The fertilizing value of peat is best understood by comparing it with some standard manure. Stable manure is obviously that fertilizer whose effects are most universally observed and appreciated, and by setting analyses of the two side by side, we may see at a glance, what are the excellencies and what the deficiencies of peat. In order rightly to estimate the worth of those ingredients which occur in but small proportion in peat, we must remember that it, like stable manure, may be, and usually should be, applied in large doses, so that in fact the smallest ingredients come upon an acre in considerable quantity. In making our comparison, we will take the analysis of Peat from the farm of Mr. Daniel Buck, Jr., of Poquonock, Conn., and the average of several analyses of rotted stable dung of _good quality_. No. _I_, is the analysis of Peat; No. _II_, that of well rotted stable manure:-- _I._ _II._ Water expelled at 212 degrees. 79.000 79.00 {Soluble in dilute solution } Org. { of carbonate of soda. 7.312 } Matter. {Insoluble in solution } 14.16 { of carbonate of soda. 12.210 } Potash. 0.010 0.65 Soda. 0.009 Lime. 0.608 0.57 Magnesia. 0.091 0.19 Phosphoric acid. 0.008 0.23 Sulphuric acid. 0.082 0.27 Nitrogen. 0.600 0.55 Matters, soluble in water. 0.450 4.42 To make the comparison as just as possible, the peat is calculated with the same content of water, that stable dung usually has. We observe then, that the peat contains in a given quantity, _about one-third more organic matter, an equal amount of lime and nitrogen_; but is _deficient in potash, magnesia, phosphoric and sulphuric acids_. The deficiencies of this peat in the matter of composition may be corrected, as regards potash, by adding to 100 lbs. of it 1 lb. of potash of commerce, or 5 lbs. of unleached wood-ashes; as regards phosphoric and sulphuric acids, by adding 1 lb. of good superphosphate, or 1 lb. each of bone dust and plaster of Paris. In fact, the additions just named, will convert _any fresh peat_, containing not more than 80 _per cent._ of water and not less than 20 _per cent._ of organic matter, into a mixture having as much fertilizing matters as stable dung, with the possible exception of nitrogen. It is a fact, however, that two manures may reveal to the chemist the same composition, and yet be very unlike in their fertilizing effects, because their conditions are unlike, because they differ in their degrees of solubility or availability.