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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and Fuel, by 
+Samuel William Johnson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and Fuel
+
+Author: Samuel William Johnson
+
+Release Date: July 28, 2008 [EBook #26142]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEAT AND ITS USES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven Giacomelli, Barbara Kosker, Jeannie
+Howse and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+produced by Core Historical Literature in Agriculture
+(CHLA), Cornell University)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  PEAT AND ITS USES,
+
+  AS
+
+  FERTILIZER AND FUEL.
+
+
+
+  BY
+
+  SAMUEL W. JOHNSON, A. M.,
+
+  PROFESSOR OF ANALYTICAL AND AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY, YALE COLLEGE.
+
+
+
+  FULLY ILLUSTRATED.
+
+
+
+  NEW-YORK:
+  ORANGE JUDD & COMPANY.
+  245 BROADWAY.
+
+
+
+
+  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
+
+  ORANGE JUDD & CO.,
+
+  At the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
+  for the Southern District of New-York.
+
+
+
+  LOVEJOY & SON,
+  ELECTROTYPERS AND STEREOTYPERS
+  15 Vandewater street N. Y.
+
+
+
+
+  TO MY FATHER,
+
+  MY EARLIEST AND BEST
+
+  INSTRUCTOR IN RURAL AFFAIRS,
+
+  THIS VOLUME
+
+  IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED.
+
+  S. W. J.
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS.
+
+  Introduction                                                         vii
+
+  PART I.--ORIGIN, VARIETIES, AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERS OF PEAT.
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+  1. What is Peat?                                                       9
+  2. Conditions of its Formation                                         9
+  3. Different Kinds of Peat                                            14
+        Swamp Muck                                                      17
+        Salt Mud                                                        18
+  4. Chemical Characters and Composition of Peat                        18
+     a. Organic or combustible part                                     19
+        Ulmic and Humic Acids                                           19
+        Ulmin and Humin--Crenic and Apocrenic Acids                     20
+        Ulmates and Humates                                             21
+        Crenates and Apocrenates                                        22
+        Gein and Geic Acid--Elementary Composition of Peat              23
+        Ultimate Composition of the Constituents of Peat                25
+     b. Mineral Part--Ashes                                             25
+  5. Chemical Changes that occur in the Formation of Peat               26
+
+
+  PART II.--ON THE AGRICULTURAL USES OF PEAT AND SWAMP MUCK.
+
+  1. Characters that adapt Peat for Agricultural Use                    28
+     A. Physical or Amending Characters                                 28
+        I. Absorbent Power for Water, as Liquid and Vapor               31
+        II.   "        "   for Ammonia                                  32
+        III. Influence in Disintegrating the Soil                       34
+        IV. Influence on the Temperature of Soils                       37
+     B. Fertilizing Characters                                          38
+        I. Fertilizing Effects of the Organic Matters, excluding
+           Nitrogen                                                     38
+           1. Organic Matters as Direct Food to Plants                  38
+           2. Organic Matters as Indirect Food to Plants                40
+           3. Nitrogen, including Ammonia and Nitric Acid               42
+        II. Fertilizing Effects of the Ashes of Peat                    46
+        III. Peculiarities in the Decay of Peat                         50
+        IV. Comparison of Peat with Stable Manure                       51
+    2. Characters of Peat that are detrimental, or that need
+       correction                                                       54
+        I. Possible Bad Effects on Heavy Soils                          54
+        II. Noxious Ingredients                                         55
+           a. Vitriol Peats                                             55
+           b. Acidity--c. Resinous Matters                              57
+    3. Preparation of Peat for Agricultural Use                         57
+           a. Excavation                                                57
+           b. Exposure, or Seasoning                                    59
+           c. Composting                                                62
+              Compost with Stable Manure                                63
+                 "     "   Night Soil                                   68
+                 "     "   Guano                                        69
+                 "     "   Fish and other Animal Matters                70
+                 "     "   Potash-lye & Soda-ash; Wood-ashes,
+                           Shell-marl, Lime                             72
+                 "     "   Salt and Lime Mixture                        73
+                 "     "   Carbonate of Lime, Mortar, etc               75
+    4. The Author's Experiments with Peat Composts                      77
+    5. Examination of Peat with reference to its Agricultural Value     81
+    6. Composition of Connecticut Peats                                 84
+       Method of Analysis                                               86
+       Tables of Composition                                      88-89-90
+
+
+  PART III.--ON PEAT AS FUEL
+
+    1. Kinds of Peat that Make the Best Fuel                            92
+    2. Density of Peat                                                  95
+    3. Heating Power of Peat as Compared with Wood and Anthracite       96
+    4. Modes of Burning Peat                                           102
+    5. Burning of Broken Peat                                          103
+    6. Hygroscopic Water of Peat-fuel                                  104
+    7. Shrinkage                                                       105
+    8. Time of Excavation and Drying                                   105
+    9. Drainage                                                        106
+   10. Cutting of Peat for Fuel--a. Preparations for Cutting           107
+       b. Cutting by Hand; with Common Spade; German Peat Knife        108
+             "    with Irish Slane--System employed in East
+          Friesland                                                    109
+       c. Machines for Cutting Peat; Brosowsky's Machine; Lepreux's
+          Machine                                                      113
+   11. Dredging of Peat                                                115
+   12. Moulding of Peat                                                116
+   13. Preparation of Peat-fuel by Machinery, etc                      116
+       A. Condensation by Pressure                                     116
+          a. Of Fresh Peat                                             116
+                   Mannhardt's Method                                  117
+                   The Neustadt Method                                 119
+          b. Of Air-dried Peat--Lithuanian Process                     120
+          c. Of Hot-dried Peat--Gwynne's Method; Exter's Method        121
+              Elsberg's Process                                         125
+       B. Condensation without Pressure                                127
+          a. Of Earthy Peat                                            128
+             Challeton's Method, at Mennecy, France                    128
+                 "         "        Langenberg, Prussia                130
+             Roberts'      "        Pekin, N. Y.                       132
+             Siemens'      "        Boeblingen, Wirtemberg             134
+          b. Condensation of Fibrous Peat--Weber's Method; Hot-drying  135
+             Gysser's Method and Machine                               140
+          c. Condensation of Peat of all Kinds--Schlickeysen's
+             Machine                                                   144
+             Leavitt's Peat Mill, Lexington, Mass                      146
+             Ashcroft & Betteley's Machine                             148
+             Versmann's Machine, Great Britain                         150
+             Buckland's    "          "                                151
+   14. Artificial Drying of Peat                                       152
+   15. Peat Coal                                                       157
+   16. Metallurgical Uses of Peat                                      162
+   17. Peat as a Source of Illuminating Gas                            165
+   18. Examination of Peat with regard to its Value as Fuel            167
+
+
+
+
+  INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+In the years 1857 and 1858, the writer, in the capacity of Chemist to
+the State Agricultural Society of Connecticut, was commissioned to make
+investigations into the agricultural uses of the deposits of peat or
+swamp muck which are abundant in this State; and, in 1858, he submitted
+a Report to Henry A. Dyer, Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the Society,
+embodying his conclusions. In the present work the valuable portions of
+that Report have been recast, and, with addition of much new matter,
+form Parts I. and II. The remainder of the book, relating to the
+preparation and employment of peat for fuel, &c., is now for the first
+time published, and is intended to give a faithful account of the
+results of the experience that has been acquired in Europe, during the
+last twenty-five years, in regard to the important subject of which it
+treats.
+
+The employment of peat as an amendment and absorbent for agricultural
+purposes has proved to be of great advantage in New-England farming.
+
+It is not to be doubted, that, as fuel, it will be even more valuable
+than as a fertilizer. Our peat-beds, while they do not occupy so much
+territory as to be an impediment and a reproach to our country, as they
+have been to Ireland, are yet so abundant and so widely
+distributed--occurring from the Atlantic to the Missouri, along and
+above the 40th parallel, and appearing on our Eastern Coast at least as
+far South as North Carolina[1]--as to present, at numberless points,
+material, which, sooner or later, will serve us most usefully when other
+fuel has become scarce and costly.
+
+The high prices which coal and wood have commanded for several years
+back have directed attention to peat fuel; and, such is the adventurous
+character of American enterprise, it cannot be doubted that we shall
+rapidly develop and improve the machinery for producing it. As has
+always been the case, we shall waste a vast deal of time and money in
+contriving machines that violate every principle of mechanism and of
+economy; but the results of European invention furnish a safe basis from
+which to set out, and we have among us the genius and the patience that
+shall work out the perfect method.
+
+It may well be urged that a good degree of caution is advisable in
+entering upon the peat enterprise. In this country we have exhaustless
+mines of the best coal, which can be afforded at a very low rate, with
+which other fuel must compete. In Germany, where the best methods of
+working peat have originated, fuel is more costly than here; and a
+universal and intense economy there prevails, of which we, as a people,
+have no conception.
+
+If, as the Germans themselves admit, the peat question there is still a
+nice one as regards the test of dollars and cents, it is obvious, that,
+for a time, we must "hasten slowly." It is circumstances that make peat,
+and gold as well, remunerative or otherwise; and these must be well
+considered in each individual case. Peat is the name for a material that
+varies extremely in its quality, and this quality should be investigated
+carefully before going to work upon general deductions.
+
+In my account of the various processes for working peat by machinery,
+such data as I have been able to find have been given as to cost of
+production. These data are however very imperfect, and not altogether
+trustworthy, in direct application to American conditions. The cheapness
+of labor in Europe is an item to our disadvantage in interpreting
+foreign estimates. I incline to the belief that this is more than offset
+among us by the quality of our labor, by the energy of our
+administration, by the efficiency of our overseeing, and, especially, by
+our greater skill in the adaptation of mechanical appliances. While
+counselling caution, I also recommend enterprise in developing our
+resources in this important particular; knowing full well, however, that
+what I can say in its favor will scarcely add to the impulse already
+apparent among my countrymen.
+
+SAMUEL W. JOHNSON.
+
+_Sheffield Scientific School_,}
+_Yale College, June, 1866._   }
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The great Dismal Swamp is a grand peat bog, and doubtless other of
+the swamps of the coast, as far south as Florida and the Gulf, are of
+the same character.
+
+
+
+
+PART I.
+
+THE ORIGIN, VARIETIES, AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERS
+OF PEAT.
+
+1. _What is Peat?_
+
+By the general term Peat, we understand the organic matter or vegetable
+soil of bogs, swamps, beaver-meadows and salt-marshes.
+
+It consists of substances that have resulted from the decay of many
+generations of aquatic or marsh plants, as mosses, sedges, coarse
+grasses, and a great variety of shrubs, mixed with more or less mineral
+substances, derived from these plants, or in many cases blown or washed
+in from the surrounding lands.
+
+2. _The conditions under which Peat is formed._
+
+In this country the production of Peat from fallen and decaying plants,
+depends upon the presence of so much water as to cover or saturate the
+vegetable matters, and thereby hinder the full access of air. Saturation
+with water also has the effect to maintain the decaying matters at a
+low temperature, and by these two causes in combination, the process of
+decay is made to proceed with great slowness, and the solid products of
+such slow decay, are compounds that themselves resist decay, and hence
+they accumulate.
+
+In the United States there appears to be nothing like the extensive
+_moors_ or _heaths_, that abound in Ireland, Scotland, the north of
+England, North Germany, Holland, and the elevated plains of Bavaria,
+which are mostly level or gently sloping tracts of country, covered with
+peat or turf to a depth often of 20, and sometimes of 40, or more, feet.
+In this country it is only in low places, where streams become
+obstructed and form swamps, or in bays and inlets on salt water, where
+the flow of the tide furnishes the requisite moisture, that our
+peat-beds occur. If we go north-east as far as Anticosti, Labrador, or
+Newfoundland, we find true moors. In these regions have been found a few
+localities of the _Heather_ (_Calluna vulgaris_), which is so
+conspicuous a plant on the moors of Europe, but which is wanting in the
+peat-beds of the United States.
+
+In the countries above named, the weather is more uniform than here, the
+air is more moist, and the excessive heat of our summers is scarcely
+known. Such is the greater humidity of the atmosphere that the
+bog-mosses,--the so-called _Sphagnums_,--which have a wonderful avidity
+for moisture, (hence used for packing plants which require to be kept
+moist on journeys), are able to keep fresh and in growth during the
+entire summer. These mosses decay below, and throw out new vegetation
+above, and thus produce a bog, especially wherever the earth is springy.
+It is in this way that in those countries, moors and peat-bogs actually
+grow, increasing in depth and area, from year to year, and raise
+themselves above the level of the surrounding country.
+
+Prof. Marsh informs the writer that he has seen in Ireland, near the
+north-west coast, a granite hill, capped with a peat-bed, several feet
+in thickness. In the Bavarian highlands similar cases have been
+observed, in localities where the atmosphere and the ground are kept
+moist enough for the growth of moss by the extraordinary prevalence of
+fogs. Many of the European moors rise more or less above the level of
+their borders towards the centre, often to a height of 10 or 20 and
+sometimes of 30 feet. They are hence known in Germany as _high_ moors
+(_Hochmoore_) to distinguish from the level or dishing _meadow-moors_,
+(_Wiesenmoore_). The peat-producing vegetation of the former is chiefly
+moss and heather, of the latter coarse grasses and sedges.
+
+In Great Britain the reclamation of a moor is usually an expensive
+operation, for which not only much draining, but actual cutting out and
+burning of the compact peat is necessary.
+
+The warmth of our summers and the dryness of our atmosphere prevent the
+accumulation of peat above the highest level of the standing water of
+our marshes, and so soon as the marshes are well drained, the peat
+ceases to form, and in most cases the swamp may be easily converted into
+good meadow land.
+
+Springy hill-sides, which in cooler, moister climates would become
+moors, here dry up in summer to such an extent that no peat can be
+formed upon them.
+
+As already observed, our peat is found in low places. In many instances
+its accumulation began by the obstruction of a stream. To that
+remarkable creature, the beaver, we owe many of our peat-bogs. These
+animals, from time immemorial, have built their dams across rivers so as
+to flood the adjacent forest. In the rich leaf-mold at the water's
+verge, and in the cool shade of the standing trees, has begun the growth
+of the sphagnums, sedges, and various purely aquatic plants. These in
+their annual decay have shortly filled the shallow borders of the
+stagnating water, and by slow encroachments, going on through many
+years, they have occupied the deeper portions, aided by the trees,
+which, perishing, give their fallen branches and trunks, towards
+completing the work. The trees decay and fall, and become entirely
+converted into peat; or, as not unfrequently happens, especially in case
+of resinous woods, preserve their form, and to some extent their
+soundness.
+
+In a similar manner, ponds and lakes are encroached upon; or, if
+shallow, entirely filled up by peat deposits. In the Great Forest of
+Northern New York, the voyager has abundant opportunity to observe the
+formation of peat-swamps, both as a result of beaver dams, and of the
+filling of shallow ponds, or the narrowing of level river courses. The
+formation of peat in water of some depth greatly depends upon the growth
+of aquatic plants, other than those already mentioned. In our Eastern
+States the most conspicuous are the Arrow-head, (_Sagittaria_); the
+Pickerel Weed, (_Pontederia_;) Duck Meat, (_Lemna_;) Pond Weed,
+(_Potamogeton_;) various _Polygonums_, brothers of Buckwheat and
+Smart-weed; and especially the Pond Lilies, _(Nymphoea_ and _Nuphar_.)
+The latter grow in water four or five feet deep, their leaves and long
+stems are thick and fleshy, and their roots, which fill the oozy mud,
+are often several inches in diameter. Their decaying leaves and stems,
+and their huge roots, living or dead, accumulate below and gradually
+raise the bed of the pond. Their living foliage which often covers the
+water almost completely for acres, becomes a shelter or support for
+other more delicate aquatic plants and sphagnums, which, creeping out
+from the shore, may so develop as to form a floating carpet, whereon the
+leaves of the neighboring wood, and dust scattered by the wind collect,
+bearing down the mass, which again increases above, or is reproduced
+until the water is filled to its bottom with vegetable matter.
+
+It is not rare to find in our bogs, patches of moss of considerable area
+concealing deep water with a treacherous appearance of solidity, as the
+hunter and botanist have often found to their cost. In countries of more
+humid atmosphere, they are more common and attain greater dimensions. In
+Zealand the surfaces of ponds are so frequently covered with floating
+beds of moss, often stout enough to bear a man, that they have there
+received a special name "_Hangesak_." In the Russian Ural, there occur
+lakes whose floating covers of moss often extend five or six feet above
+the water, and are so firm that roads are made across them, and forests
+of large fir-trees find support. These immense accumulations are in fact
+floating moors, consisting entirely of peat, save the living vegetation
+at the surface.
+
+Sometimes these floating peat-beds, bearing trees, are separated by
+winds from their connection with the shore, and become swimming peat
+islands. In a small lake near Eisenach, in Central Germany, is a
+swimming island of this sort. Its diameter is 40 rods, and it consists
+of a felt-like mass of peat, three to five feet in depth, covered above
+by sphagnums and a great variety of aquatic plants. A few birches and
+dwarf firs grow in this peat, binding it together by their roots, and
+when the wind blows, they act as sails, so that the island is constantly
+moving about upon the lake.
+
+On the Neusiedler lake, in Hungary, is said to float a peat island
+having an area of six square miles, and on lakes of the high Mexican
+Plateau are similar islands which, long ago, were converted in fruitful
+gardens.
+
+3. _The different kinds of Peat._
+
+Very great differences in the characters of the deposits in our
+peat-beds are observable. These differences are partly of color, some
+peats being gray, others red, others again black; the majority, when
+dry, possess a dark brown-red or snuff color. They also vary remarkably
+in weight and consistency. Some are compact, destitute of fibres or
+other traces of the vegetation from which they have been derived, and on
+drying, shrink greatly and yield tough dense masses which burn readily,
+and make an excellent fuel. Others again are light and porous, and
+remain so on drying; these contain intermixed vegetable matter that is
+but little advanced in the peaty decomposition. Some peats are almost
+entirely free from mineral matters, and on burning, leave but a few _per
+cent._ of ash, others contain considerable quantities of lime or iron,
+in chemical combination, or of sand and clay that have been washed in
+from the hills adjoining the swamps. As has been observed, the peat of
+some swamps is mostly derived from mosses, that of others originates
+largely from grasses; some contain much decayed wood and leaves, others
+again are free from these.
+
+In the same swamp we usually observe more or less of all these
+differences. We find the surface peat is light and full of partly
+decayed vegetation, while below, the deposits are more compact. We
+commonly can trace distinct strata or layers of peat, which are often
+very unlike each other in appearance and quality, and in some cases the
+light and compact layers alternate so that the former are found below
+the latter.
+
+The light and porous kinds of peat appear in general to be formed in
+shallow swamps or on the surface of bogs, where there is considerable
+access of air to the decaying matters, while the compacter, older, riper
+peats are found at a depth, and seem to have been formed beneath the
+low water mark, in more complete exclusion of the atmosphere, and under
+a considerable degree of pressure.
+
+The nature of the vegetation that flourishes in a bog, has much effect
+on the character of the peat. The peats chiefly derived from mosses that
+have grown in the full sunlight, have a yellowish-red color in their
+upper layers, which usually becomes darker as we go down, running
+through all shades of brown until at a considerable depth it is black.
+Peats produced principally from grasses are grayish in appearance at the
+surface, being full of silvery fibres--the skeletons of the blades of
+grasses and sedges, while below they are commonly black.
+
+_Moss peat_ is more often fibrous in structure, and when dried forms
+somewhat elastic masses. _Grass peat_, when taken a little below the
+surface, is commonly destitute of fibres; when wet, is earthy in its
+look, and dries to dense hard lumps.
+
+Where mosses and grasses have grown together simultaneously in the same
+swamp, the peat is modified in its characters accordingly. Where, as may
+happen, grass succeeds moss, or moss succeeds grass, the different
+layers reveal their origin by their color and texture. At considerable
+depths, however, where the peat is very old, these differences nearly or
+entirely disappear.
+
+The geological character of a country is not without influence on the
+kind of peat. It is only in regions where the rocks are granitic or
+silicious, where, at least, the surface waters are free or nearly free
+from lime, that _mosses_ make the bulk of the peat.
+
+In limestone districts, peat is chiefly formed from _grasses_ and
+_sedges_.
+
+This is due to the fact that mosses (sphagnums) need little lime for
+their growth, while the grasses require much; aquatic grasses cannot,
+therefore, thrive in pure waters, and in waters containing the requisite
+proportion of lime, grasses and sedges choke out the moss.
+
+The accidental admixtures of soil often greatly affect the appearance
+and value of a peat, but on the whole it would appear that its quality
+is most influenced by the degree of decomposition it has been subjected
+to.
+
+In meadows and marshes, overflowed by the ocean tides, we have
+_salt-peat_, formed from Sea-weeds (_Algæ_,) Salt-wort (_Salicornia_,)
+and a great variety of marine or strand-plants. In its upper portions,
+salt-peat is coarsely fibrous from the grass roots, and dark-brown in
+color. At sufficient depth it is black and destitute of fibres.
+
+The fact that peat is fibrous in texture shows that it is of
+comparatively recent formation, or that the decomposition has been
+arrested before reaching its later stages. Fibrous peat is found near
+the surface, and as we dig down into a very deep bed we find almost
+invariably that the fibrous structure becomes less and less evident
+until at a certain depth it entirely disappears.
+
+It is not depth simply, but age or advancement in decomposition, which
+determines these differences of texture.
+
+The "ripest," most perfectly formed peat, that in which the peaty
+decomposition has reached its last stage,--which, in Germany, is termed
+_pitchy-peat_ or _fat peat_, (_Pechtorf_, _Specktorf_)--is dark-brown or
+black in color, and comparatively heavy and dense. When moist, it is
+firm, sticky and coherent almost like clay, may be cut and moulded to
+any shape. Dried, it becomes hard, and on a cut or burnished surface
+takes a luster like wax or pitch.
+
+In Holland, West Friesland, Holstein, Denmark and Pomerania, a so-called
+_mud-peat_ (_Schlammtorf_, also _Baggertorf_ and _Streichtorf_,) is
+"fished up" from the bottoms of ponds, as a black mud or paste, 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 a source is, however, so far as
+the writer is informed, unknown to any extent in this country. We might
+distinguish as _leaf-muck_ the leaves which have decomposed under or
+saturated with water, retaining the well established term leaf-mold to
+designate the dry or drier covering of the soil in a dense forest of
+deciduous trees.
+
+_Salt-mud._--In the marshes, bays, and estuaries along the sea-shore,
+accumulate large quantities of fine silt, brought down by rivers or
+deposited from the sea-water, which are more or less mixed with finely
+divided peat or partly decomposed vegetable matters, derived largely
+from Sea-weed, and in many cases also with animal remains (mussels and
+other shell-fish, crabs, and myriads of minute organisms.) This black
+mud has great value as a fertilizer.
+
+4. _The Chemical Characters and Composition of Peat._
+
+The process of burning, demonstrates that peat consists of two kinds of
+substance; one of which, the larger portion, is combustible, and is
+_organic_ or vegetable matter; the other, smaller portion, remaining
+indestructible by fire is _inorganic matter_ or _ash_. We shall consider
+these separately.
+
+a. _The organic or combustible part of peat_ varies considerably in its
+proximate composition. It is in fact an indefinite mixture of several or
+perhaps of many compound bodies, whose precise nature is little known.
+These bodies have received the collective names _Humus_ and _Geine_. We
+shall employ the term _humus_ to designate this mixture, whether
+occurring in peat, swamp-muck, salt-mud, in composts, or in the arable
+soil. Its chemical characters are much the same, whatever its appearance
+or mode of occurrence; and this is to be expected since it is always
+formed from the same materials and under essentially similar conditions.
+
+_Resinous_ and _Bituminous matters_.--If dry pulverized peat be agitated
+and warmed for a short time with alcohol, there is usually extracted a
+small amount of _resinous_ and sometimes of _bituminous_ matters, which
+are of no account in the agricultural applications of peat, but have a
+bearing on its value as fuel.
+
+_Ulmic_ and _Humic acids_.--On boiling what remains from the treatment
+with alcohol, with a weak solution of carbonate of soda (sal-soda), we
+obtain a yellowish-brown or black liquid. This liquid contains certain
+acid ingredients of the peat which become soluble by entering into
+chemical combination with soda.
+
+On adding to the solution strong vinegar, or any other strong acid,
+there separates a bulky brown or black substance, which, after a time,
+subsides to the bottom of the vessel as a precipitate, to use a chemical
+term, leaving the liquid of a more or less yellow tinge. This deposit,
+if obtained from light brown peat, is _ulmic acid_; if from black peat,
+it is _humic acid_. These acids, when in the precipitated state, are
+insoluble in vinegar; but when this is washed away, they are
+considerably soluble in water. They are, in fact, modified by the action
+of the soda, so as to acquire much greater solubility in water than they
+otherwise possess. On drying the bulky bodies thus obtained, brown or
+black lustrous masses result, which have much the appearance of coal.
+
+_Ulmin_ and _Humin_.--After extracting the peat with solution of
+carbonate of soda, it still contains ulmin or humin. These bodies cannot
+be obtained in the pure state from peat, since they are mixed with more
+or less partially decomposed vegetable matters from which they cannot be
+separated without suffering chemical change. They have been procured,
+however, by the action of muriatic acid on sugar. They are indifferent
+in their chemical characters, are insoluble in water and in solution of
+carbonate of soda; but upon heating with solution of hydrate of soda
+they give dark-colored liquids, being in fact converted by this
+treatment into ulmic and humic acids, respectively, with which they are
+identical in composition.
