ste, which,
on drying, becomes hard and dense like the pitchy-peat.

The two varieties of peat last named are those which are most prized as
fuel in Europe.

_Vitriol peat_ is peat of any kind impregnated with sulphate of iron
(_copperas_,) and sulphate of alumina, (the astringent ingredient of
alum.)

_Swamp Muck._--In New England, the vegetable remains occurring in
swamps, etc., are commonly called _Muck_. In proper English usage, muck
is a general term for manure of any sort, and has no special application
to the contents of bogs. With us, however, this meaning appears to be
quite obsolete, though in our agricultural literature--formerly, more
than now, it must be admitted,--the word as applied to the subject of
our treatise, has been qualified as _Swamp Muck_.

In Germany, peat of whatever character, is designated by the single word
_Torf_; in France it is _Tourbe_, and of the same origin is the word
_Turf_, applied to it in Great Britain. With us turf appears never to
have had this signification.

Peat, no doubt, is a correct name for the substance which results from
the decomposition of vegetable matters under or saturated with water,
whatever its appearance or properties. There is, however, with us, an
inclination to apply this word particularly to those purer and more
compact sorts which are adapted for fuel, while to the lighter, less
decomposed or more weathered kinds, and to those which are considerably
intermixed with soil or silt, the term muck or swamp muck is given.
These distinctions are not, indeed, always observed, and, in fact, so
great is the range of variation in the quality of the substance, that it
would be impossible to draw a line where muck leaves off and peat
begins. Notwithstanding, a rough distinction is better than none, and
we shall therefore employ the two terms when any greater clearness of
meaning can be thereby conveyed.

It happens, that in New England, the number of small shallow swales,
that contain unripe or impure peat, is much greater than that of large
and deep bogs. Their contents are therefore more of the "mucky" than of
the "peaty" order, and this may partly account for New England usage in
regard to these old English words.

By the term muck, some farmers understand leaf-mold (decayed leaves),
especially that which collects in low and wet places. When the deposit
is deep and saturated with water, it may have all the essential
characters of peat. Ripe peat, from such