Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/440

Rh 404 AGRICULTUKE [IMPROVEMENT OF reclamation has proved a very profitable speculation. The well-known instance of Chat Moss in Lancashire affords so interesting an example of this that we shall here quote a description of it. &quot;Chat Moss, well known as that black barren swamp between Liverpool and Manchester, contains 6000 acres, one-half of which is in the township of Barton, and the remainder in the townships of Bedford, Astley, and Worsley. &quot; The principal part of this moss, which lies in Barton township, belongs to the Trafford family, and is entailed, but the ancestor of the present Sir Thomas de Trafford appears to have obtained, at the latter end of the last century, an Act of Parliament to grant a ninety-nine years lease of 2500 acres to a Mr Wakefield, who about the year 1805 disposed of his interest in it to the late &quot;William Roscoe, of literary celebrity, who spent a large sum in a fruitless endeavour to improve it, failing in which, the lease was sold in 1821 to other parties. J. A. Brown, Esq., of &quot;Woolden Hall, bought 1300 acres ; the late Edward Baines, M.P. for Leeds, purchased the remaining 1200 acres. The most extensive and successful efforts at improving this moss have been made on a part of the 1200 acres bought by Mr Baines, who, besides occupying the part operated upon by Mr Roscoe, improved a considerable breadth himself, and let several portions to other parties, who have made considerable progress in improving small portions. The most extensive opera tions, however, upon the whole, have been carried out by a company to whom Mr Baines, in 1828, granted a lease of 550 acres for 68 years, the remainder of the original term, at a nominal rent for the first year, increasing gradually till at the end of five years the rent attained its maximum of 165 per annum for the 550 acres. This company, which was formed at the time the Liverpool and Man chester Railway was in progress of being made on the property, consisted, amongst others, of some practical farmers, and originated with William Reed, who for the three first yea)-s was the manager, and resided on this farm, which they called Barton Moss farm. During that period I had the pleasure of paying my friend Reed a visit, and of witnessing the skill and success attending his enterprise and various experiments. &quot; The first operation, that of draining, had been effected by open ing side drains at intervals of fifty yards, into which were laid covered ones six yards apart, at right angles with and emptying into the open side drains. &quot; The moss being in a semi-fluid state, it was necessary to proceed slowly with draining, taking out only one graft or depth at a time, allowing it to remain a week or a month, according to the state of the weather, before taking out the second graft ; this admitted of the sides becoming consolidated, and of the second graft being taken out without the moss closing in. It was again allowed to remain as before till sufficiently diy to admit of the third being removed. The open drains were made 3 feet wide and 3 feet 6 inches deep, and the covered drains 16 inches wide and 3 feet deep ; the last graft of the latter being only about 6 inches wide at the top, tapering to 4 inches at the bottom, and being taken out of the middle of the cut, left a shoulder on each side. The sod or graft first taken out had by this time become tough and dry, and was placed, with the heath side downwards, in the shoulder, thus leaving the narrow spit at the bottom open for a depth of about 14 inches ; the other square sod being put on the top, completed the drain.&quot; The cost of this mode of draining, including the side drains, was about 38s. per acre. The drains first put in required to be renewed in a few years, in consequence of the moss becoming so much consolidated and reduced in height that the plough, as well as the horses feet, broke through the roof, although the horses were shod with pattens, or boards of about 10 inches square, with the angles taken off. The second draining, however, was more perma nent, and would probably not have required renewing for many years but for the moles, which have been very troublesome in working down to the drains, and filling them up in various places ; so that the operation of draining has required to be partially renewed in every field, and in many of them entirely so ; and thus these little animals have been the cause of a very considerable increase in the cost of labour. It has subsequently been found advisable to put the under drains in at 4 yards, instead of 6 yards asunder, and the advantage in one crop has been quite sufficient to pay the extra cost. A two-horse engine was erected, which drives the thrashing-machine, straw-cutter, and crushing-mill ; and the escape-steam from it steams the horses food. &quot;The buildings were erected principally of timber, covered with