+
+The terms ulmic and humic acids do not refer each to a single compound,
+but rather to a group of bodies of closely similar appearance and
+properties, which, however, do differ slightly in their characteristics,
+and differ also in composition by containing more or less of oxygen and
+hydrogen in equal equivalents.
+
+After complete extraction with hydrate of soda, there remains more or
+less undecomposed vegetable matter, together with sand and soil, were
+these contained in the peat.
+
+_Crenic_ and _apocrenic acids_.--From the usually yellowish liquid out
+of which the ulmic and humic acids have been separated, may further be
+procured by appropriate chemical means, not needful to be detailed
+here, two other bodies which bear the names respectively of _Crenic
+Acid_ and _Apocrenic Acid_. These acids were discovered by Berzelius,
+the great Swedish chemist, in the water and sediment of the Porla
+spring, in Sweden.
+
+By the action upon peat of carbonate of ammonia, which is generated to
+some extent in the decay of vegetable matters and is also absorbed from
+the air, ulmic and humic acids are made soluble, and combine with the
+ammonia as well as with lime, oxide of iron, etc. In some cases the
+ulmates and humates thus produced may be extracted from the peat by
+water, and consequently occur dissolved in the water of the swamp from
+which the peat is taken, giving it a yellow or brown color.
+
+_Ulmates_ and _Humates_.--Of considerable interest to us here, are the
+properties of the compounds of these acids, that may be formed in peat
+when it is used as an ingredient of composts. The ulmates and humates of
+the alkalies, viz.: _potash_, _soda_, and _ammonia_, dissolve readily in
+water. They are formed when the alkalies or their carbonates act on
+ulmin and humin, or upon ulmates or humates of lime, iron, etc. Their
+dilute solutions are yellow, or brown.
+
+The ulmates and humates of _lime_, _magnesia_, oxide of _iron_, oxide of
+_manganese_ and _alumina_, are insoluble, or nearly so in water.
+
+In ordinary soils, the earths and oxides just named, predominate over
+the alkalies, and although they may contain considerable ulmic and humic
+acids, water is able to extract but very minute quantities of the
+latter, on account of the insolubility of the compounds they have
+formed.
+
+On the other hand, peat, highly manured garden soil, leaf-mold, rotted
+manure and composts, yield yellow or brown extracts with water, from the
+fact that alkalies are here present to form soluble compounds.
+
+An important fact established by Mulder is, that when solutions of
+alkali-carbonates are put in contact with the insoluble ulmates and
+humates, the latter are decomposed; soluble alkali-ulmates and humates
+being formed, and _in these, a portion of the otherwise insoluble
+ulmates and humates dissolve_, so that thus, in a compost, lime,
+magnesia, oxide of iron, and even alumina may exist in soluble
+combinations, by the agency of these acids.
+
+_Crenates_ and _Apocrenates_.--The ulmic and humic acids when separated
+from their compounds, are nearly insoluble, and, so far as we know,
+comparatively inert bodies; by further change, (uniting with oxygen)
+they pass into or yield the crenic and apocrenic acids which, according
+to Mulder, have an acid taste, being freely soluble in water, and in all
+respects, decided acids. The compounds of both these acids with the
+alkalies are soluble. The crenates of lime, magnesia, and protoxide of
+iron are soluble, crenates of peroxide of iron and of oxide of manganese
+are but very slightly soluble; crenate of alumina is insoluble. The
+apocrenates of iron and manganese are slightly soluble; those of lime,
+magnesia, and alumina are insoluble. All the insoluble crenates and
+apocrenates, are soluble in solutions of the corresponding salts of the
+alkalies.
+
+Application of these facts will be given in subsequent paragraphs. It
+may be here remarked, that the crenate of protoxide of iron is not
+unfrequently formed in considerable quantity in peat-bogs, and
+dissolving in the water of springs gives them a chalybeate character.
+Copious springs of this kind occur at the edge of a peat-bed at
+Woodstock, Conn., which are in no small repute for their medicinal
+qualities, having a tonic effect from the iron they contain. Such
+waters, on exposure to the air, shortly absorb oxygen, and the substance
+is thereby converted into crenate and afterwards into apocrenate of
+peroxide of iron, which, being but slightly soluble, or insoluble,
+separates as a yellow or brown ochreous deposit along the course of the
+water. By further exposure to air the organic acid is oxidized to
+carbonic acid, and hydrated oxide of iron remains. Bog-iron ore appears
+often to have originated in this way.
+
+_Gein and Geic acid._--Mulder formerly believed another substance to
+exist in peat which he called _Gein_, and from this by the action of
+alkalies he supposed geic acid to be formed. In his later writings,
+however, he expresses doubt as to the existence of such a substance,
+and we may omit further notice of it, especially since, if it really
+do occur, its properties are not distinct from those of humic acid.
+
+We should not neglect to remark, however, that the word gein has been
+employed by some writers in the sense in which we use humus, viz.: to
+denote the brown or black products of the decomposition of vegetable
+matters.
+
+It is scarcely to be doubted that other organic compounds exist in peat.
+As yet, however, we have no knowledge of any other ingredients, while it
+appears certain that those we have described are its chief constituents,
+and give it its peculiar properties. With regard to them it must
+nevertheless be admitted, that our chemical knowledge is not entirely
+satisfactory, and new investigations are urgently demanded to supply the
+deficiencies of the researches so ably made by Mulder, more than twenty
+years ago.
+
+_Elementary Composition of Peat._
+
+After this brief notice of those organic _compounds_ that have been
+recognized in or produced from peat, we may give attention to the
+elementary composition of peat itself.
+
+Like that of the vegetation from which it originates, the organic part
+of peat consists of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen. In the
+subjoined table are given the proportions of these elements as found in
+the combustible part of sphagnum, of several kinds of wood, and in that
+of a number of peats in various stages of ripeness. They are arranged in
+the order of their content of carbon.
+
+ -----------------------------------+----------+-----+-------+-----+-------
+                                    |          |_Car-|_Hydro-|_Oxy-|_Nitro-
+                                    |_Analyst._|bon._| gen._ |gen._| gen._
+ -----------------------------------+----------+-----+-------+-----+-------
+  1--Sphagnum   }                   | Websky   |49.88| 6.54  |42.42| 1.16
+  2--Peach wood } undecomposed      |Chevandier|49.90| 6.10  |43.10| 0.90
+  3--Poplar "   }                   |    "     |50.30| 6.30  |42.40| 1.00
+  4--Oak    "   }                   |    "     |50.60| 6.00  |42.10| 1.30
+  5--Peat, porous, light-brown,     |          |     |       |     |
+         sphagnous                  | Websky   |50.86| 5.80  |42.57| 0.77
+  6-- "  porous, red-brown.         | Jæckel   |53.51| 5.90  |   40.59
+  7-- "  heavy, brown.              |    "     |56.43| 5.32  |   38.25
+  8-- "  dark red-brown,            |          |     |       |     |
+         well decomposed            | Websky   |59.47| 6.52  |31.51| 2.51
+  9-- "  black, very dense          |          |     |       |     |
+         and hard.                  |   "      |59.70| 5.70  |33.04| 1.56
+ 10-- "  black, heavy, }best quality|   "      |59.71| 5.27  |32.07| 2.59
+ 11-- "  brown, heavy, }for fuel.   |   "      |62.54| 6.81  |29.24| 1.41
+ -----------------------------------+----------+-----+-------+-----+-------
+
+From this table it is seen that sphagnum, and the wood of our forest
+trees are very similar in composition, though not identical. Further, it
+is seen from analyses 1 and 5, that in the first stages of the
+conversion of sphagnum into peat--which are marked by a change of color,
+but in which the form of the sphagnum is to a considerable extent
+preserved--but little alteration occurs in ultimate composition; about
+one _per cent._ of carbon being gained, and one of hydrogen lost. We
+notice in running down the columns that as the peat becomes heavier and
+darker in color, it also becomes richer in carbon and poorer in oxygen.
+Hydrogen varies but slightly.
+
+As a general statement we may say that the ripest and heaviest peat
+contains 10 or 12 _per cent._ more carbon and 10 or 12 _per cent._ less
+oxygen than the vegetable matter from which it is produced; while
+between the unaltered vegetation and the last stage of humification, the
+peat runs through an indefinite number of intermediate stages.
+
+Nitrogen is variable, but, in general, the older peats contain the most.
+To this topic we shall shortly recur, and now pass on to notice--
+
+_The ultimate composition of the compounds of which peat consists._
+
+Below are tabulated analyses of the organic acids of peat:--
+
+                                     _Carbon._  _Hydrogen._  _Oxygen._
+ Ulmic acid, artificial from sugar     67.10       4.20        28.70
+ Humic acid, from Frisian peat         61.10       4.30        34.60
+ Crenic acid                           56.47       2.74        40.78
+ Apocrenic acid                        45.70       4.80        49.50
+
+It is seen that the amount of carbon diminishes from ulmic acid to
+apocrenic, that of oxygen increases in the same direction and to the
+same extent, viz.: about 21 _per cent._, while the hydrogen remains
+nearly the same in all.
+
+b. _The mineral part of peat, which remains as ashes_ when the organic
+matters are burned away, is variable in quantity and composition.
+Usually a portion of sand or soil is found in it, and this not
+unfrequently constitutes its larger portion. Some peats leave on burning
+much carbonate of lime; others chiefly sulphate of lime; the ash of
+others again is mostly oxyd of iron; silicic, and phosphoric acids,
+magnesia, potash, soda, alumina and chlorine, also occur in small
+quantities in the ash of all peats.
+
+With one exception (alumina) all these bodies are important ingredients
+of agricultural plants.
+
+In some rare instances, peats are found, which are so impregnated with
+soluble sulphates of iron and alumina, as to yield these salts to water
+in large quantity; and sulphate of iron (green vitriol,) has actually
+been manufactured from such peats, which in consequence have been
+characterized as _vitriol peats_.
+
+Those bases (lime, oxide of iron, etc.,) which are found as carbonates
+or simple oxides in the ashes, exist in the peat itself in combination
+with the humic and other organic acids. When these compounds are
+destroyed by burning, the bases remain united to carbonic acid.
+
+5.--_Chemical Changes that occur in the formation of Peat._ When a plant
+perishes, its conversion into humus usually begins at once. When exposed
+to the atmosphere, the oxygen of the air attacks it, uniting with its
+carbon producing carbonic acid gas, and with its hydrogen generating
+water. This action goes on, though slowly, even at some depth under
+water, because the latter dissolves oxygen from the air in small
+quantity,[2] and constantly resupplies itself as rapidly as the gas is
+consumed.
+
+Whether exposed to the air or not, the organic matter suffers internal
+decomposition, and portions of its elements assume the gaseous or liquid
+form. We have seen that ripe peat is 10 to 12 _per cent._ richer in
+carbon and equally poorer in oxygen, than the vegetable matters from
+which it originates. Organic matters, in passing into peat, lose carbon
+and nitrogen; but they lose oxygen more rapidly than the other two
+elements, and hence the latter become relatively more abundant. The loss
+of hydrogen is such that its proportion to the other elements is but
+little altered.
+
+The bodies that separate from the decomposing vegetable matter are
+carbonic acid gas, carburetted hydrogen (marsh gas), nitrogen gas, and
+water.
+
+Carbonic acid is the most abundant gaseous product of the peaty
+decomposition. Since it contains nearly 73 _per cent._ of oxygen and but
+27 _per cent._ of carbon, it is obvious that by its escape the
+proportion of carbon in the residual mass is increased. In the formation
+of water from the decaying matters, 1 part of hydrogen carries off 8
+parts of oxygen, and this change increases the proportion of carbon and
+of hydrogen. Marsh gas consists of one part of hydrogen to three of
+carbon, but it is evolved in comparatively small quantity, and hence has
+no effect in diminishing the _per cent._ of carbon.
+
+The gas that bubbles up through the water of a peat-bog, especially if
+the decomposing matters at the bottom be stirred, consists largely of
+marsh gas and nitrogen, often with but a small proportion of carbonic
+acid. Thus Websky found in gas from a peat-bed
+
+ Carbonic acid     2.97
+ Marsh gas        43.36
+ Nitrogen         53.67
+                 ------
+                 100.00
+
+Carbonic acid, however, dissolves to a considerable extent in water, and
+is furthermore absorbed by the living vegetation, which is not true of
+marsh gas and nitrogen; hence the latter escape while the former does
+not. Nitrogen escapes in the uncombined state, as it always (or usually)
+does in the decay of vegetable and animal matters that contain it. Its
+loss is, in general, slower than that of the other elements, and it
+sometimes accumulates in the peat in considerable quantity. A small
+portion of nitrogen unites with hydrogen, forming ammonia, which remains
+combined with the humic and other acids.
+
+
+PART II.
+
+ON THE AGRICULTURAL USES OF PEAT AND
+SWAMP MUCK.
+
+
+After the foregoing account of the composition of peat, we may proceed
+to notice:
+
+1.--_The characters that adapt it for agricultural uses._
+
+These characters are conveniently discussed under two heads, viz.:
+
+Those which render it useful in improving the texture and physical
+characters of the soil, and indirectly contribute to the nourishment of
+crops,--characters which constitute it an _amendment_ to the soil (_A_);
+and
+
+Those which make it a direct _fertilizer_ (_B_).
+
+A.--Considered as an amendment, the value of peat depends upon
+
+_Its remarkable power of absorbing and retaining water, both as a liquid
+and as a vapor_ (I):
+
+_Its power of absorbing ammonia_ (II):
+
+_Its effect in promoting the disintegration and solution of mineral
+ingredients, that is the stony matters of the soil_ (III): _and_
+
+_Its influence on the temperature of the soil_ (IV).
+
+The agricultural importance of these properties of peat is best
+illustrated by considering the faults of a certain class of soils.
+
+Throughout the State of Connecticut, for instance, are found abundant
+examples of light, leachy, hungry soils, which consist of coarse sand or
+fine gravel; are surface-dry in a few hours after the heaviest rains,
+and in the summer drouths, are as dry as an ash-heap to a depth of
+several or many feet.
+
+These soils are easy to work, are ready for the plow early in the
+spring, and if well manured give fair crops in wet seasons. In a dry
+summer, however, they yield poorly, or fail of crops entirely; and, at
+the best, they require constant and very heavy manuring to keep them in
+heart.
+
+Crops fail on these soils from two causes, viz.; _want of moisture_ and
+_want of food_. Cultivated plants demand as an indispensable condition
+of their growth and perfection, to be supplied with water in certain
+quantities, which differ with different crops. Buckwheat will flourish
+best on dry soils, while cranberries and rice grow in swamps.
+
+Our ordinary cereal, root, forage and garden crops require a medium
+degree of moisture, and with us it is in all cases desirable that the
+soil be equally protected from excess of water and from drouth. Soils
+must be thus situated either naturally, or as the result of improvement,
+before any steadily good results can be obtained in their cultivation.
+The remedy for excess of water in too heavy soils, is thorough drainage.
+It is expensive, but effectual. It makes the earth more porous, opens
+and maintains channels, through which the surplus water speedily runs
+off, and permits the roots of crops to go down to a considerable depth.
+
+What, let us consider, is the means of obviating the defects of soils
+that are naturally too porous, from which the water runs off too
+readily, and whose crops "burn up" in dry seasons?
+
+In wet summers, these light soils, as we have remarked, are quite
+productive if well manured. It is then plain that if we could add
+anything to them which would retain the moisture of dews and rains in
+spite of the summer-heats, our crops would be uniformly fair, provided
+the supply of manure were kept up.
+
+But why is it that light soils, need more manure than loamy or heavy
+lands? We answer--because, in the first place the rains which quickly
+descend through the open soil, wash down out of the reach of vegetation
+the soluble fertilizing matters, especially the nitrates, for which the
+soil has no retentive power; and in the second place, from the porosity
+of the soil, the air has too great access, so that the vegetable and
+animal matters of manures decay too rapidly, their volatile portions,
+ammonia and carbonic acid, escape into the atmosphere, and are in
+measure lost to the crops. From these combined causes we find that a
+heavy dressing of well-rotted stable manure, almost if not entirely,
+disappears from such soils in one season, so that another year the field
+requires a renewed application; while on loamy soils the same amount of
+manure would have lasted several years, and produced each year a better
+effect.
+
+We want then to _amend_ light soils by incorporating with them something
+that prevents the rains from leaching through them too rapidly, and also
+that renders them less open to the air, or absorbs and retains for the
+use of crops the volatile products of the decay of manures.
+
+For these purposes, vegetable matter of some sort is the best and almost
+the only amendment that can be economically employed. In many cases a
+good peat or muck is the best form of this material, that lies at the
+farmer's command.
+
+I.--_Its absorbent power for liquid water_ is well known to every farmer
+who has thrown it up in a pile to season for use. It holds the water
+like a sponge, and, according to its greater or less porosity, will
+retain from 50 to 100 or more _per cent._ of its weight of liquid,
+without dripping. Nor can this water escape from it rapidly. It dries
+almost as slowly as clay, and a heap of it that has been exposed to sun
+and wind for a whole summer, though it has of course lost much water, is
+still distinctly wet to the eye and the feel a little below the surface.
+
+_Its absorbent power for vapor of water_ is so great that more than once
+it has happened in Germany, that barns or close sheds filled with
+partially dried peat, such as is used for fuel, have been burst by the
+swelling of the peat in damp weather, occasioned by the absorption of
+moisture from the air. This power is further shown by the fact that when
+peat has been kept all summer long in a warm room, thinly spread out to
+the air, and has become like dry snuff to the feel, it still contains
+from 8 to 30 _per cent._ (average 15 _per cent._) of water. To dry a
+peat thoroughly, it requires to be exposed for some time to the
+temperature of boiling water. It is thus plain, as experience has
+repeatedly demonstrated, that no ordinary summer heats can dry up a soil
+which has had a good dressing of this material, for on the one hand, it
+soaks up and holds the rains that fall upon it, and on the other, it
+absorbs the vapor of water out of the atmosphere whenever it is moist,
+as at night and in cloudy weather.
+
+When peat has once become _air-dry_, it no longer manifests this avidity
+for water. In drying it shrinks, loses its porosity and requires long
+soaking to saturate it again. In the soil, however, it rarely becomes
+air-dry, unless indeed, this may happen during long drouth with a peaty
+soil, such as results from the draining of a bog.
+
+II.--_Absorbent power for ammonia._
+
+All soils that deserve to be called fertile, have the property of
+absorbing and retaining ammonia and the volatile matters which escape
+from fermenting manures, but light and coarse soils may be deficient in
+this power. Here again in respect to its absorptive power for ammonia,
+peat comes to our aid.
+
+It is easy to show by direct experiment that peat absorbs and combines
+with ammonia.
+
+In 1858 I took a weighed quantity of air-dry peat from the New Haven
+Beaver Pond, (a specimen furnished me by Chauncey Goodyear, Esq.,) and
+poured upon it a known quantity of dilute solution of ammonia, and
+agitated the two together occasionally during 48 hours. I then distilled
+off at a boiling heat the unabsorbed ammonia and determined its
+quantity. This amount subtracted from that of the ammonia originally
+employed, gave the quantity of ammonia absorbed and retained by the peat
+at the temperature of boiling water.
+
+The peat retained ammonia to the amount of 0.95 of _one per cent._
+
+I made another trial at the same time with carbonate of ammonia, adding
+excess of solution of this salt to a quantity of peat, and exposing it
+to the heat of boiling water, until no smell of ammonia was perceptible.
+The entire nitrogen in the peat was then determined, and it was found
+that the dry peat which originally contained nitrogen equivalent to 2.4
+_per cent._ of ammonia, now yielded an amount corresponding to 3.7 _per
+cent._ The quantity of ammonia absorbed and retained at a temperature
+of 212°, was thus 1.3 _per cent._
+
+This last experiment most nearly represents the true power of
+absorption; because, in fermenting manures, ammonia mostly occurs in the
+form of carbonate, and this is more largely retained than free ammonia,
+on account of its power of decomposing the humate of lime, forming with
+it carbonate of lime and humate of ammonia.
+
+The absorbent power of peat is well shown by the analyses of three
+specimens, sent me in 1858, by Edwin Hoyt, Esq., of New Canaan, Conn.
+The first of these was the swamp muck he employed. It contained in the
+air-dry state nitrogen equivalent to 0.58 _per cent._ of ammonia. The
+second sample was the same muck that had lain under the flooring of the
+horse stables, and had been, in this way, partially saturated with
+urine. It contained nitrogen equivalent to 1.15 _per cent._ of ammonia.
+The third sample was, finally, the same muck composted with white-fish.
+It contained nitrogen corresponding to 1.31 _per cent._ of ammonia.[3]
+
+The quantities of ammonia thus absorbed, both in the laboratory and
+field experiments are small--from 0.7 to 1.3 _per cent._ The absorption
+is without doubt chiefly due to the organic matter of the peats, and in
+all the specimens on which these trials were made, the proportion of
+inorganic matter is large. The results therefore become a better
+expression of the power of _peat_, in general, to absorb ammonia, if we
+reckon them on the organic matter alone. Calculated in this way, the
+organic matter of the Beaver Pond peat (which constitutes but 68 _per
+cent._ of the dry peat) absorbs 1.4 _per cent._ of free ammonia, and 1.9
+_per cent._ of ammonia out of the carbonate of ammonia.
+
+Similar experiments, by Anderson, on a Scotch peat, showed it to
+possess, when wet, an absorptive power of 2 _per cent._, and, after
+drying in the air, it still retained 1.5 _per cent._--[Trans. Highland
+and Ag'l Soc'y.]
+
+When we consider how small an ingredient of most manures nitrogen is,
+viz.: from one-half to three-quarters of one _per cent._ in case of
+stable manure, and how little of it, in the shape of guano for instance,
+is usually applied to crops--not more than 40 to 60 lbs. to the acre,
+(the usual dressings with guano are from 250 to 400 lbs. per acre, and
+nitrogen averages but 15 _per cent._ of the guano), we at once perceive
+that an absorptive power of one or even one-half _per cent._ is greatly
+more than adequate for every agricultural purpose.
+
+III.--_Peat promotes the disintegration of the soil._
+
+The soil is a storehouse of food for crops; the stores it contains are,
+however, only partly available for immediate use. In fact, by far the
+larger share is locked up, as it were, in insoluble combinations, and
+only by a slow and gradual change can it become accessible to the plant.
+This change is largely brought about by the united action of _water_ and
+_carbonic acid gas_. Nearly all the rocks and minerals out of which
+fertile soils are formed,--which therefore contain those inorganic
+matters that are essential to vegetable growth,--though very slowly
+acted on by pure water, are decomposed and dissolved to a much greater
+extent by water, charged with carbonic acid gas.
+
+It is by these solvents that the formation of soil from broken rocks is
+to a great extent due. Clay is invariably a result of their direct
+action upon rocks. The efficiency of the soil depends greatly upon their
+chemical influence.
+
+_The only abundant source of carbonic acid in the soil, is decaying
+vegetable matter._
+
+Hungry, leachy soils, from their deficiency of vegetable matter and of
+moisture, do not adequately yield their own native resources to the
+support of crops, because the conditions for converting their fixed into
+floating capital are wanting. Such soils dressed with peat or green
+manured, at once acquire the power of retaining water, and keep that
+water ever charged with carbonic acid: thus not only the extraneous
+manures which the farmer applies are fully economized; but the soil
+becomes more productive from its own stores of fertility which now begin
+to be unlocked and available.
+
+Dr. Peters, of Saxony, has made some instructive experiments that are
+here in point. He filled several large glass jars, (2-1/2 feet high and
+5-1/2 inches wide) with a rather poor loamy sand, containing
+considerable humus, and planted in each one, June 14, 1857, an equal
+number of seeds of oats and peas. Jar No. 2 had daily passed into it
+through a tube, adapted to the bottom, about 3-1/4 pints of common air.
+No. 3 received daily the same bulk of a mixture of air and carbonic acid
+gas, of which the latter amounted to one-fourth. No. 1 remained without
+any treatment of this kind, _i. e._: in just the condition of the soil
+in an open field, having no air in its pores, save that penetrating it
+from the atmosphere. On October 3, the plants were removed from the
+soil, and after drying at the boiling point of water, were weighed. The
+crops from the pots into which air and carbonic acid were daily forced,
+were about _twice as heavy_ as No. 1, which remained in the ordinary
+condition.
+
+Examination of the soil further demonstrated, that in the last two
+soils, a considerably greater quantity of mineral and organic matters
+had become soluble in water, than in the soil that was not artificially
+aërated. The actual results are given in the table below in grammes, and
+refer to 6000 grammes of soil in each case:--
+
+ ACTION OF CARBONIC ACID ON THE SOIL.
