. Potash and soda too, are
often present, though rarely to any considerable amount. Carbonate and
sulphate of lime are large ingredients of the ashes of about one-half,
of the thirty-three peats and swamp mucks I have examined. The ashes of
the other half are largely mixed with sand and soil, but in most cases
also contain considerable sulphate of lime, and often carbonates of
lime and magnesia.
In one swamp-muck, from Milford, Conn., there was found but two _per
cent._ of ash, at least one-half of which was sand, and the remainder
sulphate of lime, (gypsum.) In other samples 20, 30, 50 and even 60 _per
cent._ remained after burning off the organic matter. In these cases the
ash is chiefly sand. The amount of ash found in those peats which were
most free from sand, ranges from five to nine _per cent._ Probably the
average proportion of true ash, viz.: that derived from the organic
matters themselves, not including sand and accidental ingredients, is
not far from five _per cent._
In twenty-two specimens of European peat, examined by Websky, Jaeckel,
Walz, Wiegmann, Einhof and Berthier, eleven contained from 0.6 to 3.5
_per cent._ of ash. The other eleven yielded from 5.3 to 22 _per cent._
The average of the former was 2.4, that of the latter 12.7 _per cent._
Most of these contained a considerable proportion of sand or soil.
Variation in the composition as well as in the quantity of ash is very
great.
Three analyses of peat-ashes have been executed at the author's instance
with the subjoined results:
ANALYSES OF PEAT-ASHES.
---------------------------+-----------+-----------+----------
| A. | B. | C.
Potash. | 0.69 | 0.80 | 3.46
Soda. | 0.58 | | trace.
Lime. | 40.52 | 35.59 | 6.60
Magnesia. | 6.06 | 4.92 | 1.05
Oxide of iron and alumina. | 5.17 | 9.08 | 15.59
Phosphoric acid. | 0.50 | 0.77 | 1.55
Sulphuric acid. | 5.52 | 10.41 | 4.04
Chlorine. | 0.15 | 0.43 | 0.70
Soluble silica. | 8.23 | 1.40 } |
Carbonic acid. | 19.60 | 22.28 } | 67.01
Sand. | 12.11 | 15.04 } |
+-----------+-----------+----------
| 99.13 | 100.74 | 100.00
---------------------------+-----------+-----------+----------
A was furnished by Mr. Daniel Buck, Jr., of Poquonock, Conn., and comes
from a peat which he uses as fuel.
B was sent by Mr. J. H. Stanwood, of Colebrook, Conn.
C was sent from Guilford, Conn., by Mr. Andrew Foote.[5]
A and B, after excluding sand, are seen to consist chiefly of carbonates
and sulphates of lime and magnesia. III. contains a very large
proportion of sand and soluble silica, much iron and alumina, less lime
and sulphuric acid. Potash and phosphoric acid are three times more
abundant in C than in the others.
Instead of citing in full the results of Websky, Jaeckel and others, it
will serve our object better to present the maximum, minimum and average
proportions of the important ingredients in twenty-six recent analyses,
(including these three,) that have come under the author's notice.
VARIATIONS AND AVERAGES IN COMPOSITION OF PEAT-ASHES.
_Minimum._ _Maximum._ _Average._
Potash 0.05 to 3.64 0.89 per cent.
Soda none " 5.73 0.83 "
Lime 4.72 " 58.38 24.00 "
Magnesia none " 24.39 3.20 "
Alumina 0.90 " 20.50 5.78 "
Oxide of iron none " 73.33 18.70 "
Sulphuric acid none " 37.40 7.50 "
Chlorine " " 6.50 0.60 "
Phosphoric acid " " 6.29 2.56 "
Sand 0.99 " 56.97 25.50 "
It is seen from the above figures that the ash of peat varies in
composition to an indefinite degree. Lime is the only ingredient that is
never quite wanting, and with the exception of sand, it is on the
average the largest. Of the other agriculturally valuable components,
sulphuric acid has the highest average; then follows magnesia; then
phosphoric acid, and lastly, potash and soda: all of these, however, may
be nearly or quite lacking.
