MOOR, a name given to extensive wastes which are covered with heath, and the soil of which consists of poor light earth, mixed gene rally with a considerable portion of peat. The want of fertility in moors arises chiefly from a deficiency or superabundance of moisture, the subsoil being either too porous to retain it, or too impervious to allow it to escape. Both extremes occur in some moors, which are parched up in dry weather, and converted into a dark mud by any continuance of rain. A considerable portion of iron in• a state of hydrate is also generally found in the soil of moors, which is very hurtful to the vegetation of plants, except heath, fume, and other coarse plants, which almost entirely cover the moors. This iron is carried down through the light surface-soil, and, if it meets with a less pormia earth below, is frequently deposited in a thin layer, cementing the particles of officious sand, which are carried down with it, and forming what is called the heath-pan or tnoor.band. This substance is perfectly impervious to water, and wherever it exists in a continuous state, all attempts at improvement are vain, till it is broken through or removed. The roots of trees occasionally find a passage through inter stices or fractures of the pan, and then often grow luxuriantly. But wherever young trees are planted, without the precaution of breakipg through the moor•band, they invariably fail, and disappoint the expecta tions of the planter, who, seeing fine large trees growing around, naturally imagined that the soil was peculiarly fitted for them. If the stump of a large tree, which has been cut down, is grubbed up, pieces of the moor-band may often be seen all around the stem, at a short depth below the surface, so arranged as to ebow evidently that the tap root, having found an aperture, and extending its fibres downwards into a better soil, has, in swelling, broken the pan and pushed it aside. When the moor consists of a loose peaty earth of Little depth incum bent on a rock, as is the case in many mountainous countries, no art can fertilise it. In dry weather the whole surface has the appearance
of a brown powder like snuff, which becomes a spongy peat as soon as it is soaked with rain. The hardiest heaths and mosses alone can bear this alternation ; and where the substratum of rock is not broken into crevices through which the roots penetrate, all vegetation ceases except melees and lichens.
In the valleys, where the waters have brought various earths mixed with decayed vegetable matter from the surrounding hills, the sub stance deposited Is mostly peat, which is useful as fuel in proportion to the quantity of bitumen and carbon which it contains. When the peaty matter is mixed with a considerable portion of clay and sand, forming a peaty loam, and a convenient outlet can be found for the superabundant water, It is very capable of Improvement, chiefly by draining, burning, and liming. [BARREN LAND.] As soon as the heath Is destroyed by burning it together with a portion of the surface, and the peat-bog has acquired a certain consistency by draining, the application of lime will enable it to produce potatoes and pats, and the peaty matter will soon be converted into a rich soil, abounding in humus, and requiring only repeated cultivation to become extremely fertile. [PEAT.] Much judgment is required to know whether a con siderable capital may be safely laid out in the improvement of moors• In some cases the return is certain and very considerable ; in others the capital is entirely thrown away. Sometimes extensive moors have been converted into flourishing farms of arable and grass land, as in many parts of Scotland and the north of Englaud; sometimes they have been most advantageously planted with forest-trees, and, where there is a great extent of waste and a scanty population, this is gene rally the most certain mode of improving a property, although the return is slow and distant.