+ -----------------------------------+-----------+--------+------------
+                                    |  _No. 1,  |        |
+                                    |  Without  |_No. 2, |  _No. 3,
+ _Substances soluble in water, etc._| Artificial| Common |  Air and
+                                    | Supply of |  Air   |  Carbonic
+                                    |   Air._   | Added._|acid added._
+ -----------------------------------+-----------+--------+------------
+ Mineral matters                    |    2.04   |  3.71  |    4.99
+ Potash                             |    0.07   |  0.17  |    0.14
+ Soda                               |    0.17   |  0.23  |    0.28
+ Organic matters                    |    2.76   |  4.32  |    2.43
+                                    |           |        |
+ Weight of Crops                    |    5.89   | 10.49  |   12.35
+ -----------------------------------+-----------+--------+------------
+
+It will be seen from the above that air alone exercised nearly as much
+solvent effect as the mixture of air with one-fourth its weight of
+carbonic acid; this is doubtless, in part due to the fact that the air,
+upon entering the soil rich in humus, caused the abundant formation of
+carbonic acid, as will be presently shown must have been the case. It
+is, however, probable that organic acids (crenic and apocrenic,) and
+nitric acid were also produced (by oxidation,) and shared with carbonic
+the work of solution.
+
+It is almost certain, that the acids of peat exert a powerful
+decomposing, and ultimately solvent effect on the minerals of the soil;
+but on this point we have no precise information, and must therefore be
+content merely to present the probability. This is sustained by the fact
+that the crenic, apocrenic and humic acids, though often partly
+uncombined, are never wholly so, but usually occur united in part to
+various bases, viz.: lime, magnesia, ammonia, potash, alumina and oxide
+of iron.
+
+The crenic and apocrenic acids (that are formed by the oxidation of
+ulmic and humic acids,) have such decided acid characters,--crenic acid
+especially, which has a strongly sour taste--that we cannot well doubt
+their dissolving action.
+
+IV.--_The influence of peat on the temperature_ of light soils dressed
+with it may often be of considerable practical importance. A light dry
+soil is subject to great variations of temperature, and rapidly follows
+the changes of the atmosphere from cold to hot, and from hot to cold. In
+the summer noon a sandy soil becomes so warm as to be hardly endurable
+to the feel, and again it is on such soils that the earliest frosts take
+effect. If a soil thus subject to extremes of temperature have a dressing
+of peat, it will on the one hand not become so warm in the hot day, and
+on the other hand it will not cool so rapidly, nor so much in the night;
+its temperature will be rendered more uniform, and on the whole, more
+conducive to the welfare of vegetation. This regulative effect on
+temperature is partly due to the stores of water held by peat. In a hot
+day this water is constantly evaporating, and this, as all know, is a
+cooling process. At night the peat absorbs vapor of water from the air,
+and condenses it within its pores, this condensation is again accompanied
+with the evolution of heat.
+
+It appears to be a general, though not invariable fact, that dark
+colored soils, other things being equal, are constantly the warmest, or
+at any rate maintain the temperature most favorable to vegetation. It
+has been repeatedly observed that on light-colored soils plants mature
+more rapidly, if the earth be thinly covered with a coating of some
+black substance. Thus Lampadius, Professor in the School of Mines at
+Freiberg, a town situated in a mountainous part of Saxony, found that he
+could ripen melons, even in the coolest summers, by strewing a coating
+of coal-dust an inch deep over the surface of the soil. In some of the
+vineyards of the Rhine, the powder of a black slate is employed to
+hasten the ripening of the grape.
+
+Girardin, an eminent French agriculturist, in a series of experiments on
+the cultivation of potatoes, found that the time of their ripening
+varied eight to fourteen days, according to the character of the soil.
+He found, on the 25th of August, in a very dark soil, made so by the
+presence of much humus or decaying vegetable matter, twenty-six
+varieties ripe; in sandy soil but twenty, in clay nineteen, and in a
+white lime soil only sixteen.
+
+It cannot be doubted then, that the effect of dressing a light sandy or
+gravelly soil with peat, or otherwise enriching it in vegetable matter,
+is to render it warmer, in the sense in which that word is usually
+applied to soils. The upward range of the thermometer is not, indeed,
+increased, but the uniform warmth so salutary to our most valued crops
+is thereby secured.
+
+In the light soils stable-manure wastes too rapidly because, for one
+reason, at the extremes of high temperature, oxidation and decay proceed
+with great rapidity, and the volatile portions of the fertilizer are
+used up faster than the plant can appropriate them, so that not only are
+they wasted during the early periods of growth, but they are wanting at
+a later period when their absence may prove the failure of a crop.
+
+
+B. The ingredients and qualities which make peat _a direct fertilizer_
+next come under discussion. We shall notice:
+
+_The organic matters including nitrogen (ammonia and nitric acid)_ (I):
+
+_The inorganic or mineral ingredients_ (II):
+
+_Peculiarities in the decay of Peat_ (III), _and_
+
+_Institute a comparison between peat and stable manure_ (IV).
+
+I.--Under this division we have to consider:
+
+1. _The organic matters as direct food to plants._
+
+Thirty years ago, when Chemistry and Vegetable Physiology began to be
+applied to Agriculture, the opinion was firmly held among scientific
+men, that the organic parts of humus--by which we understand decayed
+vegetable matter, such as is found to a greater or less extent in all
+good soils, and _abounds_ in many fertile ones, such as constitutes the
+leaf-mold of forests, such as is produced in the fermenting of stable
+manure, and that forms the principal part of swamp-muck and peat,--are
+the true nourishment of vegetation, at any rate of the higher orders of
+plants, those which supply food to man and to domestic animals.
+
+
+In 1840, Liebig, in his celebrated treatise on the "Applications of
+Chemistry to Agriculture and Physiology," gave as his opinion that these
+organic bodies do not nourish vegetation except by the products of their
+decay. He asserted that they cannot enter the plant directly, but that
+the water, carbonic acid and ammonia resulting from their decay, are the
+substances actually imbibed by plants, and from these alone is built up
+the organic or combustible part of vegetation.
+
+To this day there is a division of opinion among scientific men on this
+subject, some adopting the views of Liebig, others maintaining that
+certain soluble organic matters, viz., crenic and apocrenic acids are
+proper food of plants.
+
+On the one hand it has been abundantly demonstrated that these organic
+matters are not at all essential to the growth of agricultural plants,
+and can constitute but a small part of the actual food of vegetation
+taken in the aggregate.
+
+On the other hand, we are acquainted with no satisfactory evidence that
+the soluble organic matters of the soil and of peat, especially the
+crenates and apocrenates, are not actually appropriated by, and, so far
+as they go, are not directly serviceable as food to plants.
+
+Be this as it may, practice has abundantly demonstrated the value of
+humus as an ingredient of the soil, and if not directly, yet indirectly,
+it furnishes the material out of which plants build up their parts.
+
+2. _The organic matters of peat as indirect food to plants._ Very nearly
+one-half, by weight, of our common crops, when perfectly dry, consists
+of _carbon_. The substance which supplies this element to plants is the
+gas, carbonic acid. Plants derive this gas mostly from the atmosphere,
+absorbing it by means of their leaves. But the free atmosphere, at only
+a little space above the soil, contains on the average but 1/2500 of its
+bulk of this gas, whereas plants flourish in air containing a larger
+quantity, and, in fact, their other wants being supplied, they grow
+better as the quantity is increased to 1/12 the bulk of the air. These
+considerations make sufficiently obvious how important it is that the
+soil have in itself a constant and abundant source of carbonic acid gas.
+As before said, _organic matter, in a state of decay_, is the single
+material which the farmer can incorporate with his soil in order to make
+the latter a supply of this most indispensable form of plant-food.
+
+When organic matters decay in the soil, their carbon ultimately assumes
+the form of Carbonic acid. This gas, constantly exhaling from the soil,
+is taken up by the foliage of the crops, and to some extent is absorbed
+likewise by their roots.
+
+Boussingault & Lewy have examined the air inclosed in the interstices of
+various soils, and invariably found it much richer (10 to 400 times)
+than that of the atmosphere above. Here follow some of their results:
+
+ CARBONIC ACID IN SOILS.
+ --------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Key:
+ A - _Volumes of Carbonic acid in 100 of air in pores of Soil._
+ B - _Cubic feet of air in acre to depth of 14 inches._
+ C - _Cubic feet of Carbonic acid in acre to depth of 14 inches._
+ D - _Volumes of Carbonic acid to 100 of air above the soil._
+ E - _Cubic feet of air over one acre to height of 14 inches._
+ F - _Cubic feet of Carbonic acid over one acre to a height of 14 inches._
+
+ --------------------------------------------------------+-----+------+----
+           _Designation and Condition of Soil._          |  A  |  B   | C
+ --------------------------------------------------------+-----+------+----
+ Sandy subsoil of forest                                 |0.24 | 4,326|  14
+ Loamy   "     "   "                                     |0.82 | 3,458|  28
+ Surface soil  "   "                                     |0.86 | 5,768|  56
+ Clayey soil of artichoke field                          |0.66 |10,094|  71
+ Soil of asparagus bed, unmanured for one year           |0.79 |10,948|  86
+ "    "    "       "    newly manured                    |1.54 |10,948| 172
+ Sandy soil, six days after manuring, and three          |     |      |
+                                            days of rain.|2.21 |11,536| 257
+ "      "    ten   "    "      "      "   "              |     |      |
+                                             "   "   "   |9.74 |11,536|1144
+ Compost of vegetable mold                               |3.64 |20,608| 772
+                                                         |     |      |
+              _Carbonic Acid in Atmosphere_              |  D  |  E   | F
+                                                         |-----+------+----
+                                                         |0.025|50,820|  14
+ --------------------------------------------------------+-----+------+----
+
+From the above it is seen that in soils containing little decomposing
+organic matters--as the forest sub-soils--the quantity of carbonic acid
+is no greater than that contained in an equal bulk of the atmosphere. It
+is greater in loamy and clayey soils; but is still small. In the
+artichoke field (probably light soil not lately manured), and even in an
+asparagus bed unmanured for one year, the amount of carbonic acid is not
+greatly larger. In newly manured fields, and especially in a vegetable
+compost, the quantity is vastly greater.
+
+The organic matters which come from manures, or from the roots and other
+residues of crops, are the source of the carbonic acid of the soil.
+These matters continually waste in yielding this gas, and must be
+supplied anew. Boussingault found that the rich soil of his kitchen
+garden (near Strasburg) which had been heavily manured from the
+barn-yard for many years, lost one-third of its carbon by exposure to
+the air for three months (July, August and September,) being daily
+watered. It originally contained 2.43 _per cent._ At the conclusion of
+the experiment it contained but 1.60 _per cent._, having lost 0.83 _per
+cent._
+
+Peat and swamp-muck, when properly prepared, furnish carbonic acid in
+large quantities during their slow oxidation in the soil.
+
+3. _The Nitrogen of Peat, including Ammonia and Nitric Acid._
+
+The sources of the nitrogen of plants, and the real cause of the value
+of nitrogenous fertilizers, are topics that have excited more discussion
+than any other points in Agricultural Chemistry. This is the result of
+two circumstances. One is the obscurity in which some parts of the
+subject have rested; the other is the immense practical and commercial
+importance of this element, as a characteristic and essential ingredient
+of the most precious fertilizers. It is a rule that the most valuable
+manures, _commercially considered_, are those containing the most
+nitrogen. Peruvian guano, sulphate of ammonia, soda-saltpeter, fish and
+flesh manures, bones and urine, cost the farmer more money per ton than
+any other manures he buys or makes, superphosphate of lime excepted, and
+this does not find sale, for general purposes, unless it contains
+several _per cent._ of nitrogen. These are, in the highest sense,
+nitrogenous fertilizers, and, if deprived of their nitrogen, they would
+lose the greater share of their fertilizing power.
+
+The importance of the nitrogen of manures depends upon the fact that
+those forms (compounds) of nitrogen which are capable of supplying it to
+vegetation are comparatively scarce.
+
+It has long been known that peat contains a considerable quantity of
+nitrogen. The average amount in thirty specimens, analyzed under the
+author's direction, including peats and swamp mucks of all grades of
+quality, is equivalent to 1-1/2 _per cent._ of the air-dried substance,
+or more than thrice as much as exists in ordinary stable or yard manure.
+In several peats the amount is as high as 2.4 _per cent._, and in one
+case 2.9 _per cent._ were found.
+
+Of these thirty samples, one-half were largely mixed with soil, and
+contained from 15 to 60 _per cent._ of mineral matters.
+
+Reducing them to an average of 15 _per cent._ of water and 5 _per cent._
+of ash, they contain 2.1 _per cent._ of nitrogen, while the organic
+part, considered free from water and mineral substances, contains on the
+average 2.6 _per cent._ See table, page 90.
+
+The five peats, analyzed by Websky and Chevandier, as cited on page 24,
+considered free from water and ash, contain an average of 1.8 _per
+cent._ of nitrogen.
+
+We should not neglect to notice that peat is often comparatively poor in
+nitrogen. Of the specimens, examined in the Yale Analytical Laboratory,
+several contained but half a _per cent._ or less. So in the analyses of
+Websky, one sample contained but 0.77 _per cent._ of the element in
+question.
+
+As concerns the state of combination in which nitrogen exists in peat,
+there is a difference of opinion. Mulder regards it as chiefly occurring
+in the form of _ammonia_ (a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen), united
+to the organic acids from which it is very difficult to separate it.
+Recent investigations indicate that in general, peat contains but a
+small proportion of ready-formed ammonia.
+
+The great part of the nitrogen of peat exists in an insoluble and inert
+form: but, by the action of the atmosphere upon it, especially when
+mixed with and divided by the soil, it gradually becomes available to
+vegetation to as great an extent as the nitrogen of ordinary
+fertilizers.
+
+It appears from late examinations that weathered peat may contain
+_nitric acid_ (compound of nitrogen with oxygen) in a proportion which,
+though small, is yet of great importance, agriculturally speaking. What
+analytical data we possess are subjoined.
+
+ PROPORTIONS OF NITROGEN, ETC., IN PEAT.
+ ---------+-------------+------------+------------+---------+------------
+          |             |            |   Total    |Ammonia, |
+          |             |  Analyst.  | Nitrogen.  |per cent.|Nitric acid.
+ ---------+-------------+------------+------------+---------+------------
+ 1--Brown |             |            |            |         |
+      Peat|Air dry (?)  |Boussingault|    2.20    |  0.018  |   0.000
+ 2--Black |             |            |            |         |
+      Peat|     "       |     "      |Undetermined|  0.025  |Undetermined
+ 3--Peat  |Dried at 212°|Reichardt[4]|     "      |  0.152  |   0.483
+ 4--Peat  |     "       |     "      |     "      |  0.165  |   0.525
+ 5--Peat  |     "       |     "      |     "      |  0.305  |   0.241
+ 6--Peat  |     "       |     "      |     "      |  0.335  |   0.421
+ ---------+-------------+------------+------------+---------+------------
+
+Specimens 3, 4 and 5, are swamp (or heath) mucks, and have been
+weathered for use in flower-culture. 3 and 4 are alike, save that 3 has
+been weathered a year longer than 4. They contain respectively 41, 56
+and 67 _per cent._ of organic matter.
+
+Sample 6, containing 86 _per cent._ of organic matter, is employed as a
+manure with great advantage, and probably was weathered before analysis.
+It contained 85 _per cent._ of organic substance.
+
+More important to us than the circumstance that this peat contains but
+little or no ammonia or nitric acid, and the other contains such or such
+a fraction of one _per cent._ of these bodies, is the grand fact that
+all peats may yield a good share of their nitrogen to the support of
+crops, when properly treated and applied.
+
+Under the influence of Liebig's teachings, which were logically based
+upon the best data at the disposal of this distinguished philosopher
+when he wrote 25 years ago, it has been believed that the nitrogen of a
+fertilizer, in order to be available, must be converted into ammonia and
+presented in that shape to the plant. It has been recently made clear
+that nitric acid, rather than ammonia, is the form of nitrogenous food
+which is most serviceable to vegetation, and the one which is most
+abundantly supplied by the air and soil. The value of ammonia is however
+positive, and not to be overlooked.
+
+When peat, properly prepared by weathering or composting, is suitably
+incorporated with a poor or light soil, it slowly suffers decomposition
+and wastes away. If it be wet, and air have access in limited quantity,
+especially if _lime_ be mixed with it, a portion of its nitrogen is
+gradually converted into ammonia. With full access of air _nitric acid_
+is produced. In either case, it appears that a considerable share of the
+nitrogen escapes in the free state as gas, thereby becoming useless to
+vegetation until it shall have become converted again into ammonia or
+nitric acid. It happens in a cultivated soil that the oxygen of the air
+is in excess at the surface, and less abundant as we go down until we
+get below organic matters: it happens that one day it is saturated with
+water more or less, and another day it is dry, so that at one time we
+have the conditions for the formation of ammonia, and at another, those
+favorable to producing nitric acid. In this way, so far as our present
+knowledge warrants us to affirm, organic matters, decaying in the soil,
+continuously yield portions of their nitrogen in the forms of ammonia
+and nitric acid for the nourishment of plants.
+
+The farmer who skillfully employs as a fertilizer a peat containing a
+good proportion of nitrogen, may thus expect to get from it results
+similar to what would come from the corresponding quantity of nitrogen
+in guano or stable manure.
+
+But the capacity of peat for feeding crops with, nitrogen appears not
+to stop here. Under certain conditions, _the free nitrogen of the air
+which cannot be directly appropriated by vegetation, is oxidized in the
+pores of the soil to nitric acid, and thus, free of expense to the
+farmer, his crops are daily dressed with the most precious of all
+fertilizers_.
+
+This gathering of useless nitrogen from the air, and making it over into
+plant-food cannot go on in a soil destitute of organic matter, requires
+in fact that vegetable remains or humified substances of some sort be
+present there. The evidence of this statement, whose truth was maintained
+years ago as a matter of opinion by many of the older chemists, has
+recently become nearly a matter of demonstration by the investigations of
+Boussingault and Knop, while the explanation of it is furnished by the
+researches of Schoenbein and Zabelin. To attempt any elucidation of it
+here would require more space than is at our disposal.
+
+It is plain from the contents of this paragraph that peat or swamp muck
+is, in general, an abundant source of nitrogen, and is often therefore
+an extremely cheap means of replacing the most rare and costly
+fertilizers.
+
+II.--With regard to the _inorganic matters of peat_ considered as food
+to plants, it is obvious, that, leaving out of the account for the
+present, some exceptional cases, they are useful as far as they go.
+
+In the ashes of peats, we almost always find small quantities of
+sulphate of lime, magnesia and phosphoric acid. Potash and soda too, are
+often present, though rarely to any considerable amount. Carbonate and
+sulphate of lime are large ingredients of the ashes of about one-half,
+of the thirty-three peats and swamp mucks I have examined. The ashes of
+the other half are largely mixed with sand and soil, but in most cases
+also contain considerable sulphate of lime, and often carbonates of
+lime and magnesia.
+
+In one swamp-muck, from Milford, Conn., there was found but two _per
+cent._ of ash, at least one-half of which was sand, and the remainder
+sulphate of lime, (gypsum.) In other samples 20, 30, 50 and even 60 _per
+cent._ remained after burning off the organic matter. In these cases the
+ash is chiefly sand. The amount of ash found in those peats which were
+most free from sand, ranges from five to nine _per cent._ Probably the
+average proportion of true ash, viz.: that derived from the organic
+matters themselves, not including sand and accidental ingredients, is
+not far from five _per cent._
+
+In twenty-two specimens of European peat, examined by Websky, Jæckel,
+Walz, Wiegmann, Einhof and Berthier, eleven contained from 0.6 to 3.5
+_per cent._ of ash. The other eleven yielded from 5.3 to 22 _per cent._
+The average of the former was 2.4, that of the latter 12.7 _per cent._
+Most of these contained a considerable proportion of sand or soil.
+
+Variation in the composition as well as in the quantity of ash is very
+great.
+
+Three analyses of peat-ashes have been executed at the author's instance
+with the subjoined results:
+
+
+                      ANALYSES OF PEAT-ASHES.
+ ---------------------------+-----------+-----------+----------
+                            |     A.    |     B.    |     C.
+ Potash.                    |    0.69   |    0.80   |    3.46
+ Soda.                      |    0.58   |           |   trace.
+ Lime.                      |   40.52   |   35.59   |    6.60
+ Magnesia.                  |    6.06   |    4.92   |    1.05
+ Oxide of iron and alumina. |    5.17   |    9.08   |   15.59
+ Phosphoric acid.           |    0.50   |    0.77   |    1.55
+ Sulphuric acid.            |    5.52   |   10.41   |    4.04
+ Chlorine.                  |    0.15   |    0.43   |    0.70
+ Soluble silica.            |    8.23   |    1.40 } |
+ Carbonic acid.             |   19.60   |   22.28 } |   67.01
+ Sand.                      |   12.11   |   15.04 } |
+                            +-----------+-----------+----------
+                            |   99.13   |  100.74   |  100.00
+ ---------------------------+-----------+-----------+----------
+
+A was furnished by Mr. Daniel Buck, Jr., of Poquonock, Conn., and comes
+from a peat which he uses as fuel.
+
+B was sent by Mr. J. H. Stanwood, of Colebrook, Conn.
+
+C was sent from Guilford, Conn., by Mr. Andrew Foote.[5]
+
+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.
+
+The causes of this variation in the ash-content of peat, deserve a
+moment's notice. The plants that produce peat contain considerable
+proportions of lime, magnesia, alkalies, sulphuric acid, chlorine and
+phosphoric acid, as seen from the following analysis by Websky.
+
+ COMPOSITION OF THE ASH OF SPHAGNUM.
+
+ Potash.                        17.2
+ Soda.                           8.3
+ Lime.                          11.8
+ Magnesia.                       6.7
+ Sulphuric acid.                 6.5
+ Chlorine.                       6.2
+ Phosphoric acid.                6.7
+     _Per cent._ of ash, 2.5.
+
+The mineral matters of the sphagnum do not all become ingredients of
+the peat; but, as rapidly as the moss decays below, its soluble matters
+are to a great degree absorbed by the vegetation, which is still living
+and growing above. Again, when a stream flows through a peat-bed,
+soluble matters are carried away by the water, which is often dark-brown
+from the substances dissolved in it. Finally the soil of the adjacent
+land is washed or blown upon the swamp, in greater or less quantities.
+
+III.--_The decomposition of peat in the soil offers some peculiarities_
+that are worthy of notice in this place. Peat is more gradual and
+regular in decay than the vegetable matters of stable dung, or than that
+furnished by turning under sod or green crops. It is thus a more steady
+and lasting benefit, especially in light soils, out of which ordinary
+vegetable manures disappear too rapidly. The decay of peat appears to
+proceed through a regular series of steps. In the soil, especially in
+contact with soluble alkaline bodies, as ammonia and lime, there is a
+progressive conversion of the _insoluble_ or _less soluble_ into
+_soluble_ compounds. Thus the inert matters that resist the immediate
+solvent power of alkalies, absorb oxygen from the air, and form the
+humic or ulmic acids soluble in alkalies; the humic acids undergo
+conversion into crenic acid, and this body, by oxidation, passes into
+apocrenic acid. The two latter are soluble in water, and, in the porous
+soil, they are rapidly brought to the end-results of decay, viz.: water,
+carbonic acid, ammonia and free nitrogen.
+
+Great differences must be observed, however, in the rapidity with which
+these changes take place. Doubtless they go on most slowly in case of
+the fibrous compact peats, and perhaps some of the lighter and more
+porous samples of swamp muck, would decay nearly as fast as rotted
+stable dung.
+
+It might appear from the above statement, that the effect of exposing
+peat to the air, as is done when it is incorporated with the soil, would
+be to increase relatively the amount of soluble organic matters; but the
+truth is, that they are often actually diminished. In fact, the
+oxidation and consequent removal of these soluble matters (crenic and
+apocrenic acids,) is likely to proceed more rapidly than they can be
+produced from the less soluble humic acid of the peat.
+
+IV.--_Comparison of Peat with Stable Manure._
+
+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.
+
+As before insisted upon, it is true in general, that peat is more slow
+of decomposition than yard-manure, and this fact, which is an advantage
+in an amendment, is a disadvantage in a fertilizer. Though there may be
+some peats, or rather swamp mucks, which are energetic and rapid in
+their action, it seems that they need to be applied in larger quantities
+than stable manure in order to produce corresponding fertilizing
+effects. In many cases peat requires some preparation by weathering, or
+by chemical action--"fermentation"--induced by decomposing animal
+matters or by alkalies. This topic will shortly be discussed.
+
+We adopt, as a general fact, the conclusion that peat is inferior in
+fertilizing power to stable manure.
+
+Experience asserts, however, with regard to some individual kinds, that
+they are equal to common yard manure without any preparation whatever.
+
+Mr. Daniel Buck, of Poquonock, Conn., says, of the 'muck,' over-lying
+the peat, whose composition has just been compared with stable manure,
+that it "has been applied fresh to meadow with good results; the grass
+is not as tall but thicker and finer, and of a darker green in the
+spring, than when barn-yard manure is spread on."
+
+A swamp muck, from Mr. A. M. Haling, Rockville, Conn., "has been used as
+a top-dressing, on grass, with excellent results. It is a good
+substitute for barn-yard manure."
+
+A peat, from Mr. Russell U. Peck, of Berlin, Conn., "has been used
+fresh, on corn and meadow, with good effect."
+
+Of the peat, from the 'Beaver Pond,' near New Haven, Mr. Chauncey
+Goodyear, says, "it has been largely used in a fresh state, and in this
+condition is as good as cow dung."