Websky, who has recently made a study of the composition of a number of
German peats, believes himself warranted to conclude that peat is so
modified in appearance by its mineral matters, that the quantity or
character of the latter may be judged of in many cases by the eye. He
remarks, (_Journal fuer Praktische Chemie, Bd. 92, S. 87_,) "that while
for example the peats containing much sand and clay have a red-brown
powdery appearance, and never assume a lustrous surface by pressure;
those which are very rich in lime, are black, sticky when moist, hard
and of a waxy luster on a pressed surface, when dry: a property which
they share indeed with very dense peats that contain little ash. Peats
impregnated with iron are easily recognized. Their peculiar odor, and
their changed appearance distinguish them from all others."
From my own investigations on thirty specimens of Connecticut peats, I
am forced to disagree with Websky entirely, and to assert that except as
regards sand, which may often be detected by the eye, there is no
connection whatever between the quantity or character of the ash and the
color, consistency, density or any other external quality of the peat.
The causes of this variation in the ash-content of peat, deserve a
moment's notice. The plants that produce peat contain considerable
proportions of lime, magnesia, alkalies, sulphuric acid, chlorine and
phosphoric acid, as seen from the following analysis by Websky.
COMPOSITION OF THE ASH OF SPHAGNUM.
Potash. 17.2
Soda. 8.3
Lime. 11.8
Magnesia. 6.7
Sulphuric acid. 6.5
Chlorine. 6.2
Phosphoric acid. 6.7
_Per cent._ of ash, 2.5.
The mineral matters of the sphagnum do not all become ingredients of
the peat; but, as rapidly as the moss decays below, its soluble matters
are to a great degree absorbed by the vegetation, which is still living
and growing above. Again, when a stream flows through a peat-bed,
soluble matters are carried away by the water, which is often dark-brown
from the substances dissolved in it. Finally the soil of the adjacent
land is washed or blown upon the swamp, in greater or less quantities.
III.--_The decomposition of peat in the soil offers some peculiarities_
that are worthy of notice in this place. Peat is more gradual and
regular in decay than the vegetable matters of stable dung, or than that
furnished by turning under sod or green crops. It is thus a more steady
and lasting benefit, especially in light soils, out of which ordinary
vegetable manures disappear too rapidly. The decay of peat appears to
proceed through a regular series of steps. In the soil, especially in
contact with soluble alkaline bodies, as ammonia and lime, there is a
progressive conversion of the _insoluble_ or _less soluble_ into
_soluble_ compounds. Thus the inert matters that resist the immediate
solvent power of alkalies, absorb oxygen from the air, and form the
humic or ulmic acids soluble in alkalies; the humic acids undergo
conversion into crenic acid, and this body, by oxidation, passes into
apocrenic acid. The two latter are soluble in water, and, in the porous
soil, they are rapidly brought to the end-results of decay, viz.: water,
carbonic acid, ammonia and free nitrogen.
Great differences must be observed, however, in the rapidity with which
these changes take place. Doubtless they go on most slowly in case of
the fibrous compact peats, and perhaps some of the lighter and more
porous samples of swamp muck, would decay nearly as fast as rotted
stable dung.
It might appear from the above statement, that the effect of exposing
peat to the air, as is done when it is incorporated with the soil, would
be to increase relatively the amount of soluble organic matters; but the
truth is, that they are often actually diminished. In fact, the
oxidation and consequent removal of these soluble matters (crenic and
apocrenic acids,) is likely to proceed more rapidly than they can be
produced from the less soluble humic acid of the peat.
IV.--_Comparison of Peat with Stable Manure._
The fertilizing value of peat is best understood by comparing it with
some standard manure. Stable manure is obviously that fertilizer whose
effects are most universally observed and appreciated, and by setting
analyses of the two side by side, we may see at a glance, what are the
excellencies and what the deficiencies of peat. In order rightly to
estimate the worth of those ingredients which occur in but small
proportion in peat, we must remember that it, like stable manure, may
be, and usually should be, applied in large doses, so that in fact the
smallest ingredients come upon an acre in considerable quantity. In
making our comparison, we will take the analysis of Peat from the farm
of Mr. Daniel Buck, Jr., of Poquonock, Conn., and the average of
several analyses of rotted stable dung of _good quality_.
