Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and Fuel

by Samuel W. Johnson

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.