+
+Mr. Henry Keeler, remarks, concerning a swamp muck occurring at South
+Salem, N. Y., that "it has been used in the fresh state, applied to corn
+and potatoes, and appears to be equal to good barn manure:"
+further:--"it has rarely been weathered more than two months, and then
+applied side by side with the best yard manure has given equally good
+results."
+
+A few words as to the apparent contradiction between Chemistry, which
+says that peat is not equal to stable dung as a fertilizer, and
+Practice, which in these cases affirms that it is equal to our standard
+manure.
+
+In the first place, the chemical conclusion is a general one, and does
+not apply to individual peats, which, in a few instances, may be
+superior to yard manure. The practical judgment also is, that, in
+general, yard manure is the best.
+
+To go to the individual cases; second: A peat in which nitrogen exists
+in as large a proportion as is found in stable or yard manure, being
+used in larger quantity, or being more durable in its action, may for a
+few seasons produce better results than the latter, merely on account of
+the presence of this one ingredient, it may in fact, for the soil and
+crop to which it is applied, be a better fertilizer than yard manure,
+because nitrogen is most needed in that soil, and yet for the generality
+of soils, or in the long run, it may prove to be an inferior fertilizer.
+
+Again; third--the melioration of the physical qualities of a soil, the
+amendment of its dryness and excessive porosity, by means of peat, may
+be more effective for agricultural purposes, than the application of
+tenfold as much fertilizing, _i. e._ plant-feeding materials; in the
+same way that the mere draining of an over-moist soil often makes it
+more productive than the heaviest manuring.
+
+2.--_On the characters of Peat that are detrimental, or that may
+sometimes need correction before it is agriculturally useful._
+
+I.--_Bad effects on wet heavy soils._
+
+We have laid much stress on the amending qualities of peat, when applied
+to dry and leachy soils, which by its use are rendered more retentive of
+moisture and manure. These properties, which it would seem, are just
+adapted to renovate very light land, under certain circumstances, may
+become disadvantageous on heavier soils. On clays no application is
+needed to retain moisture. They are already too wet as a general thing.
+
+Peat, when put into the soil, lasts much longer than stubble, or green
+crops plowed in, or than long manure. If buried too deeply, or put into
+a heavy soil, especially if in large quantity, it does not decay, but
+remains wet, and tends to make a bog of the field itself.
+
+For soils that are rather heavy, it is therefore best to compost the
+peat with some rapidly fermenting manure. We thus get a compound which
+is quicker than muck, and slower than stable manure, etc., and is
+therefore better adapted to the wants of the soil than either of these
+would be alone.
+
+Here it will be seen that much depends on the character of the peat
+itself. If light and spongy, and easily dried, it may be used alone with
+advantage on loamy soils, whereas if dense, and coherent, it would most
+likely be a poor amendment on a soil which has much tendency to become
+compact, and therefore does not readily free itself from excess of
+water.
+
+But even a clay soil, if _thorough-drained and deeply plowed_, may be
+wonderfully improved by even a heavy dressing of muck, as then, the
+water being let off, the muck can exert no detrimental action; but
+operates as effectually to loosen a too heavy soil, as in case of sand,
+it makes an over-porous soil compact or retentive. A clay may be made
+friable, if well drained, by incorporating with it any substance as
+lime, sand, long manure or muck, which interposing between the clayey
+particles, prevents their adhering together.
+
+II.--_Noxious ingredients._
+
+a. _Vitriol peat._ Occasionally a peat is met with which is injurious if
+applied in the fresh state to crops, from its containing some substance
+which exerts a poisonous action on vegetation. The principal detrimental
+ingredients that occur in peat, appear to be sulphate of protoxide of
+iron,--the same body that is popularly known under the names copperas
+and green-vitriol,--and sulphate of alumina, the astringent component of
+alum.
+
+I have found these substances ready formed in large quantity in but one
+of the peats that I have examined, viz.: that sent me by Mr. Perrin
+Scarborough; of Brooklyn, Conn. This peat dissolved in water to the
+extent of 15 _per cent._, and the soluble portion, although containing
+some organic matter and sulphate of lime, consisted in great part of
+green-vitriol.
+
+Portions of this muck, when thrown up to the air, become covered with "a
+white crust, having the taste of alum or saltpeter."
+
+The bed containing this peat, though drained, yields but a little poor
+bog hay, and the peat itself, even after weathering for a year, when
+applied, mixed with one-fifth of stable manure to corn in the hill, gave
+no encouraging results, though a fair crop was obtained. It is probable
+that the sample analyzed was much richer in salts of iron and alumina,
+than the average of the muck.
+
+Green-vitriol in minute doses is not hurtful, but rather beneficial to
+vegetation; but in larger quantity it is fatally destructive.
+
+In a salt-marsh mud sent me by the Rev. Wm. Clift, of Stonington, Conn.,
+there was found sulphate of iron in considerable quantity.
+
+This noxious substance likewise occurred in small amount in swamp muck
+from E. Hoyt, Esq., New Canaan, Conn., and in hardly appreciable
+quantity in several others that I have examined. Besides green-vitriol,
+it is possible that certain organic salts of iron, may be deleterious.
+
+The poisonous properties of vitriol-peats may be effectually corrected
+by composting with lime, or wood-ashes. By the action of these
+substances, sulphate of lime, (plaster of Paris) is formed, while the
+iron separates as peroxide, which, being insoluble, is without
+deleterious effect on vegetation. Where only soluble organic salts of
+iron (crenate of iron) are present, simple exposure to the air suffices
+to render them innocuous.
+
+b. _The acidity of Peats._--Many writers have asserted that peat and
+muck possess a hurtful "acidity" which must be corrected before they can
+be usefully employed. It is indeed a fact, that peat consists largely of
+acids, but, except perhaps in the vitriol-peats, (those containing
+copperas,) they are so insoluble, or if soluble, are so quickly modified
+by the absorption of oxygen, that they do not exhibit any "acidity" that
+can be deleterious to vegetation. It is advised to neutralize this
+supposed acidity by lime or an alkali before using peat as a fertilizer
+or amendment, and there is great use in such mixtures of peat with
+alkaline matters, as we shall presently notice under the head of
+composts.
+
+By the word acidity is conveyed the idea of something hurtful to plants.
+This something is, doubtless, in many cases, the salts of iron we have
+just noticed. In others, it is simply the inertness, "coldness" of the
+peat, which is not positively injurious, but is, for a time at least, of
+no benefit to the soil.
+
+c. _Resinous matters_ are mentioned by various writers as injurious
+ingredients of peat, but I find no evidence that this notion is
+well-founded. The peat or muck formed from the decay of resinous wood
+and leaves does not appear to be injurious, and the amount of resin in
+peat is exceedingly small.
+
+3.--_The Preparation of Peat for Agricultural use._
+
+a. _Excavation._--As to the time and manner of getting out peat, the
+circumstances of each case must determine. I only venture here to offer
+a few hints on this subject, which belongs so exclusively to the farm.
+The month of August is generally the appropriate time for throwing up
+peat, as then the swamps are usually most free from water, and most
+accessible to men and teams; but peat is often dug to best advantage in
+the winter, not only on account of the cheapness of labor, and from
+there being less hurry with other matters on the farm at that season,
+but also, because the freezing and thawing of the peat that is thrown
+out, greatly aid to disintegrate it and prepare it for use.
+
+A correspondent of The _Homestead_, signing himself "Commentator," has
+given directions for getting out peat that are well worth the attention
+of farmers. He says:--
+
+     "The composting of muck and peat, with our stable and
+     barn-yard manures, is surely destined to become one of the
+     most important items in farm management throughout all the
+     older States at least. One of the difficulties which lie in
+     the way, is the first removal of the muck from its low and
+     generally watery bed; to facilitate this, in many locations,
+     it is less expensive to dry it before carting, by beginning an
+     excavation at the border of the marsh in autumn, sufficiently
+     wide for a cart path, throwing the muck out upon the surface
+     on each side, and on a floor of boards or planks, to prevent
+     it from absorbing moisture from the wet ground beneath; this
+     broad ditch to be carried a sufficient length and depth to
+     obtain the requisite quantity of muck. Thus thrown out, the
+     two piles are now in a convenient form to be covered with
+     boards, and, if properly done, the muck kept covered till the
+     succeeding autumn, will be found to be dry and light, and in
+     some cases may be carted away on the surface, or it may be
+     best to let it remain a few months longer until the bottom of
+     the ditch has become sufficiently frozen to bear a team; it
+     can then be more easily loaded upon a sled or sleigh, and
+     drawn to the yards and barn. In other localities, and where
+     large quantities are wanted, and it lies deep, a sort of
+     wooden railroad and inclined plane can be constructed by means
+     of a plank track for the wheels of the cart to run upon, the
+     team walking between these planks, and if the vehicle is
+     inclined to 'run off the track,' it may usually be prevented
+     by scantlings, say four inches thick, nailed upon one of the
+     tracks on each side of the place where the wheel should run.
+     Two or more teams and carts may now be employed, returning
+     into the excavation outside of this track. As the work
+     progresses, the track can be extended at both ends, and by
+     continuing or increasing the inclination at the upper end, a
+     large and high 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 Colebrook, Conn., that it "has
+been used to some extent as a top-dressing for grass and other crops
+with satisfactory results, _although no particular benefit was
+noticeable during the first year_. After that, the effects might be seen
+for a number of years."
+
+Rev. Wm. Clift observes, concerning a salt peat, from Stonington,
+Conn.:--"It has not been used fresh; is too acid; even potatoes do not
+yield well _in it the first season_, without manure."
+
+The nature of the chemical changes induced by weathering, is to some
+extent understood so far as the nitrogen, the most important fertilizing
+element, is concerned. The nitrogen of peat, as we have seen, is mostly
+inert, a small portion of it only, existing in a soluble or available
+form. By weathering, portions of this nitrogen become converted into
+nitric acid. This action goes on at the surface of the heap, where it is
+most fully exposed to the air. Below, where the peat is more moist,
+ammonia is formed, perhaps simply by the reduction of nitric acid--not
+unlikely also, by the transformation of inert nitrogen. On referring to
+the analyses given on page 44, it is seen, that the first two samples
+contain but little ammonia and no nitric acid. Though it is not stated
+what was the condition of these peats, it is probable they had not been
+weathered. The other four samples were weathered, and the weathering had
+been the more effectual from the large admixture of sand with them. They
+yielded to the analyst very considerable quantities of ammonia and
+nitrates.
+
+When a peat contains sulphate of protoxide of iron, or soluble organic
+salts of iron, to an injurious extent, these may be converted into other
+insoluble and innocuous bodies, by a sufficient exposure to the air.
+Sulphate of protoxide of iron is thus changed into sulphate of peroxide
+of iron, which is insoluble, and can therefore exert no hurtful effect
+on vegetation, while the soluble organic bodies of peat are oxydized and
+either converted into carbonic acid gas, carbonate of ammonia and water,
+or else made insoluble.
+
+It is not probable, however, that merely throwing up a well
+characterized vitriol-peat into heaps, and exposing it thus imperfectly
+to the atmosphere, is sufficient to correct its bad qualities. Such
+peats need the addition of some alkaline body, as ammonia, lime, or
+potash, to render them salutary fertilizers.
+
+c. _This brings us to the subject of composting_, which appears to be
+the best means of taking full advantage of all the good qualities of
+peat, and of obviating or neutralizing the ill results that might follow
+the use of some raw peats, either from a peculiarity in their
+composition, (soluble organic compounds of iron, sulphate of protoxide
+of iron,) or from too great indestructibility. The chemical changes
+(oxidation of _iron_ and _organic acids_), which prepare the inert or
+even hurtful ingredients of peat to minister to the support of
+vegetation, take place most rapidly in presence of certain other
+substances.
+
+The substances which rapidly induce chemical change in peats, are of two
+kinds, viz.: 1.--animal or vegetable matters that are highly susceptible
+to alteration and decay, and 2.--alkalies, either _ammonia_ coming from
+the decomposition of animal matters, or _lime_, _potash_ and _soda_.
+
+A great variety of matters may of course be employed for making or
+mixing with peat composts; but there are comparatively few which allow
+of extensive and economical use, and our notice will be confined to
+these.
+
+First of all, the composting of peat with _animal manures_ deserves
+attention. Its advantages may be summed up in two statements.
+
+1.--It is an easy and perfect method of economizing all such manures,
+even those kinds most liable to loss by fermentation, as night soil and
+horse dung; and,
+
+2.--It develops most fully and speedily the inert fertilizing qualities
+of the peat itself.
+
+Without attempting any explanation of the changes undergone by a peat
+and manure compost, further than to say that the fermentation which
+begins in the manure extends to and involves the peat, reducing the
+whole nearly, if not exactly, to the condition of well-rotted dung, and
+that in this process the peat effectually prevents the loss of nitrogen
+as ammonia,--I may appropriately give the practical experience of
+farmers who have proved in the most conclusive manner how profitable it
+is to devote a share of time and labor to the manufacture of this kind
+of compost.
+
+_Preparation of Composts with Stable Manure._--The best plan of
+composting is to have a water tight trench, four inches deep and twenty
+inches wide, constructed in the stable floor, immediately behind the
+cattle, and every morning put a bushel-basketful of muck behind each
+animal. In this way the urine is perfectly absorbed by the muck, while
+the warmth of the freshly voided excrements so facilitates the
+fermentative process, that, according to Mr. F. Holbrook, Brattleboro,
+Vt., who has described this method, _much more muck can thus be well
+prepared for use_ in the spring, than by any of the ordinary modes of
+composting. When the dung and muck are removed from the stable, they
+should be well intermixed, and as fast as the compost is prepared, it
+should be put into a compact heap, and covered with a layer of muck
+several inches thick. It will then hardly require any shelter if used in
+the spring.
+
+If the peat be sufficiently dry and powdery, or free from tough lumps,
+it may usefully serve as bedding, or litter for horses and cattle, as it
+absorbs the urine, and is sufficiently mixed with the dung in the
+operation of cleaning the stable. It is especially good in the pig-pen,
+where the animals themselves work over the compost in the most thorough
+manner, especially if a few kernels of corn be occasionally scattered
+upon it.
+
+Mr. Edwin Hoyt, of New Canaan, Conn., writes:--"Our horse stables are
+constructed with a movable floor and pit beneath, which holds 20 loads
+of muck of 25 bushels per load. Spring and fall, this pit is filled with
+fresh muck, which receives all the urine of the horses, and being
+occasionally worked over and mixed, furnishes us annually with 40 loads
+of the most valuable manure."
+
+"Our stables are sprinkled with muck every morning, at the rate of one
+bushel per stall, and the smell of ammonia, etc., so offensive in most
+stables, is never perceived in ours. Not only are the stables kept
+sweet, but the ammonia is saved by this procedure."
+
+When it is preferred to make the compost out of doors, the plan
+generally followed is to lay down a bed of weathered peat, say eight to
+twelve inches thick; cover this with a layer of stable dung, of four to
+eight inches; put on another stratum of peat, and so, until a heap of
+three to four feet is built up. The heap may be six to eight feet wide,
+and indefinitely long. It should be finished with a thick coating of
+peat, and the manure should be covered as fast as brought out.
+
+The proportions of manure and peat should vary somewhat according to
+their quality and characters. Strawy manure, or that from milch-cows,
+will "ferment" less peat than clear dung, especially when the latter is
+made by horses or highly fed animals. Some kinds of peat heat much
+easier than others. There are peats which will ferment of themselves in
+warm moist weather--even in the bog, giving off ammonia in perceptible
+though small amount. Experience is the only certain guide as to the
+relative quantities to be employed, various proportions from one to five
+of peat for one of manure, by bulk, being used.
+
+When the land is light and needs amending, as regards its retentive
+power, it is best to make the quantity of peat as large as can be
+thoroughly fermented by the manure.
+
+The making of a high heap, and the keeping it trim and in shape, is a
+matter requiring more labor than is generally necessary. Mr. J. H.
+Stanwood, of Colebrook, Conn., writes me:--
+
+"My method of composting is as follows: I draw my muck to the barn-yard,
+placing the loads as near together as I can tip them from the cart. Upon
+this I spread whatever manure I have at hand, and mix with the feet of
+the cattle, and heap up with a scraper."
+
+Peat may be advantageously used to save from waste the droppings of the
+yard.
+
+Mr. Edwin Hoyt, of New Canaan, Conn., says:--"We use muck largely in our
+barn-yards, and after it becomes thoroughly saturated and intermixed
+with the droppings of the stock, it is piled up to ferment, and the yard
+is covered again with fresh muck."
+
+Mr. N. Hart, Jr., of West Cornwall, Conn., writes:--"In the use of muck
+we proceed as follows: Soon after haying we throw up enough for a year's
+use, or several hundred loads. In the fall, the summer's accumulation in
+hog-pens and barn cellars is spread upon the mowing grounds, and a
+liberal supply of muck carted in and spread in the bottoms of the
+cellars, ready for the season for stabling cattle. When this is well
+saturated with the drippings of the stables, a new supply is added. The
+accumulation of the winter is usually applied to the land for the corn
+crop, except the finer portion, which is used to top-dress meadow land.
+A new supply is then drawn in for the swine to work up. This is added to
+from time to time, and as the swine are fed on whey, they will convert a
+large quantity into valuable manure for top-dressing mowing land."
+
+A difference of opinion exists as to the treatment of the compost. Some
+hold it indifferent whether the peat and manure are mixed, or put in
+layers when the composting begins. Others assert, that the fermentation
+proceeds better when the ingredients are stratified. Some direct, that
+the compost should not be stirred. The general testimony is, that
+mixture, at the outset, is as effectual as putting up in layers; but,
+if the manure be strawy, it is, of course, difficult or impracticable to
+mix at first. Opinion also preponderates in favor of stirring, during or
+after the fermentation.
+
+Mr. Hoyt remarks:--"We are convinced, that the oftener a compost pile of
+yard manure and muck is worked over after fermenting, the better. We
+work it over and add to it a little more muck and other material, and
+the air being thus allowed to penetrate it, a new fermentation or
+heating takes place, rendering it more decomposable and valuable."
+
+Rev. Wm. Clift, writes:--"Three or four loads of muck to one of stable
+manure, put together in the fall or winter in alternate layers, forked
+over twice before spreading and plowing in, may represent the method of
+composting."
+
+Mr. Adams White, of Brooklyn, Conn., proceeds in a different manner. He
+says:--"In composting, 20 loads are drawn on to upland in September, and
+thrown up in a long pile. Early in the spring 20 loads of stable manure
+are laid along side, and covered with the muck. As soon as it has heated
+moderately, the whole is forked over and well mixed."
+
+Those who have practiced making peat composts with their yard, stable,
+and pen manure, almost invariably find them highly satisfactory in use,
+especially upon light soils.
+
+A number of years ago, I saw a large pile of compost in the farm-yard of
+Mr. Pond, of Milford, Conn., and witnessed its effect as applied by that
+gentleman to a field of sixteen acres of fine gravelly or coarse sandy
+soil. The soil, from having a light color and excessive porosity, had
+become dark, unctuous, and retentive of moisture, so that during the
+drouth of 1856, the crops on this field were good and continued to
+flourish, while on the contiguous land they were dried up and nearly
+ruined. This compost was made from a light muck, that contained but
+three _per cent._ of ash (more than half of which was sand), and but 1.2
+_per cent._ of nitrogen, in the air-dry state--(twenty _per cent._ of
+water). Three loads of this muck were used to one of stable manure.
+
+Here follow some estimates of the value of this compost by practical
+men. They are given to show that older statements, to the same effect,
+cannot be regarded as exaggerated.
+
+Mr. J. H. Stanwood, of Colebrook, Conn., says:--"Experiments made by
+myself, have confirmed me in the opinion that a compost of equal parts
+of muck and stable manure is equal to the same quantity of stable
+manure."
+
+Mr. Daniel Buck, Jr., of Poquonock, Conn., remarks:--"8 loads of muck
+and 4 of manure in compost, when properly forked over, are equal to 12
+loads of barn-yard manure on sandy soil."
+
+Rev. Wm. Clift, of Stonington, Conn., writes:--"I consider a compost
+made of one load of stable manure and three of muck, equal in value to
+four loads of yard manure."
+
+Mr. N. Hart, Jr., of West Cornwall, Conn., observes of a peat sent by
+him for analysis:--"We formerly composted it in the yard with stable
+manure, but have remodeled our stables, and now use it as an absorbent
+and to increase the bulk of manure to double its original quantity. We
+consider the mixture more valuable than the same quantity of stable
+manure." Again, "so successful has been the use of it, that we could
+hardly carry on our farming operations without it."
+
+Mr. Adams White, of Brooklyn, Conn., states:--"The compost of equal
+bulks of muck and stable manure, has been used for corn (with plaster in
+the hill,) on dry sandy soil to great advantage. I consider the compost
+worth more per cord than the barn-yard manure."
+
+_Night Soil_ is a substance which possesses, when fresh, the most
+valuable fertilizing qualities, in a very concentrated form. It is also
+one which is liable to rapid and almost complete deterioration, as I
+have demonstrated by analyses. The only methods of getting the full
+effect of this material are, either to use it fresh, as is done by the
+Chinese and Japanese on a most extensive and offensive scale; or to
+compost it before it can decompose. The former method, will, it is to be
+hoped, never find acceptance among us. The latter plan has nearly all
+the advantages of the former, without its unpleasant features.
+
+When the night soil falls into a vault, it may be composted, by simply
+sprinkling fine peat over its surface, once or twice weekly, as the case
+may require, _i. e._ as often as a bad odor prevails. The quantity thus
+added, may be from twice to ten times the bulk of the night soil,--the
+more within these limits, the better. When the vault is full, the mass
+should be removed, worked well over and after a few days standing, will
+be ready to use to manure corn, tobacco, etc., in the hill, or for any
+purpose to which guano or poudrette is applied. If it cannot be shortly
+used, it should be made into a compact heap, and covered with a thick
+stratum of peat. When signs of heating appear, it should be watched
+closely; and if the process attains too much violence, additional peat
+should be worked into it. Drenching with water is one of the readiest
+means of checking too much heating, but acts only temporarily. Dilution
+with peat to a proper point, which experience alone can teach, is the
+surest way of preventing loss. It should not be forgotten to put a thick
+layer of peat at the bottom of the vault to begin with.
+
+Another excellent plan, when circumstances admit, is, to have the
+earth-floor where the night soil drops, level with the surface of the
+ground, or but slightly excavated, and a shed attached to the rear of
+the privy to shelter a good supply of peat as well as the compost
+itself. Operations are begun by putting down a layer of peat to receive
+the droppings; enough should be used to absorb all the urine. When this
+is nearly saturated, more should be sprinkled on, and the process is
+repeated until the accumulations must be removed to make room for more.
+Then, once a week or so, the whole is hauled out into the shed, well
+mixed, and formed into a compact heap, or placed as a layer upon a
+stratum of peat, some inches thick, and covered with the same. The
+quantity of first-class compost that may be made yearly upon any farm,
+if due care be taken, would astonish those who have not tried it. James
+Smith, of Deanston, Scotland, who originated our present system of
+Thorough Drainage, asserted, that the excrements of one man for a year,
+are sufficient to manure half an acre of land. In Belgium the manure
+from such a source has a commercial value of $9.00 gold.
+
+It is certain, that the skillful farmer may make considerably more than
+that sum from it in New England, _per annum_. Mr. Hoyt, of New Canaan,
+Conn., says:--
+
+"Our privies are deodorized by the use of muck, which is sprinkled over
+the surface of the pit once a week, and from them alone we thus prepare
+annually, enough "poudrette" to manure our corn in the hill."
+
+_Peruvian Guano_, so serviceable in its first applications to light
+soils, may be composted with muck to the greatest advantage. Guano is an
+excellent material for bringing muck into good condition, and on the
+other hand the muck most effectually prevents any waste of the costly
+guano, and at the same time, by furnishing the soil with its own
+ingredients, to a greater or less degree prevents the exhaustion that
+often follows the use of guano alone. The quantity of muck should be
+pretty large compared to that of the guano,--a bushel of guano will
+compost six, eight, or ten of muck. Both should be quite fine, and
+should be well mixed, the mixture should be moist and kept covered with
+a layer of muck of several inches of thickness. This sort of compost
+would probably be sufficiently fermented in a week or two of warm
+weather, and should be made and kept under cover.
+
+If no more than five or six parts of muck to one of guano are employed,
+the compost, according to the experience of Simon Brown, Esq., of the
+Boston _Cultivator_, (Patent Office Report for 1856), will prove
+injurious, if placed in the hill in contact with seed, but may be
+applied broadcast without danger.
+
+The _Menhaden_ or "_White fish_", so abundantly caught along our Sound
+coast during the summer months, or any variety of fish may be composted
+with muck, so as to make a powerful manure, with avoidance of the
+excessively disagreeable stench which is produced when these fish are
+put directly on the land. Messrs. Stephen Hoyt & Sons, of New Canaan,
+Conn., make this compost on a large scale. I cannot do better than to
+give entire Mr. Edwin Hoyt's account of their operations, communicated
+to me several years ago.
+
+"During the present season, (1858,) we have composted about 200,000
+white fish with about 700 loads (17,500 bushels) of muck. We vary the
+proportions somewhat according to the crop the compost is intended for.