No. _I_, is the analysis of Peat; No. _II_, that of well rotted stable
manure:--
_I._ _II._
Water expelled at 212 degrees. 79.000 79.00
{Soluble in dilute solution }
Org. { of carbonate of soda. 7.312 }
Matter. {Insoluble in solution } 14.16
{ of carbonate of soda. 12.210 }
Potash. 0.010 0.65
Soda. 0.009
Lime. 0.608 0.57
Magnesia. 0.091 0.19
Phosphoric acid. 0.008 0.23
Sulphuric acid. 0.082 0.27
Nitrogen. 0.600 0.55
Matters, soluble in water. 0.450 4.42
To make the comparison as just as possible, the peat is calculated with
the same content of water, that stable dung usually has.
We observe then, that the peat contains in a given quantity, _about
one-third more organic matter, an equal amount of lime and nitrogen_;
but is _deficient in potash, magnesia, phosphoric and sulphuric acids_.
The deficiencies of this peat in the matter of composition may be
corrected, as regards potash, by adding to 100 lbs. of it 1 lb. of
potash of commerce, or 5 lbs. of unleached wood-ashes; as regards
phosphoric and sulphuric acids, by adding 1 lb. of good superphosphate,
or 1 lb. each of bone dust and plaster of Paris.
In fact, the additions just named, will convert _any fresh peat_,
containing not more than 80 _per cent._ of water and not less than 20
_per cent._ of organic matter, into a mixture having as much fertilizing
matters as stable dung, with the possible exception of nitrogen.
It is a fact, however, that two manures may reveal to the chemist the
same composition, and yet be very unlike in their fertilizing effects,
because their conditions are unlike, because they differ in their
degrees of solubility or availability.
As before insisted upon, it is true in general, that peat is more slow
of decomposition than yard-manure, and this fact, which is an advantage
in an amendment, is a disadvantage in a fertilizer. Though there may be
some peats, or rather swamp mucks, which are energetic and rapid in
their action, it seems that they need to be applied in larger quantities
than stable manure in order to produce corresponding fertilizing
effects. In many cases peat requires some preparation by weathering, or
by chemical action--"fermentation"--induced by decomposing animal
matters or by alkalies. This topic will shortly be discussed.
We adopt, as a general fact, the conclusion that peat is inferior in
fertilizing power to stable manure.
Experience asserts, however, with regard to some individual kinds, that
they are equal to common yard manure without any preparation whatever.
Mr. Daniel Buck, of Poquonock, Conn., says, of the 'muck,' over-lying
the peat, whose composition has just been compared with stable manure,
that it "has been applied fresh to meadow with good results; the grass
is not as tall but thicker and finer, and of a darker green in the
spring, than when barn-yard manure is spread on."
A swamp muck, from Mr. A. M. Haling, Rockville, Conn., "has been used as
a top-dressing, on grass, with excellent results. It is a good
substitute for barn-yard manure."
A peat, from Mr. Russell U. Peck, of Berlin, Conn., "has been used
fresh, on corn and meadow, with good effect."
Of the peat, from the 'Beaver Pond,' near New Haven, Mr. Chauncey
Goodyear, says, "it has been largely used in a fresh state, and in this
condition is as good as cow dung."
Mr. Henry Keeler, remarks, concerning a swamp muck occurring at South
Salem, N. Y., that "it has been used in the fresh state, applied to corn
and potatoes, and appears to be equal to good barn manure:"
further:--"it has rarely been weathered more than two months, and then
applied side by side with the best yard manure has given equally good
results."
A few words as to the apparent contradiction between Chemistry, which
says that peat is not equal to stable dung as a fertilizer, and
Practice, which in these cases affirms that it is equal to our standard
manure.
In the first place, the chemical conclusion is a general one, and does
not apply to individual peats, which, in a few instances, may be
superior to yard manure. The practical judgment also is, that, in
general, yard manure is the best.
To go to the individual cases; second: A peat in which nitrogen exists
in as large a proportion as is found in stable or yard manure, being
used in larger quantity, or being more durable in its action, may for a
few seasons produce better results than the latter, merely on account of
the presence of this one ingredient, it may in fact, for the soil and
crop to which it is applied, be a better fertilizer than yard manure,
because nitrogen is most needed in that soil, and yet for the generality
of soils, or in the long run, it may prove to be an inferior fertilizer.
