In the reclamation of hog land three things require to he accomplished. The land most he thoroughly drained, and a permanent system of drainage established. The loose and spongy soil must be mixed with a sufficient quantity of mineral matter to give the requisite firm ness to its texture, and to fertilize its super abundant humus. Proper manures must be provided to facilitate the extraction of nutri ment from the new soil, and a rotation of crops suitable for bringing it into permanent condi tion adopted. The difficulties of reclamation lie .chiefly in the first and second of these requirements.
The materials best adapted for reclaiming peat are calcareous earths, limestone gravel, shell marl and shell sand. Caustic lime, al though it neutralizes the acids of the soil, causes too rapid a decomposition of the vege table matter. These materials are frequently found in the subsoil or in the neighborhood, but the labor of raising them from the subsoil is often greater than that of bringing them from other quarters.
Paring and burning, or removing a por tion of the peat for fuel, when the subsoil is good, are other modes of facilitating improve ment. The limited demand for peat fuel pre vents the latter system being carried on exten sively. Thoroughly reclaimed bogs are not liable to revert to their former condition. (For further particulars see CHATMOSS). It was probably in bogs of a nature similar to those above described that much of our coal was formed.
or names for the bittern (q.v.).
a fatty spermaceti-like substance found in masses in peat-bogs, com posed of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, and for years supposed to have been formed by the decomposition of peat. In 1885 Macadam proved that it is of animal origin, as all of the samples analyzed showed the presence of hairs identical with those of a cow; the substance being, in fact, a variety of adipocere formed by the decomposition of animal substances out of contact with the air. It becomes liquid at 123.8° F.