+For rye we apply 20 to 25 loads per acre of a compost made with 4,500
+fish, (one load) and with this manuring, no matter how poor the soil,
+the rye will be as large as a man can cradle. Much of ours we have to
+reap. For oats we use less fish, as this crop is apt to lodge. For corn,
+one part fish to ten or twelve muck is about right, while for grass or
+any top-dressing, the proportion of fish may be increased."
+
+"We find it is best to mix the fish in the summer and not use the
+compost until the next spring and summer. Yet we are obliged to use in
+September for our winter rye a great deal of the compost made in July.
+We usually compost the first arrivals of fish in June for our winter
+grain; after this pile has stood three or four weeks, it is worked over
+thoroughly. In this space of time the fish become pretty well
+decomposed, though they still preserve their form and smell
+outrageously. As the pile is worked over, a sprinkling of muck or
+plaster is given to retain any escaping ammonia. At the time of use in
+September the fish have completely disappeared, bones and fins
+excepted."
+
+"The effect on the muck is to blacken it and make it more loose and
+crumbly. As to the results of the use of this compost, we find them in
+the highest degree satisfactory. We have raised 30 to 35 bushels of rye
+per acre on land that without it could have yielded 6 or 8 bushels at
+the utmost. This year we have corn that will give 60 to 70 bushels per
+acre, that otherwise would yield but 20 to 25 bushels. It makes large
+potatoes, excellent turnips and carrots."
+
+Fish compost thus prepared, is a uniform mass of fishy but not
+putrefactive odor, not disagreeable to handle. It retains perfectly all
+the fertilizing power of the fish. Lands, manured with this compost,
+will keep in heart and improve: while, as is well known to our coast
+farmers, the use of fish alone is ruinous in the end, on light soils.
+
+It is obvious that _any other easily decomposing animal matters, as
+slaughter-house offal, soap boiler's scraps, glue waste, horn shavings,
+shoddy, castor pummace, cotton seed-meal, etc., etc._, may be composted
+in a similar manner, and that several or all these substances may be
+made together into one compost.
+
+In case of the composts with yard manure, guano and other animal
+matters, the alkali, _ammonia_, formed in the fermentation, greatly
+promotes chemical change, and it would appear that this substance, on
+some accounts, excels all others in its efficacy. The other alkaline
+bodies, _potash_, _soda_ and _lime_, are however scarcely less active in
+this respect, and being at the same time, of themselves, useful
+fertilizers, they also may be employed in preparing muck composts.
+
+_Potash-lye_ and _soda-ash_ have been recommended for composting with
+muck; but, although they are no doubt highly efficacious, they are too
+costly for extended use.
+
+The other alkaline materials that may be cheaply employed, and are
+recommended, are _wood-ashes_, leached and unleached, _ashes of peat_,
+_shell marl_, (consisting of carbonate of lime,) _quick lime_, _gas
+lime_, and what is called "_salt and lime mixture_."
+
+With regard to the proportions to be used, no very definite rules can be
+laid down; but we may safely follow those who have had experience in the
+matter. Thus, to a cord of muck, which is about 100 bushels, may be
+added, of unleached wood ashes twelve bushels, or of leached wood ashes
+twenty bushels, or of peat ashes twenty bushels, or of marl, or of gas
+lime twenty bushels. Ten bushels of quick lime, slaked with water or
+salt-brine previous to use, is enough for a cord of muck.
+
+Instead of using the above mentioned substances singly, any or all of
+them may be employed together.
+
+The muck should be as fine and free from lumps as possible, and must be
+intimately mixed with the other ingredients by shoveling over. The mass
+is then thrown up into a compact heap, which may be four feet high. When
+the heap is formed, it is well to pour on as much water as the mass will
+absorb, (this may be omitted if the muck is already quite moist,) and
+finally the whole is covered over with a few inches of pure muck, so as
+to retain moisture and heat. If the heap is put up in the Spring, it may
+stand undisturbed for one or two months, when it is well to shovel it
+over and mix it thoroughly. It should then be built up again, covered
+with fresh muck, and allowed to stand as before until thoroughly
+decomposed. The time required for this purpose varies with the kind of
+muck, and the quality of the other material used. The weather and
+thoroughness of intermixture of the ingredients also materially affect
+the rapidity of decomposition. In all cases five or six months of summer
+weather is a sufficient time to fit these composts for application to
+the soil.
+
+Mr. Stanwood of Colebrook, Conn., says: "I have found a compost made of
+two bushels of unleached ashes to twenty-five of muck, superior to
+stable manure as a top-dressing for grass, on a warm, dry soil."
+
+N. Hart, Jr., of West Cornwall, Conn., states: "I have mixed 25 bushels
+of ashes with the same number of loads of muck, and applied it to 3/4 of
+an acre. The result was far beyond that obtained by applying 300 lbs.
+best guano to the same piece."
+
+The use of "_salt and lime mixture_" is so strongly recommended, that a
+few words may be devoted to its consideration.
+
+When quick-lime is slaked with a brine of common salt (chloride of
+sodium), there are formed by double decomposition, small portions of
+caustic soda and chloride of calcium, which dissolve in the liquid. If
+the solution stand awhile, carbonic acid is absorbed from the air,
+forming carbonate of soda: but carbonate of soda and chloride of calcium
+instantly exchange their ingredients, forming insoluble carbonate of
+lime and reproducing common salt.
+
+When the fresh mixture of quick-lime and salt is incorporated with _any
+porous body_, as soil or peat, then, as Graham has shown, _unequal
+diffusion_ of the caustic soda and chloride of calcium occurs from the
+point where they are formed, through the moist porous mass, and the
+result is, that the small portion of caustic soda which diffuses most
+rapidly, or the carbonate of soda formed by its speedy union with
+carbonic acid, is removed from contact with the chloride of calcium.
+
+Soda and carbonate of soda are more soluble in water and more strongly
+alkaline than lime. They, therefore, act on peat more energetically than
+the latter. It is on account of the formation of soda and carbonate of
+soda from the lime and salt mixture, that this mixture exerts a more
+powerful decomposing action than lime alone. Where salt is cheap and
+wood ashes scarce, the mixture may be employed accordingly to advantage.
+Of its usefulness we have the testimony of practical men.
+
+Says Mr. F. Holbrook of Vermont, (Patent Office Report for 1856, page
+193.) "I had a heap of seventy-five half cords of muck mixed with lime
+in the proportion of a half cord of muck to a bushel of lime. The muck
+was drawn to the field when wanted in August. A bushel of salt to six
+bushels of lime was dissolved in water enough to slake the lime down to
+a fine dry powder, the lime being slaked no faster than wanted, and
+spread immediately while warm, over the layers of muck, which were about
+six inches thick; then a coating of lime and so on, until the heap
+reached the height of five feet, a convenient width, and length enough
+to embrace the whole quantity of the muck. In about three weeks a
+powerful decomposition was apparent, and the heap was nicely overhauled,
+nothing more being done to it till it was loaded the next Spring for
+spreading. The compost was spread on the plowed surface of a dry sandy
+loam at the rate of about fifteen cords to the acre, and harrowed in.
+The land was planted with corn and the crop was more than sixty bushels
+to the acre."
+
+Other writers assert that they "have decomposed with this mixture, spent
+tan, saw dust, corn stalks, swamp muck, leaves from the woods, indeed
+every variety of inert substance, and in _much shorter time than it
+could be done by any other means_." (Working Farmer, Vol. III. p. 280.)
+
+Some experiments that have a bearing on the efficacy of this compost
+will be detailed presently.
+
+There is no doubt that the soluble and more active (caustic) forms of
+alkaline bodies exert a powerful decomposing and solvent action on peat.
+It is asserted too that the _nearly insoluble and less active matters of
+this kind_, also have an effect, though a less complete and rapid one.
+Thus, _carbonate of lime_ in the various forms of chalk, shell marl,[6]
+old mortar, leached ashes and peat ashes, (for in all these it is the
+chief and most "alkaline" ingredient,) is recommended to compost with
+peat. Let us inquire whether carbonate of lime can really exert any
+noticeable influence in improving the fertilizing quality of peat.
+
+In the case of vitriol peats, carbonate of lime is the cheapest and most
+appropriate means of destroying the noxious sulphate of protoxide of
+iron, and correcting their deleterious quality. When carbonate of lime
+is brought in contact with sulphate of protoxide of iron, the two bodies
+mutually decompose, with formation of sulphate of lime (gypsum) and
+carbonate of protoxide of iron. The latter substance absorbs oxygen from
+the air with the utmost avidity, and passes into the peroxide of iron,
+which is entirely inert.
+
+The admixture of any earthy matter with peat, will facilitate its
+decomposition, and make it more active chemically, in so far as it
+promotes the separation of the particles of the peat from each other,
+and the consequent access of air. This benefit may well amount to
+something when we add to peat one-fifth of its bulk of marl or leached
+ashes, but the question comes up: Do these insoluble mild alkalies exert
+any direct action? Would not as much soil of any kind be equally
+efficacious, by promoting to an equal degree the contact of oxygen from
+the atmosphere?
+
+There are two ways in which carbonate of lime may exert a chemical
+action on the organic matters of peat. Carbonate of lime, itself, in the
+forms we have mentioned, is commonly called insoluble in water. It is,
+however, soluble to a very slight extent; it dissolves, namely, in about
+30,000 times its weight of pure water. It is nearly thirty times more
+soluble in water saturated with carbonic acid; and this solution has
+distinct alkaline characters. Since the water contained in a heap of
+peat must be considerably impregnated with carbonic acid, it follows
+that when carbonate of lime is present, the latter must form a
+solution, very dilute indeed, but still capable of some direct effect on
+the organic matters of the peat, when it acts through a long space of
+time. Again, it is possible that the solution of carbonate of lime in
+carbonic acid, may act to liberate some ammonia from the soluble
+portions of the peat, and this ammonia may react on the remainder of the
+peat to produce the same effects as it does in the case of a compost
+made with animal matters.
+
+Whether the effects thus theoretically possible, amount to anything
+practically important, is a question of great interest. It often happens
+that opinions entertained by practical men, not only by farmers, but by
+mechanics and artisans as well, are founded on so untrustworthy a basis,
+are supported by trials so destitute of precision, that their accuracy
+may well be doubted, and from all the accounts I have met with, it does
+not seem to have been well established, practically, that composts made
+with carbonate of lime, are better than the peat and carbonate used
+separately.
+
+Carbonate of lime (leached ashes, shell marl, etc.), is very well to use
+_in conjunction with_ peat, to furnish a substance or substances needful
+to the growth of plants, and supply the deficiencies of peat as regards
+composition. Although in the agricultural papers, numerous accounts of
+the efficacy of such mixtures are given, we do not learn from them
+whether these bodies exert any such good effect upon the peat itself, as
+to warrant the trouble of making a _compost_.
+
+4.--_Experiments by the author on the effect of alkaline bodies in
+developing the fertilizing power of Peat._
+
+During the summer of 1862, the author undertook a series of experiments
+with a view of ascertaining the effect of various composting materials
+upon peat.
+
+Two bushels of peat were obtained from a heap that had been weathering
+for some time on the "Beaver Meadow," near New Haven. This was
+thoroughly air-dried, then crushed by the hand, and finally rubbed
+through a moderately fine sieve. In this way, the peat was brought to a
+perfectly homogeneous condition.
+
+Twelve-quart flower-pots, new from the warehouse, were filled as
+described below; the trials being made in duplicate:--
+
+Pots 1 and 2 contained each 270 grammes of peat.
+
+Pots 3 and 4 contained each 270 grammes of peat, mixed-with 10 grammes
+of ashes of young grass.
+
+Pots 5 and 6 contained each 270 grammes of peat, 10 grammes of ashes,
+and 10 grammes of carbonate of lime.
+
+Pots 7 and 8 contained each 270 grammes of peat, 10 grammes of ashes,
+and 10 grammes of slaked (hydrate of) lime.
+
+Pots 9 and 10 contained each 270 grammes of peat, 10 grammes of ashes,
+and 5 grammes of lime, slaked with strong solution of common salt.
+
+Pots 11 and 12 contained each 270 grammes of peat, 10 grammes of ashes,
+and 3 grammes of Peruvian guano.
+
+In each case the materials were thoroughly mixed together, and so much
+water was cautiously added as served to wet them thoroughly. Five
+kernels of dwarf (pop) corn were planted in each pot, the weight of each
+planting being carefully ascertained.
+
+The pots were disposed in a glazed case within a cold grapery,[7] and
+were watered when needful with pure water. The seeds sprouted duly, and
+developed into healthy plants. The plants served thus as tests of the
+chemical effect of carbonate of lime, of slaked lime, and of salt and
+lime mixture, on the peat. The guano pots enabled making a comparison
+with a well-known fertilizer. The plants were allowed to grow until
+those best developed, enlarged above, not at the expense of the peat,
+etc., but of their own lower leaves, as shown by the withering of the
+latter. They were then cut, and, after drying in the air, were weighed
+with the subjoined results.
+
+                 VEGETATION EXPERIMENTS IN PEAT COMPOSTS.
+ KEY
+ A - _Weight of crops in grammes._
+ B - _Comparative weight of crops, the sum of 1. and 2. taken as unity._
+ C - _Ratio of weight of crops to weight of seeds, the latter assumed
+     as unity._
+
+ -------------------------------------------+---------------+----+-------
+ _Nos._       _Medium of Growth._           |      A        |  B |    C
+ -------------------------------------------+---------------+----+-------
+   1 }                                      |  1.61}        |    |
+   2 }  Peat alone.                         |  2.59}   4.20 |  1 |  2-1/2
+                                            |               |    |
+   3 }                                      | 14.19}        |    |
+   4 }  Peat, and ashes of grass,           | 18.25}  32.44 |  8 | 20-1/2
+                                            |               |    |
+   5 }                                      | 18.19}        |    |
+   6 }  Peat, ashes, and carbonate of lime, | 20.25}  38.44 |  9 | 25-1/2
+                                            |               |    |
+   7 }                                      | 21.49}        |    |
+   8 }  Peat, ashes, and slaked lime,       | 20.73}  42.22 | 10 | 28-1/2
+                                            |               |    |
+   9 }                                      | 23.08}        |    |
+  10 }  Peat, ashes, slaked lime, and salt, | 23.34}  46.42 | 11 | 30-1/2
+                                            |               |    |
+  11 }                                      | 26.79}        |    |
+  12 }  Peat, ashes, and Peruvian Guano,    | 26.99}  53.78 | 13 | 35-1/2
+ -------------------------------------------+---------------+----+-------
+
+Let us now examine the above results. The experiments 1 and 2,
+demonstrate that the peat itself is deficient in something needful to
+the plant. In both pots, but 4.2 grammes of crop were produced, a
+quantity two and a half times greater than that of the seeds, which
+weighed 1.59 grammes. The plants were pale in color, slender, and
+reached a height of but about six inches.
+
+Nos. 3 and 4 make evident what are some of the deficiencies of the peat.
+A supply of mineral matters, such as are contained in all plants, being
+made by the addition of _ashes_, consisting chiefly of phosphates,
+carbonates and sulphates of lime, magnesia and potash, a crop is
+realized nearly eight times greater than in the previous cases; the
+yield being 32.44 grammes, or 20-1/2 times the weight of the seed. The
+quantity of ashes added, viz.:--10 grammes, was capable of supplying
+every mineral element, greatly in excess of the wants of any crop that
+could be grown in a quart of soil. The plants in pots 3 and 4 were much
+stouter than those in 1 and 2, and had a healthy color.
+
+The experiments 5 and 6 appear to demonstrate that _carbonate of lime_
+considerably aided in converting the peat itself into plant-food. The
+ashes alone contained enough carbonate of lime to supply the wants of
+the plant in respect to that substance. More carbonate of lime could
+only operate by acting on the organic matters of the peat. The amount of
+the crop is raised by the effect of carbonate of lime from 32.44 to
+38.44 grammes, or from 20-1/2 to 25-1/2 times that of the seed.
+
+Experiments 7 and 8 show, that _slaked lime_ has more effect than the
+carbonate, as we should anticipate. Its influence does not, however,
+exceed that of the carbonate very greatly, the yield rising from 38.44
+to 42.22 grammes, or from 25-1/2 to 28-1/2 times the weight of the seed.
+In fact, quick-lime can only act as such for a very short space of time,
+since it rapidly combines with the carbonic acid, which is supplied
+abundantly by the peat. In experiments 7 and 8, a good share of the
+influence exerted must therefore be actually ascribed to the carbonate,
+rather than to the quick-lime itself.
+
+In experiments 9 and 10, we have proof that the "_lime and salt
+mixture_" has a greater efficacy than lime alone, the crop being
+increased thereby from 42.22, to 46.42 grammes, or from 28-1/2 to 30-1/2
+times that of the seed.
+
+Finally, we see from experiments 11 and 12 that in all the foregoing
+cases it was a limited supply of _nitrogen_ that limited the crop; for,
+on adding Peruvian guano, which could only act by this element (its
+other ingredients, phosphates of lime and potash, being abundantly
+supplied in the ashes), the yield was carried up to 53.78 grammes, or
+35-1/2 times the weight of the seed, and 13 times the weight of the crop
+obtained from the unmixed peat.
+
+
+5.--_The Examination of Peat (muck and marsh-mud) with reference to its
+Agricultural Value._
+
+Since, as we are forced to conclude, the variations in the composition
+of peat stand in no recognizable relations to differences of appearance,
+it is only possible to ascertain the value of any given specimen by
+actual trial or by chemical investigation.
+
+The method _by practical trial_ is usually the cheaper and more
+satisfactory of the two, though a half year or more is needful to gain
+the desired information.
+
+It is sufficient to apply to small measured plots of ground, each say
+two rods square, known quantities of the fresh, the weathered, and the
+composted peat in order, by comparison of the growth and _weight_ of the
+crop, to decide the question of their value.
+
+Peat and its composts are usually applied at rates ranging from 20 to 40
+wagon or cart loads per acre. There being 160 square rods in the acre,
+the quantity proper to a plot of two rods square (= four square rods,)
+would be one half to one load.
+
+The composts with stable manure and lime, or salt and lime mixture, are
+those which, in general, it would be best to experiment with. From the
+effects of the stable manure compost, could be inferred with safety the
+value of any compost, of which animal manure is an essential ingredient.
+
+One great advantage of the practical trial on the small scale is, that
+the adaptation of the peat or of the compost to the _peculiarities of
+the soil_, is decided beyond a question.
+
+It must be borne in mind, however, that the results of experiments can
+only be relied upon, when the plots are accurately measured, when the
+peat, etc., are applied in known quantities, and when the crops are
+separately harvested and carefully weighed.
+
+If experiments are made upon grass or clover, the gravest errors may
+arise by drawing conclusions from the appearance of the standing crop.
+Experience has shown that two clover crops, gathered from contiguous
+plots differently manured, may strikingly differ in appearance, but
+yield the same amounts of hay.
+
+The _chemical examination_ of a peat may serve to inform us, without
+loss of time, upon a number of important points.
+
+To test a peat for _soluble iron salts_ which might render it
+deleterious, we soak and agitate a handful for some hours, with four or
+five times its bulk of warm soft water. From a _good fresh-water peat_
+we obtain, by this treatment, a yellow liquid, more or less deep in
+tint, the taste of which is very slight and scarcely definable.
+
+From a _vitriol peat_ we get a dark-brown or black solution, which has a
+bitter, astringent, metallic or inky taste, like that of copperas.
+
+_Salt peat_ will yield a solution having the taste of salt-brine, unless
+it contains iron, when the taste of the latter will prevail.
+
+On evaporating the water-solution to dryness and heating strongly in a
+China cup, a _vitriol peat_ gives off white choking fumes of sulphuric
+acid, and there remains, after burning, brown-red oxide of iron in the
+dish.
+
+The above testings are easily conducted by any one, with the ordinary
+conveniences of the kitchen.
+
+Those that follow, require, for the most part, the chemical laboratory,
+and the skill of the practised chemist, for satisfactory execution.
+
+Besides testing for soluble iron compounds, as already indicated, the
+points to be regarded in the chemical examination, are:--
+
+1st. _Water or moisture._--This must be estimated, because it is so
+variable, and a knowledge of its quantity is needful, if we will compare
+together different samples. A weighed amount of the peat is dried for
+this purpose at 212° F., as long as it suffers loss.
+
+2d. The _proportions of organic matter and ash_ are ascertained by
+carefully burning a weighed sample of the peat. By this trial we
+distinguish between peat with 2 to 10 _per cent._ of ash and peaty soil,
+or mud, containing but a few _per cent._ of organic matter.
+
+This experiment may be made in a rough way, but with sufficient accuracy
+for common purposes, by burning a few lbs. or ozs. of peat upon a piece
+of sheet iron, or in a sauce pan, and noting the loss, which includes
+both _water_ and _organic matter_.
+
+3d. As further regards the organic matters, we ascertain _the extent to
+which the peaty decomposition has taken place_ by boiling with dilute
+solution of carbonate of soda. This solvent separates the humic and
+ulmic acids from the undecomposed vegetable fibers.
+
+For practical purposes this treatment with carbonate of soda may be
+dispensed with, since the amount of undecomposed fiber is gathered with
+sufficient accuracy from careful inspection of the peat.
+
+Special examination of the organic acids is of no consequence in the
+present state of our knowledge.
+
+4th. The _proportion of nitrogen_ is of the first importance to be
+ascertained. In examinations of 30 samples of peat, I have found the
+content of nitrogen to range from 0.4 to 2.9 _per cent._, the richest
+containing seven times as much as the poorest. It is practically a
+matter of great moment whether, for example, a Peruvian guano contains
+16 _per cent._ of nitrogen as it should, or but one-seventh that amount,
+as it may when grossly adulterated. In the same sense, it is important
+before making a heavy outlay in excavating and composting peat, to know
+whether (as regards nitrogen) it belongs to the poorer or richer sorts.
+This can only be done by the complicated methods known to the chemist.
+
+5th. The estimation of _ammonia_ (actual or ready-formed,) is a matter
+of scientific interest, but subordinate in a practical point of view.
+
+6th. _Nitric acid_ and _nitrates_ can scarcely exist in peat except
+where it is well exposed to the air, in a merely moist but not wet
+state. Their estimation in composts is of great interest, though
+troublesome to execute.
+
+7th. As regards the ash, its red color indicates _iron_. Pouring
+hydrochloric acid upon it, causes effervescence in the presence of
+_carbonate of lime_. This compound, in most cases, has been formed in
+the burning, from humate and other organic salts of lime. _Sand_, or
+_clay_, being insoluble in the acid, remains, and may be readily
+estimated.
+
+_Phosphoric acid_ and alkalies, especially _potash_, are, next to lime,
+the important ingredients of the ash. _Magnesia_ and _sulphuric acid_,
+rank next in value. Their estimation requires a number of tedious
+operations, and can scarcely be required for practical purposes, until
+more ready methods of analyses shall have been discovered.
+
+8th. The quantity of _matters soluble in water_ has considerable
+interest, but is not ordinarily requisite to be ascertained.
+
+6.--_Composition of Connecticut Peats_.
+
+In the years 1857 and 1858, the author was charged by the Connecticut
+State Agricultural Society[8] with the chemical investigation of 33
+samples of peat and swamp muck, sent to him in compliance with official
+request.
+
+In the foregoing pages, the facts revealed by the laborious analyses
+executed on these samples, have been for the most part communicated,
+together with many valuable practical results derived from the
+experience of the gentlemen who sent in the specimens. The analytical
+data themselves appear to me to be worthy of printing again, for the
+information of those who may hereafter make investigations in the same
+direction.--See Tables I, II, and III, p.p. 89, 90, and 91.
+
+The specimens came in all stages of dryness. Some were freshly dug and
+wet, others had suffered long exposure, so that they were air-dry; some
+that were sent in the moist state, became dry before being subjected to
+examination; others were prepared for analysis while still moist.
+
+A sufficient quantity of each specimen was carefully pulverized,
+intermixed, and put into a stoppered bottle and thus preserved for
+experiment.
+
+The analyses were begun in the winter of 1857 by my assistant, Edward H.
+Twining, Esq. The samples 1 to 17 of the subjoined tables were then
+analyzed. In the following year the work was continued on the remaining
+specimens 18--33 by Dr. Robert A. Fisher. The method of analysis was the
+same in both cases, except in two particulars.
+
+In the earlier analyses, 1 to 17 inclusive, the treatment with carbonate
+of soda was not carried far enough to dissolve the whole of the soluble
+organic acids. It was merely attempted to make _comparative_
+determinations by treating all alike for the same time, and with the
+same quantity of alkali. I have little doubt that in some cases not more
+than one-half of the portion really soluble in carbonate of soda is
+given as such. In the later analyses, 18 to 33, however, the treatment
+was continued until complete separation of the soluble organic acids was
+effected.
+
+By acting on a peat for a long time with a hot solution of carbonate of
+soda, there is taken up not merely a quantity of organic matter, but
+inorganic matters likewise enter solution. Silica, oxyd of iron and
+alumina are thus dissolved. In this process too, sulphate of lime is
+converted into carbonate of lime.
+
+The total amount of these soluble inorganic matters has been determined
+with approximate accuracy in analyses 18 to 33.
+
+In the analyses 1 to 17 the collective amount of matters soluble in
+water was determined. In the later analyses the proportions of organic
+and inorganic matters in the water-solution were separately estimated.