asphalted felt. &quot;After draining, making roads, and burning off the heath plant, the land was scarified lengthwise of the fields by an implement with knives shaped like coulters, reversed, sharp on the convex side, fixed in two bars, and drawn by three horses yoked abreast. &quot; The tough surface was by this means cut at every four inches ; the land was then ploughed across the scarifying ; a roller, sur rounded with knives, was next passed across the plough ; after this the land was well harrowed till sufficiently reduced. &quot;From 60 to 100 cubic yards of marl were put on an acre, and in the following summer the land was manured, also by means of the movable railway, at the rate of fifty tons of black Manchester manure per acre, and planted with potatoes, which were followed by wheat, sown with red clover and ryegrass, for mowing for one or two years ; then oats and potatoes, &c., as before. These weie all flourishing crops ; the wheat in particular looked bright and beautiful. The potatoes were sold for 25 and 30 per acre, which more than paid the whole cost of improvement. Mr John Bell, resident bailiff, has made many valuable experiments relative to the improvement of raw moss, one of which has resulted in a dis covery likely to be of considerable importance, which is, that a mixture of lime and salt applied a while before seeding, with the addition of a good dressing of guano, in the proportion of four tons of lime and five cwt. of salt per acre, qualifies it to produce a crop of potatoes or oats equal to that after the application of 60 yards of marl per acre. It is essential that the mixture should be spread while it is hot. Mr Evens (one of the proprietors) is con vinced that the peat on the surface ought never to be burned ; he has always found that, when the heath sod is turned down to decay, much better crops have been obtained than when it has been burnt oft&quot;, or than when the top has been taken away either for fuel or other purposes. What are termed moss-fallows, that is, parts which have had the moss taken off for fuel, will never bear so good a crop as the upper surface, however deep the moss may be underneath. &quot; (Notes on the Agriculture of Lancashire, with Suggestions for its Improvement, by Jonathan Binns.) About a century ago, Lord Kames, on becoming pro prietor of the estate of Blair-Drummoncl, in the county of Perth, began the improvement of a large tract of worth less moss by a totally different process from that now detailed. In this case the moss had accumulated upon a good alluvial clay soil. Instead, therefore, of attempts being made to improve the moss itself, it was floated off piecemeal into the neighbouring Firth of Forth. The supply of water required for this purpose was obtained from the river Teith, from which it was raised to the requisite height by a powerful water-wheel. Being conveyed through the moss in channels, successive layers of peat were dug and thrown into these channels,which were shifted as occasion required, until the whole inert mass was removed. A. thin stratum next the clay was burnt, and the ashes used as manure. An immense extent of moss has thus been got rid of on that estate and on others in the neighbourhood, and &quot;an extensive tract of country, where formerly only a few snipes and muir-fowl could find subsistence, has been converted, as if by magic, into a rich and fertile carse of alluvial soil, worth from 3 to 5 per acre.&quot; Section 4. Reclaiming of Fen Lands. We next notice the fen lands of England. &quot; In popular language, the word fen designates all low wet lands, whether peat-bog, river alluvium, or salt marsh ; but in the great Bedford level, which, extending itself in Cambridge shire and five adjoining counties, is the largest tract of fen land in the kingdom, the farmer always distinguishes, and it is thought conveniently and correctly, between fen land and marsh land. By the former they mean land partly alluvial and formed by river floods, and partly accumulated by the growth of peat. Such lands are almost invariably of a black colour, and contain a great percentage of carbon. By marsh lands they mean low tracts gained from the sea, either by the gradual silting up of estuaries or by artificial embankments.&quot; Low-lying peat occurs in small patches in nearly every maritime county of Britain, being usually separated from the sea or from estuaries by salt marsh or alluvium. There is a large extent of such land in Somerset shire yet but partially drained, and a still larger breadth in Lancashire, where its improvement makes steady pro gress. In Kent, on the seaboard of Norfolk, on both shores of the Humber, and stretching along the sides of its tribu taries, there are immense tracts of this description of land. But these are all exceeded in importance by the &quot; great level of the fens, which occupies the south-eastern quarter of Lincolnshire, the northern half of Cambridgeshire, and