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, Jæckel 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.