+
+The process of analysis as elaborated and employed by Dr. Fisher and the
+author, is as follows:
+
+I. To prepare a sample for analysis, half a pound, more or less, of the
+substance is pulverized and passed through a wire sieve of 24 meshes to
+the inch. It is then thoroughly mixed and bottled.
+
+II. 2 grammes of the above are dried (in tared watch-glasses) at the
+temperature of 212 degrees, until they no longer decrease in weight. The
+loss sustained represents the _amount of water_, (according to MARSILLY,
+Annales des Mines, 1857, XII., 404, peat loses carbon if dried at a
+temperature higher than 212 degrees.)
+
+III. The capsule containing the residue from I. is slowly heated to
+incipient redness, and maintained at that temperature until the organic
+matter is entirely consumed. The loss gives the total amount of
+_organic_, the residue the total amount of _inorganic_ matter.
+
+NOTE.--In peats containing sulphate of the protoxide of iron, the loss
+that occurs during ignition is partly due to the escape of sulphuric
+acid, which is set free by the decomposition of the above mentioned salt
+of iron. But the quantity is usually so small in comparison with the
+organic matter, that it may be disregarded. The same may be said of the
+combined water in the clay that is mixed with some mucks, which is only
+expelled at a high temperature.
+
+IV. 3 grammes of the sample are digested for half an hour, with 200
+cubic centimeters (66.6 times their weight,) of boiling water, then
+removed from the sand bath, and at the end of twenty-four hours, the
+clear liquid is decanted. This operation is twice repeated upon the
+residue; the three solutions are mixed, filtered, concentrated, and
+finally evaporated to dryness (in a tared platinum capsule,) over a
+water bath. The residue, which must be dried at 212 degrees, until it
+ceases to lose weight, gives the _total amount soluble in water_. The
+dried residue is then heated to low redness, and maintained at that
+temperature until the organic matter is burned off. The loss represents
+the amount of _organic matter soluble in water_, the ash gives the
+quantity of _soluble inorganic matter_.
+
+V. 1 gramme is digested for two hours, at a temperature just below the
+boiling point, with 100 cubic centimeters of a solution containing 5
+_per cent._ of crystallized carbonate of soda. It is then removed from
+the sand bath and allowed to settle. When the supernatant liquid has
+become perfectly transparent, it is carefully decanted. This operation
+is repeated until all the organic matter soluble in this menstruum is
+removed; which is accomplished as soon as the carbonate of soda solution
+comes off colorless. The residue, which is to be washed with boiling
+water until the washings no longer affect test papers, is thrown upon a
+tared filter, and dried at 212 degrees. It is the _total amount of
+organic and inorganic matter insoluble in carbonate of soda_. The loss
+that it suffers upon ignition, indicates the amount of _organic matter_,
+the ash gives the _inorganic_ matter.
+
+NOTE.--The time required to insure perfect settling after digesting with
+carbonate of soda solution, varies, with different peats, from 24 hours
+to several days. With proper care, the results obtained are very
+satisfactory. Two analyses of No. 6, executed at different times, gave
+_total insoluble in carbonate of soda_--1st analysis 23.20 _per cent._;
+2d analysis 23.45 _per cent._ These residues yielded respectively 14.30
+and 14.15 _per cent._ of ash.
+
+VI. The quantity of _organic matter insoluble in water but soluble in
+solution of carbonate of soda_, is ascertained by deducting the joint
+weight of the amounts soluble in water, and insoluble in carbonate of
+soda, from the total amount of organic matter present. The _inorganic
+matter insoluble in water, but soluble in carbonate of soda_, is
+determined by deducting the joint weight of the amounts of inorganic
+matter soluble in water, and insoluble in carbonate of soda, from the
+total inorganic matter.
+
+VII. The amount of nitrogen is estimated by the combustion of 1 gramme
+with soda-lime in an iron tube, collection of the ammonia in a standard
+solution of sulphuric acid, and determination of the residual free acid
+by an equivalent solution of caustic potash and a few drops of tincture
+of cochineal as an indicator.
+
+The results of the analyses are given in the following Tables. Table I.
+gives the direct results of analysis. In Table II. the analyses are
+calculated on dry matter, and the nitrogen upon the organic matters.
+Table III. gives a condensed statement of the external characters and
+agricultural value[9] of the samples in their different localities, and
+the names of the parties supplying them.
+
+
+ TABLE I.-COMPOSITION OF CONNECTICUT PEATS AND MUCKS.
+
+ KEY:
+ A - _Soluble in water._
+ B - _Insol. in water, but soluble in carbonate of soda._
+ C - _Insol. in water and carbonate of soda._
+ D - _Total._
+ E - _Water._
+ F - _Nitrogen._
+ G - _Total matters soluble in water._
+
+ -------------------------+-----------------------+
+                          |     ORGANIC MATTER.   |
+     _From Whom and       |-----+-----+-----+-----+
+     Whence Received_     |  A  |  B  |  C  |  D  |
+ -------------------------+~~~~~v~~~~~+-----+-----+
+  1. Lewis M. Norton.     |           |     |     |
+        Goshen Conn.      |   17.63   |34.79|52.42|
+  2.  "   "     "         |   60.02   |11.65|71.67|
+  3.  "   "     "         |   50.60   |29.75|80.35|
+  4. Messrs. Pond & Miles.|           |     |     |
+      " Milford Conn.     |   65.15   |11.95|77.10|
+  5.  "   "      "        |   67.75   |16.65|84.40|
+  6. Samuel Camp.         |           |     |     |
+       Plainville Conn.   |   43.20   | 8.90|52.10|
+  7. Russell U. Peck.     |           |     |     |
+       Berlin Conn.       |   38.49   |30.51|69.00|
+  8. Rev. B. F. Northrop. |           |     |     |
+       Griswold Conn.     |   42.30   |10.15|52.45|
+  9. J. H. Stanwood.      |           |     |     |
+       Colebrook Conn.    |   49.65   | 7.40|57.05|
+ 10. N. Hart, Jr.         |           |     |     |
+       West Cornwall Conn.|   55.11   |10.29|65.40|
+ 11. A. L. Loveland.      |           |     |     |
+        North Granby  "   |   38.27   | 2.89|41.16|
+ 12. Daniel Buck, Jr.     |           |     |     |
+        Poquonock    "    |   27.19   |48.84|76.03|
+ 13.   "     "        "   |   33.66   |40.51|74.17|
+ 14. Philip Scarborough   |           |     |     |
+        Brooklyn Conn.    |   51.45   |25.00|76.45|
+ 15. Adams White.         |           |     |     |
+        Brooklyn   "      |   54.38   |23.14|77.52|
+ 16. Paris Dyer.          |           |     |     |
+        Brooklyn   "      |   18.86   | 5.02|23.88|
+ 17. Perrin Scarborough.  |           |     |     |
+        Brooklyn Conn.    |   43.27   |16.83|60.10|
+ 18. Geo. K. Virgin.      |           |     |     |
+        Collinsville Conn.| 2.21|20.57| 8.25|31.03|
+ 19.  "   "           "   | 1.12| 9.19| 5.10|15.41|
+ 20.  "   "           "   | 0.72| 9.31| 3.65|13.68|
+ 21. S. Mead.             |     |     |     |     |
+        New Haven Conn.   | 3.30|40.52| 8.20|52.02|
+ 22. Edwin Hoyt.          |     |     |     |     |
+        New Canaan  "     | 2.84|13.42| 7.55|23.81|
+ 23.  "     "       "     | 2.34|13.49| 8.05|23.88|
+ 24.  "     "       "     | 1.15|17.29| 8.00|26.44|
+ 25. A. M. Haling.        |     |     |     |     |
+        Rockville   "     | 3.43|52.15| 8.65|64.23|
+ 26.  "     "       "     | 3.87|71.57| 8.44|83.88|
+ 27.  "     "       "     | 3.87|44.04| 4.25|52.16|
+ 28. Albert Day.          |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn    "     | 2.45|46.25| 6.35|55.05|
+ 29. C. Goodyear.         |     |     |     |     |
+        New Haven   "     | 1.80|45.42|10.35|57.57|
+ 30. Rev. Wm. Clift       |     |     |     |     |
+        Stonington  "     | 3.33|51.68| 9.80|64.81|
+ 31. Henry Keeler.        |     |     |     |     |
+        South Salem N. Y. | 2.13|45.12|12.05|59.30|
+ 32. John Adams.          |     |     |     |     |
+        Salisbury Conn.   | 1.71|42.87|10.65|55.23|
+ 33. Rev. Wm. Clift.      |     |     |     |     |
+        Stonington   "    | 5.40|16.72| 7.25|29.37|
+                          |     |     |-----|     |
+              Average     |     |     | 2.06|     |
+
+ -------------------------+-----------------------+-----+-----+-----
+                          |   INORGANIC MATTER.   |     |     |
+     _From Whom and       |-----+-----+-----+-----|     |     |
+     Whence Received_     |  A  |  B  |  C  |  D  |  E  |  F  |  G
+ -------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
+  1. Lewis M. Norton.     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Goshen Conn.      |     |     |     |35.21|12.37| 1.28| 1.54
+  2.  "   "     "         |     |     |     | 8.00|20.33| 1.85|
+  3.  "   "     "         |     |     |     | 4.52|15.13| 1.90| 2.51
+  4. Messrs. Pond & Miles.|     |     |     |     |     |     |
+      " Milford Conn.     |     |     |     | 3.23|19.67| 1.20| 1.63
+  5.  "   "      "        |     |     |     | 2.00|13.60|  .95| 3.42
+  6. Samuel Camp.         |~~~~~v~~~~~|     |     |     |     |
+       Plainville Conn.   |   14.90   |14.80|29.20|18.70| 2.10| 2.50
+  7. Russell U. Peck.     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       Berlin Conn.       |     |     |     |13.59|17.41| 1.62| 2.61
+  8. Rev. B. F. Northrop. |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       Griswold Conn.     |     |     |     |34.70|12.85| 1.31| 1.64
+  9. J. H. Stanwood.      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       Colebrook Conn.    |     |     |     | 4.57|38.38| 1.23| 1.83
+ 10. N. Hart, Jr.         |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       West Cornwall Conn.|     |     |     |14.89|19.71| 2.10| 6.20
+ 11. A. L. Loveland.      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        North Granby  "   |     |     |     |47.24|11.60| 1.00|  .75
+ 12. Daniel Buck, Jr.     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Poquonock    "    |     |     |     | 5.92|18.05| 2.40| 2.94
+ 13.   "     "        "   |     |     |     | 8.63|17.20| 2.40| 1.80
+ 14. Philip Scarborough.  |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn Conn.    |     |     |     | 7.67|15.88| 1.20| 1.43
+ 15. Adams White.         |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn   "      |     |     |     | 9.03|13.45| 2.89| 5.90
+ 16. Paris Dyer.          |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn   "      |     |     |     |67.77| 8.35| 1.03| 2.63
+ 17. Perrin Scarborough.  |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn Conn.    |     |     |     |25.78|14.12| 0.86|15.13
+ 18. Geo. K. Virgin.      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Collinsville Conn.| 0.32| 9.41|48.05|57.78|11.19| 0.64| 2.53
+ 19.  "   "           "   | 0.28| 1.08|48.65|50.01|34.58| 0.34| 1.40
+ 20.  "   "           "   | 0.25| 0.76|28.20|29.21|57.11| 0.28|  .97
+ 21. S. Mead.             |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        New Haven Conn.   | 2.60|10.02|23.90|36.52|11.46| 1.51| 5.90
+ 22. Edwin Hoyt.          |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        New Canaan  "     | 2.72|19.88|46.30|68.90| 7.29| 0.45| 5.56
+ 23.  "     "       "     | 1.54|12.42|56.20|70.16| 5.96| 0.90| 3.88
+ 24.  "     "       "     | 1.67|14.13|51.10|66.90| 6.66| 1.01| 2.82
+ 25. A. M. Haling.        |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Rockville   "     | 0.35| 0.16| 4.90| 5.41|30.36| 1.62| 3.78
+ 26.  "     "       "     | 0.23|     | 1.98| 2.21|13.91| 1.32| 4.10
+ 27.  "     "       "     | 0.51| 4.07| 5.05| 9.63|38.21| 1.88| 4.38
+ 28. Albert Day.          |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn    "     | 0.32| 0.65| 5.40| 6.37|38.58| 0.84| 2.77
+ 29. C. Goodyear.         |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        New Haven   "     | 0.35| 7.98|18.80|27.13|15.30| 1.68| 2.15
+ 30. Rev. Wm. Clift       |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Stonington  "     | 2.82|     | 5.86| 8.68|26.51| 0.95| 6.15
+ 31. Henry Keeler.        |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        South Salem N. Y. | 0.78| 3.79|16.70|21.27|19.43| 1.57| 2.91
+ 32. John Adams.          |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       Salisbury Conn.   | 1.02| 1.33|14.35|16.70|28.07| 1.76| 2.73
+ 33. Rev. Wm. Clift.      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Stonington   "    | 7.40| 6.40|48.05|61.85| 8.78| 1.32| 2.80
+                          |     |     |-----|     |     |-----|-----
+              Average     |     |     | 1.44|     |     | 1.37| 3.72
+
+
+
+TABLE II.-COMPOSITION OF CONNECTICUT PEATS AND MUCKS.
+_Calculated in the dry state: the percentage of nitrogen
+calculated also on organic matters._
+
+ KEY:
+ A - _In this table the matters soluble in water and the
+     nitrogen are calculated to two places of decimals;
+     the other ingredients are expressed in round
+     numbers._
+ B - _Soluble in water._
+ C - _Insol. in water, but soluble in carbonate of soda._
+ D - _Insol. in water and carbonate of soda._
+ E - _Total._
+ F - _Total matters soluble in water._
+ G - _Nitrogen._
+ H - _Nitrogen in per cent. of the organic matter._
+
+ -------------------------+-----------------------+
+                          |     ORGANIC MATTER.   |
+                          |-----+-----+-----+-----+
+            A             |  B  |  C  |  D  |  E  |
+ -------------------------+~~~~~v~~~~~+-----+-----+
+  1. Lewis M. Norton.     |           |     |     |
+        Goshen Conn.      |     20    |  40 |  60 |
+  2.  "   "     "         |     75    |  15 |  90 |
+  3.  "   "     "         |     60    |  35 |  95 |
+  5. Messrs. Pond & Miles.|           |     |     |
+      " Milford Conn.     |     81    |  15 |  96 |
+  5.  "   "      "        |     79    |  19 |  98 |
+  6. Samuel Camp.         |           |     |     |
+       Plainville Conn.   |     53    |  11 |  64 |
+  7. Russell U. Peck.     |           |     |     |
+       Berlin Conn.       |     46    |  37 |  83 |
+  8. Rev. B. F. Northrop. |           |     |     |
+       Griswold Conn.     |     48    |  11 |  59 |
+  9. J. H. Stanwood.      |           |     |     |
+       Colebrook Conn.    |     75    |  11 |  86 |
+ 10. N. Hart, Jr.         |           |     |     |
+       West Cornwall Conn.|     69    |  13 |  82 |
+ 11. A. L. Loveland.      |           |     |     |
+        North Granby  "   |     43    |   4 |  47 |
+ 12. Daniel Buck, Jr.     |           |     |     |
+        Poquonock     "   |     33    |  60 |  93 |
+ 13.   "     "        "   |     41    |  49 |  90 |
+ 14. Philip Scarborough.  |           |     |     |
+        Brooklyn Conn.    |     61    |  30 |  91 |
+ 15. Adams White.         |           |     |     |
+        Brooklyn   "      |     63    |  27 |  90 |
+ 16. Paris Dyer.          |           |     |     |
+        Brooklyn   "      |     21    |   5 |  26 |
+ 17. Perrin Scarborough.  |           |     |     |
+        Brooklyn Conn.    |     62    |   8 |  70 |
+ 18. Geo. K. Virgin.      |           |     |     |
+        Collinsville Conn.| 2.48|  23 |   9 |  35 |
+ 19.  "   "           "   | 1.72|  14 |   8 |  23 |
+ 20.  "   "           "   | 1.67|  22 |   8 |  32 |
+ 21. Solomon Mead.        |     |     |     |     |
+        New Haven Conn.   | 3.70|  48 |   9 |  60 |
+ 22. Edwin Hoyt.          |     |     |     |     |
+        New Canaan  "     | 3.05|  14 |   8 |  26 |
+ 23.  "     "       "     | 2.47|  14 |   8 |  25 |
+ 24.  "     "       "     | 1.23|  18 |   9 |  28 |
+ 25. A. M. Haling.        |     |     |     |     |
+        Rockville   "     | 4.90|  75 |  12 |  92 |
+ 26.  "     "       "     | 4.50|  83 |  10 |  97 |
+ 27.  "     "       "     | 6.24|  71 |   7 |  84 |
+ 28. Albert Day.          |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn    "     | 4.01|  76 |  10 |  90 |
+ 29. C. Goodyear.         |     |     |     |     |
+        New Haven   "     | 2.11|  54 |  12 |  68 |
+ 30. Rev. Wm. Clift       |     |     |     |     |
+        Stonington  "     | 4.56|  71 |  13 |  88 |
+ 31. Henry Keeler.        |     |     |     |     |
+        South Salem N. Y. | 2.66|  56 |  15 |  73 |
+ 32. John Adams.          |     |     |     |     |
+        Salisbury Conn.   | 2.37|  59 |  15 |  76 |
+ 33. Rev. Wm. Clift.      |     |     |     |     |
+        Stonington   "    | 5.93|  18 |   8 |  32 |
+ -------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+
+ -------------------------+-----------------------+-----+-----+-----
+                          |   INORGANIC MATTER.   |     |     |
+                          |-----+-----+-----+-----|     |     |
+            A             |  B  |  C  |  D  |  E  |  F  |  G  |  H
+ -------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
+  1. Lewis M. Norton.     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Goshen Conn.      |     |     |     | 40  | 1.75| 1.46| 2.25
+  2.  "   "     "         |     |     |     | 10  |     | 2.32| 2.58
+  3.  "   "     "         |     |     |     |  5  | 2.95| 2.23| 2.36
+  5. Messrs. Pond & Miles.|     |     |     |     |     |     |
+      " Milford Conn.     |     |     |     |  4  | 2.03| 1.49| 1.55
+  5.  "   "      "        |~~~~~v~~~~~|     |  2  | 3.97| 1.09| 1.12
+  6. Samuel Camp.         |    18     |  18 |     |     |     |
+       Plainville Conn.   |     |     |     | 36  | 3.08| 2.58| 4.03
+  7. Russell U. Peck.     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       Berlin Conn.       |     |     |     | 17  | 3.27| 1.96| 2.34
+  8. Rev. B. F. Northrop. |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       Griswold Conn.     |     |     |     | 41  | 1.88| 1.50| 2.49
+  9. J. H. Stanwood.      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       Colebrook Conn.    |     |     |     | 14  | 2.77| 1.99| 2.15
+ 10. N. Hart, Jr.         |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       West Cornwall Conn.|     |     |     | 18  | 7.75| 2.61| 3.21
+ 11. A. L. Loveland.      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        North Granby  "   |     |     |     | 53  |  .85| 1.13| 2.43
+ 12. Daniel Buck, Jr.     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Poquonock    "    |     |     |     |  7  | 3.58| 2.92| 3.15
+ 13.   "     "        "   |     |     |     | 10  | 2.16| 2.89| 2.23
+ 14. Philip Scarborough.  |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn Conn.    |     |     |     |  9  | 1.70| 1.42| 1.57
+ 15. Adams White.         |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn   "      |     |     |     | 10  | 6.78| 3.33| 3.72
+ 16. Paris Dyer.          |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn   "      |     |     |     | 74  | 2.85| 1.12| 4.31
+ 17. Perrin Scarborough.  |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn Conn.    |     |     |     | 30  |17.59| 1.00| 1.43
+ 18. Geo. K. Virgin.      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Collinsville Conn.| 0.35| 11  | 54  | 65  | 2.83| 0.72| 2.06
+ 19.  "   "           "   |  .43|  2  | 75  | 77  | 2.15| 0.51| 2.20
+ 20.  "   "           "   |  .58|  2  | 66  | 68  | 2.25| 0.65| 2.04
+ 21. Solomon Mead.        |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        New Haven Conn.   | 2.92| 11  | 27  | 40  | 6.62| 1.70| 2.90
+ 22. Edwin Hoyt.          |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        New Canaan  "     | 2.92| 21  | 50  | 74  | 6.07| 0.48| 1.88
+ 23.  "     "       "     | 1.63| 13  | 60  | 75  | 4.10| 0.95| 3.76
+ 24.  "     "       "     | 1.79| 15  | 55  | 72  | 3.02| 1.08| 3.82
+ 25. A. M. Haling.        |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Rockville   "     |  .50|     |  7  |  8  | 5.40| 2.32| 2.52
+ 26.  "     "       "     |  .27|     |  2  |  3  | 4.77| 1.53| 1.57
+ 27.  "     "       "     |  .82|  7  |  8  | 16  | 7.06| 3.04| 3.64
+ 28. Albert Day.          |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn    "     |  .52|  1  |  8  | 10  | 4.58| 1.36| 1.52
+ 29. C. Goodyear.         |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        New Haven   "     |  .40|  9  | 22  | 32  | 2.51| 1.98| 2.91
+ 30. Rev. Wm. Clift       |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Stonington  "     | 3.86|     |  8  | 12  | 8.42| 1.29| 1.46
+ 31. Henry Keeler.        |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        South Salem N. Y. |  .97|  5  | 21  | 27  | 3.63| 1.98| 2.64
+ 32. John Adams.          |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Salisbury Conn.   | 1.40|  2  | 20  | 24  | 3.77| 2.44| 3.18
+ 33. Rev. Wm. Clift.      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Stonington   "    | 8.13|  7  | 53  | 68  |14.06| 1.44| 4.49
+ -------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
+
+
+TABLE III.--DESCRIPTION, ETC., OF PEATS AND MUCKS.
+
+ _No._                       _Color._
+
+  1. Lewis M. Norton     |chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |.
+  2.    "       "        |    "       "   |
+                         |                |
+  3.    "       "        |light-brown,    |
+                         |                |
+  4. Messrs. Pond & Miles|chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |
+                         |                |
+  5.    "         "      |brownish-red,   |
+                         |                |
+  6. Samuel Camp         |black,          |
+                         |                |
+  7. Russell U. Peck     |chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |
+  8. Rev. B. F. Northrop |grayish-brown,  |
+                         |                |
+                         |                |
+  9. J. H. Stanwood      |chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |
+ 10. N. Hart, Jr         |brownish-black, |
+ 11. A. L. Loveland      |black,          |
+                         |                |
+ 12. Daniel Buck, Jr     |chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |
+ 13.    "      "         |    "       "   |
+ 14. Philip Scarborough  |                |
+                         |                |
+ 15. Adams White         |chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |
+ 16. Paris Dyer          |grayish-black,  |
+                         |                |
+ 17. Perrin Scarborough  |chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |
+                         |                |
+ 18. Geo. K. Virgin      |light           |
+                         | brownish-gray  |
+                         |                |
+ 19.    "      "         |chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |
+ 20.    "      "         |black,          |
+ 21. Solomon Mead        |grayish-brown,  |
+                         |                |
+                         |                |
+ 22. Edwin Hoyt          |brownish-gray,  |
+                         |                |
+ 23.   "    "            |       "        |
+                         |                |
+ 24.   "    "            |       "        |
+                         |                |
+ 25. A. M. Haling        |chocolate-brown,|
+ 26.   "    "            |    "       "   |
+ 27.   "    "            |    "       "   |
+                         |                |
+ 28. Albert Day          |dark-brown,     |
+                         |                |
+                         |                |
+ 29. C. Goodyear         |black,          |
+                         |                |
+ 30. Rev. Wm. Clift      |chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |
+                         |                |
+ 31. Henry Keeler        |light-brown,    |
+                         |                |
+ 32. John Adams          |      "         |
+                         |                |
+ 33. Rev. Wm. Clift      |dark ash-gray,  |
+                         |                |
+
+                                      _Condition at Time of Analysis,
+ _No._                                   Reputed value, etc._
+
+  1. Lewis M. Norton     |air-dry, tough, compact, heavy; from bottom;
+                         |          3 to 4 feet deep; very good in compost.
+  2.    "       "        |    "    tough, compact, heavier than 1, from
+                         |          near surface; very good in compost.
+  3.    "       "        |   "     coherent but light, from between 1 and
+                         |          2, very good in compost.
+  4. Messrs. Pond & Miles|   "     coherent but light, surface peat,
+                         |          considered better than No. 5; good in
+                         |          compost.
+  5.    "         "      |   "     very light and loose in texture, from
+                         |          depth of 3 feet, good in compost.
+  6. Samuel Camp         |   "     hard lumps, half as good as yard manure,
+                         |          in compost equal to yard manure.
+  7. Russell U. Peck     |   "     is good fresh, long exposed, half as
+                         |          good as barn-yard manure.
+  8. Rev. B. F. Northrop |   "     light, easily crushed masses containing
+                         |          sand, has not been used alone, good in
+                         |          compost.
+  9. J. H. Stanwood      |moist,   hard lumps, used fresh good after first
+                         |          year; excellent in compost.