Again; third--the melioration of the physical qualities of a soil, the
amendment of its dryness and excessive porosity, by means of peat, may
be more effective for agricultural purposes, than the application of
tenfold as much fertilizing, _i. e._ plant-feeding materials; in the
same way that the mere draining of an over-moist soil often makes it
more productive than the heaviest manuring.
2.--_On the characters of Peat that are detrimental, or that may
sometimes need correction before it is agriculturally useful._
I.--_Bad effects on wet heavy soils._
We have laid much stress on the amending qualities of peat, when applied
to dry and leachy soils, which by its use are rendered more retentive of
moisture and manure. These properties, which it would seem, are just
adapted to renovate very light land, under certain circumstances, may
become disadvantageous on heavier soils. On clays no application is
needed to retain moisture. They are already too wet as a general thing.
Peat, when put into the soil, lasts much longer than stubble, or green
crops plowed in, or than long manure. If buried too deeply, or put into
a heavy soil, especially if in large quantity, it does not decay, but
remains wet, and tends to make a bog of the field itself.
For soils that are rather heavy, it is therefore best to compost the
peat with some rapidly fermenting manure. We thus get a compound which
is quicker than muck, and slower than stable manure, etc., and is
therefore better adapted to the wants of the soil than either of these
would be alone.
Here it will be seen that much depends on the character of the peat
itself. If light and spongy, and easily dried, it may be used alone with
advantage on loamy soils, whereas if dense, and coherent, it would most
likely be a poor amendment on a soil which has much tendency to become
compact, and therefore does not readily free itself from excess of
water.
But even a clay soil, if _thorough-drained and deeply plowed_, may be
wonderfully improved by even a heavy dressing of muck, as then, the
water being let off, the muck can exert no detrimental action; but
operates as effectually to loosen a too heavy soil, as in case of sand,
it makes an over-porous soil compact or retentive. A clay may be made
friable, if well drained, by incorporating with it any substance as
lime, sand, long manure or muck, which interposing between the clayey
particles, prevents their adhering together.
II.--_Noxious ingredients._
a. _Vitriol peat._ Occasionally a peat is met with which is injurious if
applied in the fresh state to crops, from its containing some substance
which exerts a poisonous action on vegetation. The principal detrimental
ingredients that occur in peat, appear to be sulphate of protoxide of
iron,--the same body that is popularly known under the names copperas
and green-vitriol,--and sulphate of alumina, the astringent component of
alum.
I have found these substances ready formed in large quantity in but one
of the peats that I have examined, viz.: that sent me by Mr. Perrin
Scarborough; of Brooklyn, Conn. This peat dissolved in water to the
extent of 15 _per cent._, and the soluble portion, although containing
some organic matter and sulphate of lime, consisted in great part of
green-vitriol.
Portions of this muck, when thrown up to the air, become covered with "a
white crust, having the taste of alum or saltpeter."
The bed containing this peat, though drained, yields but a little poor
bog hay, and the peat itself, even after weathering for a year, when
applied, mixed with one-fifth of stable manure to corn in the hill, gave
no encouraging results, though a fair crop was obtained. It is probable
that the sample analyzed was much richer in salts of iron and alumina,
than the average of the muck.
Green-vitriol in minute doses is not hurtful, but rather beneficial to
vegetation; but in larger quantity it is fatally destructive.
In a salt-marsh mud sent me by the Rev. Wm. Clift, of Stonington, Conn.,
there was found sulphate of iron in considerable quantity.
This noxious substance likewise occurred in small amount in swamp muck
from E. Hoyt, Esq., New Canaan, Conn., and in hardly appreciable
quantity in several others that I have examined. Besides green-vitriol,
it is possible that certain organic salts of iron, may be deleterious.
