h pile may be made, and if kept dry, will answer
for years for composting, and can be easily drawn to the barn
at any time."

b. _Exposure, weathering, or seasoning of peat._--In some cases, the
chief or only use of exposing the thrown-up peat to the action of the
air and weather during several months or a whole year, is to rid it of
the great amount of water which adheres to it, and thus reduce its bulk
and weight previous to cartage.

The general effect of exposure as indicated by my analyses, is to reduce
the amount of matter soluble in water, and cause peats to approach in
this respect a fertile soil, so that instead of containing 2, 4, or 6
_per cent._ of substances soluble in water, as at first, they are
brought to contain but one-half these amounts, or even less. This
change, however, goes on so rapidly after peat is mingled with the soil,
that previous exposure on this account is rarely necessary, and most
peats might be used perfectly fresh but for the difficulty often
experienced, of reducing them to such a state of division as to admit of
proper mixture with the soil.

The coherent peats which may be cut out in tough blocks, must be
weathered, in order that the fibres of moss or grass-roots, which give
them their consistency, may be decomposed or broken to an extent
admitting of easy pulverization by the instruments of tillage.

The subjection of fresh and wet peat to frost, speedily destroys its
coherence and reduces it to the proper state of pulverization. For this
reason, fibrous peat should be exposed when wet to winter weather.

Another advantage of exposure is, to bring the peat into a state of more
active chemical change. Peat, of the deeper denser sorts, is generally
too inert ("sour," cold) to be directly useful to the plant. By exposure
to the air it appears gradually to acquire the properties of the humus
of the soil, or of stable manure, which are vegetable matters, altered
by the same exposure. It appears to become more readily oxidable, more
active, chemically, and thus more capable of exciting or rather aiding
vegetable growth, which, so far as the soil is concerned, is the result
of chemical activities.

Account has been already given of certain peats, which, used fresh, are
accounted equal or nearly equal to stable manure. Others have come under
the writer's notice, which have had little immediate effect when used
before seasoning.

Mr. J. H. Stanwood says of a peat, from Co