+ 10. N. Hart, Jr         |air-dry, hard lumps, excellent in compost.
+ 11. A. L. Loveland      |   "     hard lumps, contains grains of coarse
+                         |          sand.
+ 12. Daniel Buck, Jr     |   "     coherent cakes, good as top dressing on
+                         |          grass when fresh; excellent in compost.
+ 13.    "      "         |   "     light surface layers of No. 12.
+ 14. Philip Scarborough  |   "     after exposure over winter, has
+                        |          one-third value of yard-manure.
+ 15. Adams White         |   "     hard lumps, good in compost, causes
+                         |          great growth of straw.
+ 16. Paris Dyer          |   "     easily crushed lumps, largely admixed
+                         |          with soil.
+ 17. Perrin Scarborough  |   "     well-characterized "vitriol peat;" in
+                         |          compost, after 1 year's exposure, gives
+                         |          indifferent results.
+ 18. Geo. K. Virgin      |   "     light, coherent surface peat; sample
+                         |          long exposed; astonishing results on
+                         |          sandy soil.
+ 19.    "      "         |moist,   crumbly, contains much sand, four feet
+                         |          from surface.
+ 20.    "      "         |wet.
+ 21. Solomon Mead        |air-dry, light, porous, coherent from grass
+                         |          roots; long weathered, good; fresh,
+                         |          better in compost.
+ 22. Edwin Hoyt          |   "     loose, light, much mixed with soil,
+                         |          good in compost.
+ 23.   "    "            |   "     No. 22 saturated with horse urine,
+                         |          darker than No. 22.
+ 24.   "    "            |   "     No. 22 composted with white fish,
+                         |          darker than No. 23; fish-bones evident.
+ 25. A. M. Haling        |moist,   fresh dug.
+ 26.   "    "            |air-dry, No. 25 after two year's weathering.
+ 27.   "    "            |moist,   fresh dug, good substitute for yard
+                         |          manure as top-dressing on grass.
+ 28. Albert Day          |  "      coherent and hard; fresh dug, but from
+                         |          surface where weathered; injurious to
+                         |          crops; vitriol peat. (?)
+ 29. C. Goodyear         |air-dry, very hard tough cakes; when fresh dug,
+                         |          "as good as cow dung."
+ 30. Rev. Wm. Clift      |moist,   from an originally fresh water bog,
+                         |          broken into 100 years ago by tide, now
+                         |          salt marsh; good after weathering.
+ 31. Henry Keeler        |air-dry, leaf-muck, friable; when fresh, appears
+                         |          equal to good yard manure.
+ 32. John Adams          |moist,   overlies shell marl, fresh or weathered
+                         |          does not compare with ordinary manure.
+ 33. Rev. Wm. Clift      |air-dry, from bottom of salt ditch, where tide
+                         |          flows daily; contains sulphate of iron.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[2] The oxygen thus absorbed by water, serves for the respiration of
+fish and aquatic animals.
+
+[3] This sample contained also fish-bones, hence the larger content of
+nitrogen was not entirely due to absorbed ammonia.
+
+[4] Reichardt's analyses are probably inaccurate, and give too much
+ammonia and nitric acid.
+
+[5] These analyses were executed--A by Professor G. F. Barker; B by Mr.
+O. C. Sparrow; C by Mr. Peter Collier.
+
+[6] _Shell marl_, consisting of fragments and powder of fresh-water
+shells, is frequently met with, underlying peat beds. Such a deposit
+occurs on the farm of Mr. John Adams, in Salisbury, Conn. It is eight to
+ten feet thick. An air-dry sample, analyzed under the writer's
+direction, gave results as follows:
+
+ "Water                                                  30.62
+                {soluble in water             0.70}
+ Organic matter {                                 }       6.52
+                {insoluble in water           5.82}
+ Carbonate of lime                                       57.09
+ Sand                                                     1.86
+ Oxide of iron and alumina, with traces of potash,
+ magnesia, sulphuric and phosphoric acid                  3.91
+                                                       -------
+                                                        100.00
+
+Another specimen from near Milwaukee, Wis., said to occur there in
+immense quantities underlying peat, contained, by the author's
+analysis--
+
+ Water                                                    1.14
+ Carbonate of lime                                       92.41
+ Carbonate of magnesia                                    3.43
+ Peroxide of iron with a trace of phosphoric acid         0.92
+ Sand                                                     1.60
+                                                        ------
+                                                         99.50
+
+
+
+[7] To the kindness of Joseph Sheffield, Esq., of New Haven, the author
+is indebted for facilities in carrying on these experiments.
+
+[8] At the instigation of Henry A. Dyer, Esq., at that time the
+Society's Corresponding Secretary.
+
+[9] Derived from the communications published in the author's Report.
+Trans. Conn. State Ag. Soc. 1858 p.p. 101-153.
+
+
+
+
+
+PART III.
+
+ON PEAT AS FUEL.
+
+
+1.--_Kinds of peat that make the best fuel._
+
+The value of peat for fuel varies greatly, like its other qualities.
+Only those kinds which can be cut out in the shape of coherent blocks,
+or which admit of being artificially formed into firm masses, are of use
+in ordinary stoves and furnaces. The powdery or friable surface peat,
+which has been disintegrated by frost and exposure, is ordinarily
+useless as fuel, unless it be rendered coherent by some mode of
+preparation. Unripe peat which contains much undecomposed moss or grass
+roots, which is therefore very light and porous, is in general too bulky
+to make an effective heating material before subjection to mechanical
+treatment.
+
+The best peat for burning, is that which is most free from visible fiber
+or undecomposed vegetable matters, which has therefore a homogeneous
+brown or black aspect, and which is likewise free from admixture of
+earthy substances in the form of sand or clay. Such peat is unctuous
+when moist, shrinks greatly on drying, and forms hard and heavy masses
+when dry. It is usually found at a considerable depth, where it has been
+subjected to pressure, and then has such consistence as to admit of
+cutting out in blocks; or it may exist as a black mud or paste at the
+bottom of bogs and sluices.
+
+The value of peat as fuel stands in direct ratio to its content of
+carbon. We have seen that this ranges from 51 to 63 _per cent. of the
+organic matter_, and the increase of carbon is related to its ripeness
+and density. The poorest, youngest peat, has the same proportion of
+carbon as exists in wood. It does not, however, follow that its heating
+power is the same. The various kinds of wood have essentially the same
+proportion of carbon, but their heating power is very different. The
+close textured woods--those which weigh the most per cord--make the best
+fuel for most purposes. We know, that a cord of hickory will produce
+twice as much heat as a cord of bass-wood. Peat, though having the same
+or a greater proportion of carbon, is generally inferior to wood on
+account of its occupying a greater bulk for a given weight, a necessary
+result of its porosity. The best qualities of peat, or poor kinds
+artificially condensed, may, on the other hand, equal or exceed wood in
+heating power, bulk for bulk. One reason that peat is, in general,
+inferior to wood in heating effect, lies in its greater content of
+incombustible ash. Wood has but 0.5 to 1.5 _per cent._ of mineral
+matters, while peat contains usually 5 to 10 _per cent._, and often
+more. The oldest, ripest peats are those which contain the most carbon,
+and have at the same time the greatest compactness. From these two
+circumstances they make the best fuel.
+
+It thus appears that peat which is light, loose in structure, and much
+mixed with clay or sand, is a poor or very poor article for producing
+heat: while a dense pure peat is very good.
+
+A great drawback to the usefulness of most kinds of peat-fuel, lies in
+their great friability. This property renders them unable to endure
+transportation. The blocks of peat which are commonly used in most parts
+of Germany as fuel, break and crumble in handling, so that they cannot
+be carried far without great waste. Besides, when put into a stove,
+there can only go on a slow smouldering combustion as would happen in
+cut tobacco or saw-dust. A free-burning fuel must exist in compact lumps
+or blocks, which so retain their form and solidity, as to admit of a
+rapid draught of air through the burning mass.
+
+The bulkiness of ordinary peat fuel, as compared with hard wood, and
+especially with coal, likewise renders transportation costly, especially
+by water, where freights are charged by bulk and not by weight, and
+renders storage an item of great expense.
+
+The chief value of that peat fuel, which is simply cut from the bog, and
+dried without artificial condensation, must be for the domestic use of
+the farmer or villager who owns a supply of it not far from his
+dwelling, and can employ his own time in getting it out. Though worth
+perhaps much less cord for cord when dry than hard wood, it may be
+cheaper for home consumption than fuel brought from a distance.
+
+Various processes have been devised for preparing peat, with a view to
+bringing it into a condition of density and toughness, sufficient to
+obviate its usual faults, and make it compare with wood or even with
+coal in heating power.
+
+The efforts in this direction have met with abundant success as regards
+producing a good fuel. In many cases, however, the cost of preparation
+has been too great to warrant the general adoption of these processes.
+We shall recur to this subject on a subsequent page, and give an
+account of the methods that have been proposed or employed for the
+manufacture of condensed peat fuel.
+
+2.--_Density of Peat._
+
+The apparent[10] specific gravity of peat in the air-dry state, ranges
+from 0.11 to 1.03. In other words, a full cubic foot weighs from
+one-tenth as much as, to slightly more than a cubic foot of water, =
+62-1/3 lbs. Peat, which has a specific gravity of but 0.25, may be and
+is employed as fuel. A full cubic foot of it will weigh about 16 lbs. In
+Germany, the cubic foot of "good ordinary peat" in blocks,[11] ranges
+from 15 to 25 lbs. in weight, and is employed for domestic purposes. The
+heavier peat, weighing 30 or more lbs. per cubic foot in blocks, is used
+for manufacturing and metallurgical purposes, and for firing
+locomotives.
+
+Karmarsch has carefully investigated more than 100 peats belonging to
+the kingdom of Hanover, with reference to their heating effect. He
+classifies them as follows:--
+
+A. _Turfy peat_, (_Rasentorf_,) consisting of slightly decomposed mosses
+and other peat-producing plants, having a yellow or yellowish-brown
+color, very soft, spongy and elastic, sp. gr. 0.11 to 0.26, the full
+English cubic foot weighing from 7 to 16 lbs.
+
+B. _Fibrous peat_, unripe peat, which is brown or black in color, less
+elastic than turfy peat, the fibres either of moss, grass, roots,
+leaves, or wood, distinguishable by the eye, but brittle, and easily
+broken; sp. gr. 0.24 to 0.67, the weight of a full cubic foot being from
+15 to 42 lbs.
+
+C. _Earthy peat._--Nearly or altogether destitute of fibrous structure,
+drying to earth-like masses which break with more or less difficulty,
+giving lustreless surfaces of fracture; sp. gr. 0.41 to 0.90, the full
+cubic foot weighing, accordingly, from 25 to 56 lbs.
+
+D. _Pitchy peat_, (_Pechtorf_,) dense; when dry, hard; often resisting
+the blows of a hammer, breaking with a smooth, sometimes lustrous
+fracture, into sharp-angled pieces. Sp. gr. 0.62 to 1.03, the full cubic
+foot weighing from 38 to 55 lbs.
+
+In Kane and Sullivan's examination of 27 kinds of Irish peat, the
+specific gravities ranged from 0.274 to 1.058.
+
+3.--_Heating power of peat as compared with wood and anthracite._
+
+Karmarsch found that in absolute heating effect
+
+ 100 lbs. of turfy, air-dry peat, on the average = 95 lbs. of pine wood.
+  "          fibrous       "      "        "     = 108       "       "
+  "          earthy        "      "        "     = 104       "       "
+  "          pitchy        "      "        "     = 111       "       "
+
+The comparison of heating power by bulk, instead of weight, is as
+follows:--
+
+ 100 cubic ft. of turfy peat, on the average[12] =  33 cubic ft. of pine
+                                                       wood, in sticks.
+   "       "      fibrous       "       "        =  90 cubic ft. of pine
+                                                       wood, in sticks.
+   "       "      earthy        "       "        = 145 cubic ft. of pine
+                                                       wood, in sticks.
+   "       "      pitchy        "       "        = 184 cubic ft. of pine
+                                                       wood, in sticks.
+
+According to Brix, the weight per English cord and relative heating
+effect of several air-dry peats--the heating power of an equal bulk of
+oak wood being taken at 100 as a standard--are as follows, _bulk for
+bulk_:[13]
+
+                                                 _Weight per    _Heating
+                                                   cord._       effect._
+ Oak wood                                          4150 lbs.       100
+ Peat from Linum, 1st quality, dense and pitchy    3400  "          70
+       "     "    2d     "     fibrous             2900  "          55
+       "     "    3d     "     turfy               2270  "          53
+ Peat from Buechsenfeld, 1st quality, pitchy,
+      very hard and heavy                          3400 lbs.        74
+ Peat from Buechsenfeld, 2d quality                2730  "          64
+
+These statements agree in showing, that, while weight for weight, the
+ordinary qualities of peat do not differ much from wood in heating
+power; the heating effect of _equal bulks_ of this fuel, as found in
+commerce, may vary extremely, ranging from one-half to three quarters
+that of oak wood.
+
+Condensed peat may be prepared by machinery, which will weigh more than
+hard wood, bulk for bulk, and whose heating power will therefore exceed
+that of wood.
+
+Gysser gives the following comparisons of a good peat with various
+German woods and charcoals, equal weights being employed, and split
+beech wood, air-dry, assumed as the standard.[14]
+
+ Beech wood, split, air dry                                          1.00
+ Peat, condensed by Weber's & Gysser's method,[15] air-dried,
+      with 25 _per cent._ moisture.                                  1.00
+ Peat, condensed by Weber's & Gysser's method, hot-dried,
+      with 10 _per cent._ moisture.                                  1.48
+ Peat-charcoal, from condensed peat.                                 1.73
+ The same peat, simply cut and air-dried.                            0.80
+ Beech-charcoal.                                                     1.90
+ Summer-oak wood.                                                    1.18
+ Birch wood.                                                         0.95
+ White pine wood.                                                    0.72
+ Alder.                                                              0.65
+ Linden.                                                             0.65
+ Red pine.                                                           0.61
+ Poplar.                                                             0.50
+
+Some experiments have been made in this country on the value of peat as
+fuel. One was tried on the N. Y. Central Railroad, Jan. 3, 1866. A
+locomotive with 25 empty freight cars attached, was propelled from
+Syracuse westward--the day being cold and the wind ahead--at the rate of
+16 miles the hour. The engineer reported that "the peat gave us as much
+steam as wood, and burnt a beautiful fire." The peat, we infer, was cut
+and prepared near Syracuse, N. Y.
+
+In one of the pumping houses of the Nassau Water Department of the City
+of Brooklyn, an experiment has been made for the purpose of comparing
+peat with anthracite, for the results of which I am indebted to the
+courtesy of Moses Lane, Esq., Chief Engineer of the Department.
+
+Fire was started under a steam boiler with wood. When steam was up, the
+peat was burned--its quantity being 1743 lbs., or 18 barrels--and after
+it was consumed, the firing was continued with coal. The pressure of
+steam was kept as nearly uniform as possible throughout the trial, and
+it was found that with 1743 lbs. of peat the engine made 2735
+revolutions, while with 1100 lbs. of coal it made 3866 revolutions. In
+other words, 100 lbs. of coal produced 351-45/100 revolutions, and 100
+lbs. of peat produced 156-91/100 revolutions. One pound of coal
+therefore equalled 2-24/100 lbs. of peat in heating effect. The peat
+burned well and generated steam freely.
+
+Mr. Lane could not designate the quality of the peat, not having been
+able to witness the experiment.
+
+These trials have not, indeed, all the precision needful to fix with
+accuracy the comparative heating effect of the fuels employed; for a
+furnace, that is adapted for wood, is not necessarily suited to peat,
+and a coal grate must have a construction unlike that which is proper
+for a peat fire; nevertheless they exhibit the relative merits of wood,
+peat, and anthracite, with sufficient closeness for most practical
+purposes.
+
+Two considerations would prevent the use of ordinary cut peat in large
+works, even could two and one-fourth tons of it be afforded at the same
+price as one ton of coal. The Nassau Water Department consumes 20,000
+tons of coal yearly, the handling of which is a large expense, six
+firemen being employed to feed the furnaces. To generate the same amount
+of steam with peat of the quality experimented with, would require the
+force of firemen to be considerably increased. Again, it would be
+necessary to lay in, under cover, a large stock of fuel during the
+summer, for use in winter, when peat cannot be raised. Since a barrel of
+this peat weighed less than 100 lbs., the short ton would occupy the
+volume of 20 barrels; as is well known, a ton of anthracite can be put
+into 8 barrels. A given weight of peat therefore requires 2-1/2 times as
+much storage room, as the same weight of coal. As 2-1/4 tons of peat, in
+the case we are considering, are equivalent to but one ton of coal in
+heating effect, the winter's supply of peat fuel would occupy 5-5/8
+times the bulk of the same supply in coal, admitting that the unoccupied
+or air-space in a pile of peat is the same as in a heap of coal. In
+fact, the calculation would really turn out still more to the
+disadvantage of peat, because the air-space in a bin of peat is greater
+than in one of coal, and coal can be excavated for at least two months
+more of the year than peat.
+
+It is asserted by some, that, because peat can be condensed so as to
+approach anthracite in specific gravity, it must, in the same ratio,
+approach the latter in heating power. Its effective heating power is,
+indeed, considerably augmented by condensation, but no mechanical
+treatment can increase its percentage of carbon or otherwise alter its
+chemical composition; hence it must forever remain inferior to
+anthracite.
+
+The composition and density of the best condensed peat is compared with
+that of hard wood and anthracite in the following statement:--
+
+ _In 100    _Carbon._ _Hydrogen._ _Oxygen and  _Ash._ _Water._ _Specific
+  parts._                           Nitrogen._                  Gravity._
+ Wood,        39.6        4.8         34.8      0.8     20.0      0.75
+ Condensed
+   peat       47.2        4.9         22.9      5.0     20.0      1.20
+ Anthracite   91.3        2.9          2.8      3.0               1.40
+
+In combustion in ordinary fires, the _water_ of the fuel is a source of
+waste, since it consumes heat in acquiring the state of vapor. This is
+well seen in the comparison of the same kind of peat in different states
+of dryness. Thus, in the table of Gysser, (page 97) Weber's condensed
+peat, containing 10 _per cent._ of moisture, surpasses in heating effect
+that containing 25 _per cent._ of moisture, by nearly one-half.
+
+The _oxygen_ is a source of waste, for heat as developed from fuel, is
+chiefly a result of the chemical union of atmospheric or free oxygen,
+with the carbon and hydrogen of the combustible. The oxygen of the fuel,
+being already combined with carbon and hydrogen, not only cannot itself
+contribute to the generation of heat, but neutralizes the heating effect
+of those portions of the carbon and hydrogen of the fuel with which it
+remains in combination. The quantity of heating effect thus destroyed,
+cannot, however, be calculated with certainty, because physical changes,
+viz: the conversion of solids into gases, not to speak of secondary
+chemical transformations, whose influence cannot be estimated, enter
+into the computation.
+
+_Nitrogen_ and ash are practically indifferent in the burning process,
+and simply impair the heating value of fuel in as far as they occupy
+space in it and make a portion of its weight, to the exclusion of
+combustible matter.
+
+Again, as regards density, peat is, in general, considerably inferior to
+anthracite. The best uncondensed peat has a specific gravity of 0.90.
+Condensed peat usually does not exceed 1.1. Sometimes it is made of sp.
+gr. 1.3. Assertions to the effect of its acquiring a density of 1.8, can
+hardly be credited of pure peat, though a considerable admixture of sand
+or clay might give such a result.
+
+The comparative heating power of fuels is ascertained by burning them in
+an apparatus, so constructed, that the heat generated shall expend
+itself in evaporating or raising the temperature of a known quantity of
+water.
+
+_The amount of heat that will raise the temperature of one gramme of
+water, one degree of the centigrade thermometer, is agreed upon as the
+unit of heat._[16]
+
+In the complete combustion of carbon in the form of charcoal or
+gas-coal, there are developed 8060 units of heat. In the combustion of
+one gramme of hydrogen gas, 34,210 units of heat are generated. The
+heating effect of hydrogen is therefore 4.2 times greater than that of
+carbon. It was long supposed that the heating effect of compound
+combustibles could be calculated from their elementary composition. This
+view is proved to be erroneous, and direct experiment is the only
+satisfactory means of getting at the truth in this respect.
+
+The data of Karmarsch, Brix, and Gysser, already given, were obtained by
+the experimental method. They were, however, made mostly on a small
+scale, and, in some cases, without due regard to the peculiar
+requirements of the different kinds of fuel, as regards fire space,
+draught, etc. They can only be regarded as approximations to the truth,
+and have simply a comparative value, which is, however, sufficient for
+ordinary purposes.
+
+The general results of the investigations hitherto made on all the
+common kinds of fuel, are given in the subjoined statement. The
+comparison is made in units of heat, and refers to equal weights of the
+materials experimented with.
+
+ HEATING POWER OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF FUEL.
+
+ Air-dry Wood                               2800
+   "     Peat                           2500    3000
+ Perfectly dry Wood                         3600
+    "       "  Peat                     3000    4000
+ Air-dry Lignite or Brown Coal          3300    4200
+ Perfectly dry Lignite or Brown Coal    4000    5000
+ Bituminous Coal                        3800    7000
+ Anthracite                                 7500
+ Wood Charcoal                          6300    7500
+ Coke                                   6500    7600
+
+4.--_Modes of Burning Peat._
+
+In the employment of peat fuel, regard must be had to its shape and
+bulk. Commonly, peat is cut or moulded into blocks or sods like bricks,
+which have a length of 8 to 18 inches; a breadth of 4 to 6 inches, and a
+thickness of 1-1/2 to 3 inches. Machine peat is sometimes formed into
+circular disks of 2 to 3 inches diameter, and 1 to 2 inches thickness
+and thereabouts. It is made also in the shape of balls of 2 to 3 inches
+diameter. Another form is that of thick-walled pipes, 2 to 3 inches in
+diameter, a foot or more long, and with a bore of one-half inch.
+
+Flat blocks are apt to lie closely together in the fire, and obstruct
+the draft. A fire-place, constructed properly for burning them, should
+be shallow, not admitting of more than two or three layers being
+superposed. According to the bulkiness of the peat, the fire-place
+should be roomy, as regards length and breadth.
+
+Fibrous and easily crumbling peat is usually burned upon a hearth, _i.
+e._ without a grate, either in stoves or open fire-places. Dense peat
+burns best upon a grate, the bars of which should be thin and near
+together, so that the air have access to every part of the fuel. The
+denser and tougher the peat, and the more its shape corresponds with
+that usual to coal, the better is it adapted for use in our ordinary
+coal stoves and furnaces.
+
+5.--_Burning of broken peat._
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 1--STAIR GRATE.]
+
+Broken peat--the fragments and waste of the cut or moulded blocks, and
+peat as obtained by plowing and harrowing the surface of drained
+peat-beds--may be used to advantage in the _stair grate_, fig. 1, which
+was introduced some years ago in Austria, and is adapted exclusively for
+burning finely divided fuel. It consists of a series of thin iron bars 3
+to 4 inches wide, _a_, _a_, _a_, ... which are arranged above each other
+like steps, as shown in the figure. They are usually half as long as the
+grate is wide, and are supported at each end by two side pieces or
+walls, _l._ Below, the grate is closed by a heavy iron plate. The fuel
+is placed in the hopper _A_, which is kept filled, and from which it
+falls down the incline as rapidly as it is consumed. The air enters from
+the space _G_, and is regulated by doors, not shown in the cut, which
+open into it. The masonry is supported at _u_, by a hollow iron beam.
+Below, a lateral opening serves for clearing out the ashes. The effect
+of the fire depends upon the width of the throat of the hopper at _u_,
+which regulates the supply of fuel to the grate, and upon the
+inclination of the latter. The throat is usually from 6 to 8 inches
+wide, according to the nature of the fuel. The inclination of the grate
+is 40 to 45° and, in general, should be that which is assumed by the
+sides of a pile of the fuel to be burned, when it is thrown up into a
+heap. This grate ensures complete combustion of fuel that would fall
+through ordinary grates, and that would merely smoulder upon a hearth.
+The fire admits of easy regulation, the ashes may be removed and the
+fuel may be supplied without _checking the fire_. Not only broken peat,
+but coal dust, saw dust, wood turnings and the like may be burned on
+this grate. The figure represents it as adapted to a steam boiler.
+
+6.--_Hygroscopic water of peat fuel._
+
+The quantity of water retained by air-dried peat appears to be the same
+as exists in air-dried wood, viz., about 20 _per cent._ The proportion
+will vary however according to the time of seasoning. In thoroughly
+seasoned wood or peat, it may be but 15 _per cent._; while in the poorly
+dried material it may amount to 25 or more _per cent._ When _hot-dried_,
+the proportion of water may be reduced to 10 _per cent._, or less.
+
+When peat is still moist, it gathers water rapidly from damp air, and in
+this condition has been known to burst the sheds in which it was stored,
+but after becoming dry to the eye and feel, it is but little affected by
+dampness, no more so, it appears, than seasoned wood.
+
+7.--_Shrinkage._
+
+In estimating the value and cost of peat fuel, it must be remembered
+that peat shrinks greatly in drying, so that three to five cords of
+fresh peat yield but one cord of dry peat. When the fiber of the peat is
+broken by the hand, or by machinery, the shrinkage is often much
+greater, and may sometimes amount to seven-eighths of the original
+volume.--_Dingler's Journal, Oct. 1864_, _S._ 68.