The poisonous properties of vitriol-peats may be effectually corrected
by composting with lime, or wood-ashes. By the action of these
substances, sulphate of lime, (plaster of Paris) is formed, while the
iron separates as peroxide, which, being insoluble, is without
deleterious effect on vegetation. Where only soluble organic salts of
iron (crenate of iron) are present, simple exposure to the air suffices
to render them innocuous.
b. _The acidity of Peats._--Many writers have asserted that peat and
muck possess a hurtful "acidity" which must be corrected before they can
be usefully employed. It is indeed a fact, that peat consists largely of
acids, but, except perhaps in the vitriol-peats, (those containing
copperas,) they are so insoluble, or if soluble, are so quickly modified
by the absorption of oxygen, that they do not exhibit any "acidity" that
can be deleterious to vegetation. It is advised to neutralize this
supposed acidity by lime or an alkali before using peat as a fertilizer
or amendment, and there is great use in such mixtures of peat with
alkaline matters, as we shall presently notice under the head of
composts.
By the word acidity is conveyed the idea of something hurtful to plants.
This something is, doubtless, in many cases, the salts of iron we have
just noticed. In others, it is simply the inertness, "coldness" of the
peat, which is not positively injurious, but is, for a time at least, of
no benefit to the soil.
c. _Resinous matters_ are mentioned by various writers as injurious
ingredients of peat, but I find no evidence that this notion is
well-founded. The peat or muck formed from the decay of resinous wood
and leaves does not appear to be injurious, and the amount of resin in
peat is exceedingly small.
3.--_The Preparation of Peat for Agricultural use._
a. _Excavation._--As to the time and manner of getting out peat, the
circumstances of each case must determine. I only venture here to offer
a few hints on this subject, which belongs so exclusively to the farm.
The month of August is generally the appropriate time for throwing up
peat, as then the swamps are usually most free from water, and most
accessible to men and teams; but peat is often dug to best advantage in
the winter, not only on account of the cheapness of labor, and from
there being less hurry with other matters on the farm at that season,
but also, because the freezing and thawing of the peat that is thrown
out, greatly aid to disintegrate it and prepare it for use.
A correspondent of The _Homestead_, signing himself "Commentator," has
given directions for getting out peat that are well worth the attention
of farmers. He says:--
"The composting of muck and peat, with our stable and
barn-yard manures, is surely destined to become one of the
most important items in farm management throughout all the
older States at least. One of the difficulties which lie in
the way, is the first removal of the muck from its low and
generally watery bed; to facilitate this, in many locations,
it is less expensive to dry it before carting, by beginning an
excavation at the border of the marsh in autumn, sufficiently
wide for a cart path, throwing the muck out upon the surface
on each side, and on a floor of boards or planks, to prevent
it from absorbing moisture from the wet ground beneath; this
broad ditch to be carried a sufficient length and depth to
obtain the requisite quantity of muck. Thus thrown out, the
two piles are now in a convenient form to be covered with
boards, and, if properly done, the muck kept covered till the
succeeding autumn, will be found to be dry and light, and in
some cases may be carted away on the surface, or it may be
best to let it remain a few months longer until the bottom of
the ditch has become sufficiently frozen to bear a team; it
can then be more easily loaded upon a sled or sleigh, and
drawn to the yards and barn. In other localities, and where
large quantities are wanted, and it lies deep, a sort of
wooden railroad and inclined plane can be constructed by means
of a plank track for the wheels of the cart to run upon, the
team walking between these planks, and if the vehicle is
inclined to 'run off the track,' it may usually be prevented
by scantlings, say four inches thick, nailed upon one of the
tracks on each side of the place where the wheel should run.
Two or more teams and carts may now be employed, returning
into the excavation outside of this track. As the work
progresses, the track can be extended at both ends, and by
continuing or increasing the inclination at the upper end, a
large and high pile may be made, and if kept dry, will answer
for years for composting, and can be easily drawn to the barn
at any time."
b. _Exposure, weathering, or seasoning of peat._--In some cases, the
chief or only use of exposing the thrown-up peat to the action of the
air and weather during several months or a whole year, is to rid it of
the great amount of water which adheres to it, and thus reduce its bulk
and weight previous to cartage.
The general effect of exposure as indicated by my analyses, is to reduce
the amount of matter soluble in water, and cause peats to approach in
this respect a fertile soil, so that instead of containing 2, 4, or 6
_per cent._ of substances soluble in water, as at first, they are
brought to contain but one-half these amounts, or even less. This
change, however, goes on so rapidly after peat is mingled with the soil,
that previous exposure on this account is rarely necessary, and most
peats might be used perfectly fresh but for the difficulty often
experienced, of reducing them to such a state of division as to admit of
proper mixture with the soil.
The coherent peats which may be cut out in tough blocks, must be
weathered, in order that the fibres of moss or grass-roots, which give
them their consistency, may be decomposed or broken to an extent
admitting of easy pulverization by the instruments of tillage.
The subjection of fresh and wet peat to frost, speedily destroys its
coherence and reduces it to the proper state of pulverization. For this
reason, fibrous peat should be exposed when wet to winter weather.
Another advantage of exposure is, to bring the peat into a state of more
active chemical change. Peat, of the deeper denser sorts, is generally
too inert ("sour," cold) to be directly useful to the plant. By exposure
to the air it appears gradually to acquire the properties of the humus
of the soil, or of stable manure, which are vegetable matters, altered
by the same exposure. It appears to become more readily oxidable, more
active, chemically, and thus more capable of exciting or rather aiding
vegetable growth, which, so far as the soil is concerned, is the result
of chemical activities.
Account has been already given of certain peats, which, used fresh, are
accounted equal or nearly equal to stable manure. Others have come under
the writer's notice, which have had little immediate effect when used
before seasoning.
Mr. J. H. Stanwood says of a peat, from Colebrook, Conn., that it "has
been used to some extent as a top-dressing for grass and other crops
with satisfactory results, _although no particular benefit was
noticeable during the first year_. After that, the effects might be seen
for a number of years."
Rev. Wm. Clift observes, concerning a salt peat, from Stonington,
Conn.:--"It has not been used fresh; is too acid; even potatoes do not
yield well _in it the first season_, without manure."
The nature of the chemical changes induced by weathering, is to some
extent understood so far as the nitrogen, the most important fertilizing
element, is concerned. The nitrogen of peat, as we have seen, is mostly
inert, a small portion of it only, existing in a soluble or available
form. By weathering, portions of this nitrogen become converted into
nitric acid. This action goes on at the surface of the heap, where it is
most fully exposed to the air. Below, where the peat is more moist,
ammonia is formed, perhaps simply by the reduction of nitric acid--not
unlikely also, by the transformation of inert nitrogen. On referring to
the analyses given on page 44, it is seen, that the first two samples
contain but little ammonia and no nitric acid. Though it is not stated
what was the condition of these peats, it is probable they had not been
weathered. The other four samples were weathered, and the weathering had
been the more effectual from the large admixture of sand with them. They
yielded to the analyst very considerable quantities of ammonia and
nitrates.
When a peat contains sulphate of protoxide of iron, or soluble organic
salts of iron, to an injurious extent, these may be converted into other
insoluble and innocuous bodies, by a sufficient exposure to the air.
Sulphate of protoxide of iron is thus changed into sulphate of peroxide
of iron, which is insoluble, and can therefore exert no hurtful effect
on vegetation, while the soluble organic bodies of peat are oxydized and
either converted into carbonic acid gas, carbonate of ammonia and water,
or else made insoluble.
It is not probable, however, that merely throwing up a well
characterized vitriol-peat into heaps, and exposing it thus imperfectly
to the atmosphere, is sufficient to correct its bad qualities. Such
peats need the addition of some alkaline body, as ammonia, lime, or
potash, to render them salutary fertilizers.
c. _This brings us to the subject of composting_, which appears to be
the best means of taking full advantage of all the good qualities of
peat, and of obviating or neutralizing the ill results that might follow
the use of some raw peats, either from a peculiarity in their
composition, (soluble organic compounds of iron, sulphate of protoxide
of iron,) or from too great indestructibility. The chemical changes
(oxidation of _iron_ and _organic acids_), which prepare the inert or
even hurtful ingredients of peat to minister to the support of
vegetation, take place most rapidly in presence of certain other
substances.
The substances which rapidly induce chemical change in peats, are of two
kinds, viz.: 1.--animal or vegetable matters that are highly susceptible
to alteration and decay, and 2.--alkalies, either _ammonia_ coming from
the decomposition of animal matters, or _lime_, _potash_ and _soda_.
A great variety of matters may of course be employed for making or
mixing with peat composts; but there are comparatively few which allow
of extensive and economical use, and our notice will be confined to
these.
First of all, the composting of peat with _animal manures_ deserves
attention. Its advantages may be summed up in two statements.
1.--It is an easy and perfect method of economizing all such manures,
even those kinds most liable to loss by fermentation, as night soil and
horse dung; and,
2.--It develops most fully and speedily the inert fertilizing qualities
of the peat itself.
Without attempting any explanation of the changes undergone by a peat
and manure compost, further than to say that the fermentation which
begins in the manure extends to and involves the peat, reducing the
whole nearly, if not exactly, to the condition of well-rotted dung, and
that in this process the peat effectually prevents the loss of nitrogen
as ammonia,--I may appropriately give the practical experience of
farmers who have proved in the most conclusive manner how profitable it
is to devote a share of time and labor to the manufacture of this kind
of compost.
_Preparation of Composts with Stable Manure._--The best plan of
composting is to have a water tight trench, four inches deep and twenty
inches wide, constructed in the stable floor, immediately behind the
cattle, and every morning put a bushel-basketful of muck behind each
animal. In this way the urine is perfectly absorbed by the muck, while
the warmth of the freshly voided excrements so facilitates the
fermentative process, that, according to Mr. F. Holbrook, Brattleboro,
Vt., who has described this method, _much more muck can thus be well
prepared for use_ in the spring, than by any of the ordinary modes of
composting. When the dung and muck are removed from the stable, they
should be well intermixed, and as fast as the compost is prepared, it
should be put into a compact heap, and covered with a layer of muck
several inches thick. It will then hardly require any shelter if used in
the spring.
If the peat be sufficiently dry and powdery, or free from tough lumps,
it may usefully serve as bedding, or litter for horses and cattle, as it
absorbs the urine, and is sufficiently mixed with the dung in the
operation of cleaning the stable. It is especially good in the pig-pen,
where the animals themselves work over the compost in the most thorough
manner, especially if a few kernels of corn be occasionally scattered
upon it.
Mr. Edwin Hoyt, of New Canaan, Conn., writes:--"Our horse stables are
constructed with a movable floor and pit beneath, which holds 20 loads
of muck of 25 bushels per load. Spring and fall, this pit is filled with
fresh muck, which receives all the urine of the horses, and being
occasionally worked over and mixed, furnishes us annually with 40 loads
of the most valuable manure."
"Our stables are sprinkled with muck every morning, at the rate of one
bushel per stall, and the smell of ammonia, etc., so offensive in most
stables, is never perceived in ours. Not only are the stables kept
sweet, but the ammonia is saved by this procedure."
When it is preferred to make the compost out of doors, the plan
generally followed is to lay down a bed of weathered peat, say eight to
twelve inches thick; cover this with a layer of stable dung, of four to
eight inches; put on another stratum of peat, and so, until a heap of
three to four feet is built up. The heap may be six to eight feet wide,
and indefinitely long. It should be finished with a thick coating of
peat, and the manure should be covered as fast as brought out.
The proportions of manure and peat should vary somewhat according to
their quality and characters. Strawy manure, or that from milch-cows,
will "ferment" less peat than clear dung, especially when the latter is
made by horses or highly fed animals. Some kinds of peat heat much
easier than others. There are peats which will ferment of themselves in
warm moist weather--even in the bog, giving off ammonia in perceptible
though small amount. Experience is the only certain guide as to the
relative quantities to be employed, various proportions from one to five
of peat for one of manure, by bulk, being used.
When the land is light and needs amending, as regards its retentive
power, it is best to make the quantity of peat as large as can be
thoroughly fermented by the manure.
The making of a high heap, and the keeping it trim and in shape, is a
matter requiring more labor than is generally necessary. Mr. J. H.
Stanwood, of Colebrook, Conn., writes me:--
"My method of composting is as follows: I draw my muck to the barn-yard,
placing the loads as near together as I can tip them from the cart. Upon
this I spread whatever manure I have at hand, and mix with the feet of
the cattle, and heap up with a scraper."
Peat may be advantageously used to save from waste the droppings of the
yard.