+
+The difference in weight between fresh and dry peat is even greater.
+Fibrous peat, fresh from the bog, may contain ninety _per cent._ of
+water, of which seventy _per cent._ must evaporate before it can be
+called dry. The proportion of water in earthy or pitchy peat is indeed
+less; but the quantity is always large, so that from five to nine
+hundred weight of fresh peat must be lifted in order to make one hundred
+weight of dry fuel.
+
+8.--_Time of excavation, and drying._
+
+Peat which is intended to be used after simply drying, must be excavated
+so early in the season that it shall become dry before frosty weather
+arrives: because, if frozen when wet, its coherence is destroyed, and on
+thawing it falls to a powder useless for fuel.
+
+Peat must be dried with certain precautions. If a block of fresh peat be
+exposed to hot sunshine, it dries and shrinks on the surface much more
+rapidly than within: as a consequence it cracks, loses its coherence,
+and the block is easily broken, or of itself falls to pieces. In Europe,
+it is indeed customary to dry peat without shelter, the loss by too
+rapid drying not being greater than the expense of building and
+maintaining drying sheds. There however the sun is not as intense, nor
+the air nearly so dry, as it is here. Even there, the occurrence of an
+unusually hot summer, causes great loss. In our climate, some shelter
+would be commonly essential unless the peat be dug early in the spring,
+so as to lose the larger share of its water before the hot weather; or,
+as would be best of all, in the autumn late enough to escape the heat,
+but early enough to ensure such dryness as would prevent damage by
+frost. The peculiarities of climate must decide the time of excavating
+and the question of shelter.
+
+The point in drying peat is to make it lose its water gradually and
+regularly, so that the inside of each block shall dry nearly as fast as
+the outside.
+
+Some of the methods of hot-drying peat, will be subsequently noticed.
+
+Summer or fall digging would be always advantageous on account of the
+swamps being then most free from water. In Bavaria, peat is dug mostly
+in July and the first half of August.
+
+9.--_Drainage._
+
+When it is intended to raise peat fuel _in the form of blocks_, the bog
+should be drained no more rapidly than it is excavated. Peat, which is
+to be worth cutting in the spring, must be covered with water during the
+winter, else it is pulverized by the frost. So, too, it must be
+protected against drying away and losing its coherency in summer, by
+being kept sufficiently impregnated with water.
+
+In case an extensive bog is to be drained to facilitate the cutting out
+of the peat for use as fuel, the canals that carry off the water from
+the parts which are excavating, should be so constructed, that on the
+approach of cold weather, the remaining peat may be flooded again to the
+usual height.
+
+In most of the smaller swamps, systematic draining is unnecessary, the
+water drying away in summer enough to admit of easy working.
+
+In some methods of preparing or condensing peat by machinery, it is best
+or even needful to drain and air-dry the peat, preliminary to working.
+By draining, the peat settles, especially on the borders of the ditches,
+several inches, or even feet, according to its nature and depth. It thus
+becomes capable of bearing teams and machinery, and its density is very
+considerably augmented.
+
+10.--_The Cutting of Peat._--a. _Preparations._
+
+In preparing to raise peat fuel from the bog, the surface material,
+which from the action of frost and sun has been pulverized to "muck," or
+which otherwise is full of roots and undecomposed matters, must be
+removed usually to the depth of 12 to 18 inches. It is only those
+portions of the peat which have never frozen nor become dry, and are
+free from coarse fibers of recent vegetation, that can be cut for fuel.
+
+Peat fuel must be brought into the form of blocks or masses of such size
+and shape as to adapt them to use in our common stoves and furnaces.
+Commonly, the peat is of such consistence in its native bed, that it may
+be cut out with a spade or appropriate tool into blocks having more or
+less coherence. Sometimes it is needful to take away the surplus water
+from the bog, and allow the peat to settle and drain a while before it
+can be cut to advantage.
+
+When a bog is to be opened, a deep ditch is run from an outlet or lowest
+point a short distance into the peat bed, and the working goes on from
+the banks of this ditch. It is important that system be followed in
+raising the peat, or there will be great waste of fuel and of labor.
+
+If, as often happens, the peat is so soft in the wet season as to break
+on the vertical walls of a ditch and fill it, at the same time
+dislocating the mass and spoiling it for cutting, it is best to carry
+down the ditch in terraces, making it wide above and narrow at the
+bottom.
+
+b. _Cutting by hand._
+
+The simplest mode of procedure, consists in laying off a "field" or plot
+of, say 20 feet square, and making vertical cuts with a sharp spade
+three or four inches deep from end to end in parallel lines, as far
+apart as it is proposed to make the breadth of the peats or sods,
+usually four to five inches. Then, the field is cut in a similar manner
+in lines at right angles to the first, and at a distance that shall be
+the length of the peats, say 18 to 20 inches. Finally, the workman lifts
+the peats by horizontal thrusts of his spade, made at a depth of three
+inches. The sods as lifted, are placed on a light barrow or upon a board
+or rack, and are carried off to a drying ground, near at hand, where
+they are laid down flatwise to drain and dry. In Ireland, it is the
+custom, after the peats have lain thus for a fortnight or so, to "foot"
+them, i. e. to place them on end close together; after further drying
+the "footing" is succeeded by "clamping," which is building the sods up
+into stacks of about twelve to fifteen feet long, four feet wide at
+bottom, narrowing to one foot at top, with a height of four to five
+feet. The outer turfs are inclined so as to shed the rain. The peat
+often remains in these clamps on the bog until wanted for use, though in
+rainy seasons the loss by crumbling is considerable.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 2.--GERMAN PEAT-KNIFE.]
+
+Other modes of lifting peat, require tools of particular construction....
+In Germany it is common to excavate by _vertical_ thrusts of the tool,
+the cutting part of which is represented above, fig. 2. This tool is
+pressed down into the peat to a depth corresponding to the thickness of
+the required block: its three edges cut as many sides of the block, and
+the bottom is then broken or torn out by a prying motion.
+
+In other cases, this or a similar tool is forced down by help of the
+foot as deeply into the peat as possible by a workman standing above,
+while a second man in the ditch cuts out the blocks of proper thickness
+by means of a sharp spade thrust horizontally. When the peats are taken
+out to the depth of the first vertical cutting, the knife is used again
+from above, and the process is thus continued as before, until the
+bottom of the peat or the desired depth is reached.
+
+In Ireland, is employed the "slane," a common form of which is shown in
+fig. 3, it being a long, narrow and sharp spade, 20 inches by six, with
+a wing at right angles to the blade.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 3.--IRISH SLANE.]
+
+The peats are cut by one thrust of this instrument which is worked by
+the arms alone. After a vertical cut is made by a spade, in a line at
+right angles to a bank of peat, the slane cuts the bottom and other side
+of the block; while at the end the latter is simply lifted or broken
+away.
+
+Peat is most easily cut in a vertical direction, but when, as often
+happens, it is made up of layers, the sods are likely to break apart
+where these join. Horizontal cutting is therefore best for stratified
+peat.
+
+_System employed in East Friesland._--In raising peat, great waste both
+of labor and of fuel may easily occur as the result of random and
+unsystematic methods of working. For this reason, the mode of cutting
+peat, followed in the extensive moors of East Friesland, is worthy of
+particular description. There, the business is pursued systematically on
+a plan, which, it is claimed, long experience[17] has developed to such
+perfection that the utmost economy of time and labor is attained. The
+cost of producing marketable peat in East Friesland in 1860, was one
+silver groschen=about 2-1/2 cents, per hundred weight; while at that
+time, in Bavaria, the hundred weight cost three times as much when fit
+for market; and this, notwithstanding living and labor are much cheaper
+in the latter country.
+
+The method to be described, presupposes that the workmen are not
+hindered by water, which, in most cases, can be easily removed from the
+high-moors of the region. The peat is worked in long stretches of 10
+feet in width, and 100 to 1000 paces in length: each stretch or plot is
+excavated at once to a considerable depth and to its full width. Each
+successive year the excavation is widened by 10 feet, its length
+remaining the same. Sometimes, unusual demand leads to more rapid
+working; but the width of 10 feet is adhered to for each cutting, and,
+on account of the labor of carrying the peats, it is preferred to extend
+the length rather than the width.
+
+Assuming that the peat bed has been opened by a previous cutting, to the
+depth of 5-1/2 feet, and the surface muck and light peat, 1-1/2 feet
+thick, have been thrown into the excavation of the year before--a new
+plot is worked by five men as follows.
+
+One man, the "Bunker," removes from the surface, about two inches of
+peat, disintegrated by the winter's frost, throwing it into last year's
+ditch.
+
+Following him, come two "Diggers," of whom one stands on the surface of
+the peat, and with a heavy, long handled tool, cuts out the sides and
+end of the blocks, which are about seventeen by five inches; while the
+other stands in the ditch, and by horizontal thrusts of a light, sharp
+spade, removes the sods, each of five and a half inches thickness, and
+places them on a small board near by. Each block of peat has the
+dimensions of one fourth of a cubic foot, and weighs about 13 pounds.
+Two good workmen will raise 25 such peats, or 6-1/4 cubic feet, per
+minute.
+
+A fourth man, the "Loader," puts the sods upon a wheel-barrow, always
+two rows of six each, one upon the other, and--
+
+A fifth, the "Wheeler," removes the load to the drying ground, and with
+some help from the Bunker, disposes them flatwise in rows of 16 sods
+wide, which run at right angles to the ditch, and, beginning at a little
+more than 10 feet from the latter, extend 50 feet.
+
+The space of 10 feet between the plot that is excavating, and the drying
+ground, is, at the same time, cleared of the useless surface muck by the
+Bunker, in preparation for the next year's work.
+
+With moderate activity, the five men will lift and lay out 12,000 sods
+(3000 cubic feet,) daily, and it is not uncommon that five first-rate
+hands get out 16,800 peats (4200 cubic feet,) in this time.
+
+A gang of five men, working as described, suffices for cutting out a bed
+of four feet of solid peat. When the excavation is to be made deeper, a
+sixth man, the "Hanker," is needful for economical work; and with his
+help the cutting may be extended down to nine and a half feet; i. e.
+through eight feet of solid peat. The cutting is carried down at first,
+four feet as before, but the peats are carried 50 feet further, in order
+to leave room for those to be subsequently lifted. The "Hanker" aids
+here, with a second wheel-barrow. In taking out the lower peat, the
+"Hanker" stands on the bottom of the first excavation, receives the
+blocks from the Diggers, on a broad wooden shovel, and hands them up to
+the Loader; while the Wheeler, having only the usual distance to carry
+them, lays them out in the drying rows without difficulty.
+
+After a little drying in the rows, the peats are gradually built up into
+narrow piles, like a brick wall of one and a half bricks thickness.
+These piles are usually raised by women. They are made in the spaces
+between the rows, and are laid up one course at a time, so that each
+block may dry considerably, before it is covered by another. A woman can
+lay up 12,000 peats daily--the number lifted by 5 men--and as it
+requires about a month of good weather to give each course time (two
+days) to dry, she is able to pile for 30 gangs of workmen. If the
+weather be very favorable, the peats may be stacked or put into sheds,
+in a few days after the piling is finished. Stacking is usually
+practised. The stacks are carefully laid up in cylindrical form, and
+contain 200 to 500 cubic feet. When the stacks are properly built, the
+peat suffers but little from the weather.
+
+According to Schroeder, from whose account (Dingler's Polytechnisches
+Journal, Bd. 156, S. 128) the above statements are derived, the peats
+excavated under his direction, in drying thoroughly, shrank to about
+one-fourth of their original bulk (became 12 inches x 3 inches x 3
+inches,) and to one-seventh or one-eighth of their original weight.
+
+c. _Machines for Cutting Peat._
+
+In North Prussia, the Peat Cutting Machine of Brosowsky, see fig. 4, is
+extensively employed. It consists of a cutter, made like the four sides
+of a box, but with oblique edges, _a_, which by its own weight, and by
+means of a crank and rack-work, operated by men, is forced down into the
+peat to a depth that may reach 20 feet. It can cut only at the edge of a
+ditch or excavation, and when it has penetrated sufficiently, a spade
+like blade, _d_, is driven under the cutter by means of levers _c_, and
+thus a mass is loosened, having a vertical length of 10 feet or more,
+and whose other dimensions are about 24 × 28 inches. This is lifted by
+reversing the crank motion, and is then cut up by the spade into blocks
+of 14 inches × 6 inches × 5 inches. Each parallelopipedon of peat, cut
+to a depth of 10 feet, makes 144 sods, and this number can be cut in
+less than 10 minutes. Four hands will cut and lay out to dry, 12,000 to
+14,000 peats daily, or 3100 cubic feet. One great advantage of this
+machine consists in the circumstance that it can be used to raise peat
+from below the surface of water, rendering drainage in many cases
+unnecessary. Independently of this, it appears to be highly labor
+saving, since 1300 machines were put to use in Mecklenburg and Pomerania
+in about 5 years from its introduction. The Mecklenburg moors are now
+traversed by canals, cut by this machine, which are used for the
+transportation of the peat to market.[18]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 4.--BROSOWSKY'S PEAT CUTTER.]
+
+Lepreux in Paris, has invented a similar but more complicated machine,
+which is said to be very effective in its operation. According to Hervé
+Mangon, this machine, when worked by two men, raises and cuts 40,000
+peats daily, of which seven make one cubic foot, equal to 5600
+cubic feet. The saving in expense by using this machine[19] is said to
+be 70 _per cent._, when the peat to be raised is under water.
+
+11.--_The Dredging of Peat._
+
+When peat exists, not as a coherent more or less fibrous mass, but as a
+paste or mud, saturated with water, it cannot be raised and formed by
+the methods above described.
+
+In such cases the peat is dredged from the bottom of the bog by means of
+an iron scoop, like a pail with sharp upper edges, which is fastened to
+a long handle. The bottom is made of coarse sacking, so that the water
+may run off. Sometimes, a stout ring of iron with a bag attached, is
+employed in the same way. The fine peat is emptied from the dredge upon
+the ground, where it remains, until the water has been absorbed or has
+evaporated, so far as to leave the mass somewhat firm and plastic. In
+the mean time, a drying bed is prepared by smoothing, and, if needful,
+stamping a sufficient space of ground, and enclosing it in boards 14
+inches wide, set on edge. Into this bed the partially dried peat is
+thrown, and, as it cracks on the surface by drying, it is compressed by
+blows with a heavy mallet or flail, or by treading it with flat boards,
+attached to the feet, somewhat like snow shoes. By this treatment the
+mass is reduced to a continuous sheet of less than one-half its first
+thickness, and becomes so firm, that a man's step gives little
+impression in it. The boards are now removed, and it is cut into blocks
+by means of a very thin, sharp spade. Every other block being lifted out
+and placed crosswise upon those remaining, air is admitted to the whole
+and the drying goes on rapidly. This kind of peat is usually of
+excellent quality. In North Germany it is called "Baggertorf," i. e.
+mud-peat.
+
+Peat is sometimes dredged by machinery, as will be noticed hereafter.
+
+12.--_The Moulding of Peat._
+
+When black, earthy or pitchy peat cannot be cut, and is not so saturated
+with water as to make a mud; it is, after raking or picking out roots,
+etc., often worked into a paste by the hands or feet, with addition of
+water, until it can be formed into blocks which, by slow drying, acquire
+great firmness. In Ireland this product is termed "hand-peat." In
+Germany it is called "Formtorf," _i. e._ moulded peat, or "Backtorf,"
+_i. e._ baked peat.
+
+The shaping is sometimes accomplished by plastering the soft mass into
+wooden moulds, as in making bricks.
+
+13.--_Preparation of Peat Fuel by Machinery, etc._
+
+Within the last 15 years, numerous inventions have been made with a view
+to improving the quality of peat fuel, as well as to expedite its
+production. These inventions are directed to the following points, viz.:
+1. _Condensation_ of the peat, so as bring more fuel into a given space,
+thus making it capable of giving out an intenser heat; at the same time
+increasing its hardness and toughness, and rendering it easier and more
+economical of transportation. 2. _Drying_ by artificial heat or reducing
+the amount of water from 20 or 25 _per cent._ to half that quantity or
+less. This exalts the heating power in no inconsiderable degree. 3.
+_Charring._ Peat-charcoal is as much better than peat, for use where
+intense heat is required, as wood charcoal is better than wood. 4.
+_Purifying from useless matters._ Separation of earthy admixtures which
+are incombustible and hinder draught.
+
+A.--_Condensation by Pressure._
+
+_Pressing Wet Peat._--The condensation of peat was first attempted by
+subjecting the fresh, wet material, to severe pressure. As long ago as
+the year 1821, Pernitzsch, in Saxony, prepared peat by this method, and
+shortly afterwards Lord Willoughby d'Eresby, in Scotland, and others,
+adopted the same principle. Simple pressure will, indeed, bring fresh
+peat at once into much smaller bulk; but, if the peat be fibrous and
+light, and for this reason require condensation, it is also elastic,
+and, when the pressure is relieved, it acquires again much of its
+original volume.
+
+Furthermore, although pressure will squeeze out much water from a
+saturated well-ripened peat, the complete drying of the pressed blocks
+usually requires as much or more time than that of the unpressed
+material, on account of the closeness of texture of the surface produced
+by the pressure.
+
+The advantages of subjecting fresh peat to pressure in the ordinary
+presses, it is found, are more than offset by the expense of the
+operation, and it is therefore unnecessary to give the subject further
+attention.
+
+Fresh peat appears however to have been advantageously pressed by other
+mechanical means. Two methods require notice.
+
+_Mannhardt's Method_, invented about the year 1858, has been practically
+applied on the large scale at _Schleissheim_, Bavaria. Mannhardt's
+machine consists of two colossal iron rolls, each of 15 feet diameter,
+and 6-1/2 feet length, geared into each other so as to revolve
+horizontally in opposite directions and with equal velocity. These rolls
+are hollow, their circumference consists of stout iron plate perforated
+with numerous small holes, and is supported by iron bars which connect
+the ends of the roll, having intervals between them of about one inch.
+Each roll is covered by an endless band of hair cloth, stretched over
+and kept in place by rollers. The rolls are operated by a steam engine
+of 12 horse power. The fresh peat is thrown into a hopper, and passing
+between the rolls, loses a considerable share of its water, issuing as a
+broad continuous sheet, which is divided into blocks by an arrangement
+presently to be described. The cloth, covering the rolls, must have
+great strength, sufficient porosity to allow water to pass it freely,
+and such closeness of texture as to retain the fine particles of peat.
+Many trials have led to the use of a fabric, specially made for the
+purpose, of goat's hair. The cloth for each pair of rolls, costs $160.
+
+The peat at Schleissheim is about 5 feet in depth, and consists of a
+dark-brown mud or paste, free from stones and sticks, and penetrated
+only by fine fibers. The peat is thrown up on the edge of a ditch, and
+after draining, is moved on a tram-way to the machine. It is there
+thrown upon a chain of buckets, which deliver it at the hopper above the
+rolls. The rolls revolve once in 7-1/3 minutes and at each revolution
+turn out a sheet of peat, which cuts into 528 blocks. Each block has,
+when moist, a length of about 12 inches, by 5 inches of width and 1-1/4
+inches of thickness, and weighs on the average 1-1/2 lbs. The water that
+is pressed out of the peat, falls within the rolls and is conducted
+away; it is but slightly turbid from suspended particles. The band of
+pressed peat is divided in one direction as it is formed, by narrow
+slats which are secured horizontally to the press-cloth, at about 5
+inches distance from each other. The further division of the peat is
+accomplished by a series of six circular saws, under which the peat is
+carried as it is released from the rolls, by a system of endless cords
+strung over rollers. These cords run parallel until the peat passes the
+saws; thenceforth they radiate, so that the peat-blocks are separated
+somewhat from each other. They are carried on until they reach a roll,
+over which they are delivered upon drying lattices. The latter move
+regularly under the roll; the peats arrange themselves upon them
+edgewise, one leaning against the other, so as to admit of free
+circulation of air. The lattices are loaded upon cars, and moved on a
+tram-way to the drying ground, where they are set up in frames.
+
+The peat-cake separates well from the press-cloths; but the pores of the
+latter become somewhat choked by fine particles that penetrate them.
+They are therefore washed at each revolution by passing before a pipe
+from which issue, against them, a number of jets of water under high
+pressure. The blocks, after leaving the machine, are soft, and require 5
+or 6 days to become air-dry. When dry they are dense and of good
+quality, but not better than the same raw material yields by simple
+moulding. The capacity of the rolls, which easily turn out 100,000 peats
+in 24 hours, greatly exceeds at present that of the drying arrangements,
+and for this reason the works are not, as yet, remunerative. The rolls
+are, in reality, a simple forming machine. The pressure they exert on
+the peat, is but inconsiderable, owing to its soft pasty character; and
+since the pair of rolls costs $8000 and can only be worked 3 to 4
+months, this method must be regarded rather as an ingenious and
+instructive essay in the art of making peat-fuel, than as a practical
+success. The persevering efforts of the inventor may yet overcome all
+difficulties and prove the complete efficacy of the method. It is
+especially important, that blocks of greater thickness should be
+produced, since those now made, pack together too closely in the fire.
+
+_Neustadt Method._--At Neustadt, in Hanover, a loose-textured fibrous
+peat was prepared for metallurgical use in 1860, by passing through iron
+rolls of ordinary construction. The peat was thereby reduced two-thirds
+in bulk, burned more regularly, gave a coherent coal, and withstood
+carriage better. The peat was, however, first cut into sods of regular
+size, and these were fed into the rollers by boys.
+
+b. _Pressing Air-dried Peat._
+
+Some kinds of peat, when in the air-dry and pulverized state, yield by
+great pressure very firm, excellent, and economical fuel.
+
+_Lithuanian Process._--In Lithuania, according to Leo,[20] the following
+method is extensively adopted. The bog is drained, the surface moss or
+grass-turf and roots are removed, and then the peat is broken up by a
+simple spade-plow, in furrows 2 inches wide and 8 or 10 inches deep. The
+broken peat is repeatedly traversed with wooden harrows, and is thus
+pulverized and dried. When suitably dry, it is carried to a magazine,
+where it is rammed into moulds by a simple stamp of two hundred pounds
+weight. The broken peat is reduced to two-fifths its first bulk, and the
+blocks thus formed are so hard, as to admit of cutting with a saw or ax
+without fracture. They require no further drying, are of a deep-brown
+color, with lustrous surfaces, and their preparation may go on in winter
+with the stock of broken peat, which is accumulated in the favorable
+weather of summer. In this manufacture there is no waste of material.
+
+The peat is dry enough for pressing when, after forming in the hands to
+a ball, it will not firmly retain this shape, but on being let fall to
+the ground, breaks to powder. The entire cost of preparing 1000 peats
+for use, or market, was 2 Thalers, or $1.40. Thirty peats, or "stones"
+as they are called from their hardness, have the bulk of two cubic feet,
+and weigh 160 lbs. The cost of preparing a hundred weight, was
+therefore, (in 1859,) four Silver-groschen, or about 10 cents.
+
+The stamp is of simple construction, somewhat like a pile driver, the
+mould and face of the ram being made of cast iron. The above process is
+not applicable to _fibrous peat_.
+
+c. _Pressing Hot-dried Peat._
+
+The two methods to be next described, are similar to the last mentioned,
+save that the peat is _hot-pressed_.
+
+_Gwynne's Method._--In 1853, Gwynne of London, patented machinery and a
+method for condensing peat for fuel. His process consisted, first, in
+rapidly drying and pulverizing the fresh peat by a centrifugal machine,
+or by passing between rollers, and subsequent exposure to heat in
+revolving cylinders; and, second, in compressing the dry peat-powder in
+a powerful press at a high temperature, about 180° F. By this heat it is
+claimed, that the peat is not only thoroughly dried, but is likewise
+partially decomposed; _bituminous matters being developed, which cement
+the particles to a hard dense mass_. Gwynne's machinery was expensive
+and complicated, and although an excellent fuel was produced, the
+process appears not to have been carried put on the large scale with
+pecuniary success.
+
+A specimen of so-called "Peat coal" in the author's possession, made in
+Massachusetts some years ago, under Gwynne's patent, appears to consist
+of pulverized peat, prepared as above described; but contains an
+admixture of rosin. It must have been an excellent fuel, but could not
+at that time compete with coal in this country.
+
+_Exter's Method._[21]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 5.--EXTER'S DRYING OVEN.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 6.--EXTER'S DRYING OVEN.]
+
+In 1856, Exter, of Bavaria, carried into operation on an extensive
+scale, a plan of preparing peat-fuel in some respects not unlike the
+last mentioned method. Exter's works, belonging to the Bavarian
+Government, are on the Haspelmoor, situated between Augsburg and Munich.
+According to Ruehlmann, who examined them at the command of the
+Hanoverian Government in 1857, the method is as follows:--1. The bog is
+laid dry by drains and the surface is cleared of bushes, roots, and
+grass-turf, down to good peat. 2. The peat is broken up superficially to
+the depth of about one inch, by a gang of three plows, propelled by a
+portable steam engine. 3. The peat is further pulverized by a harrow,
+drawn by a yoke of oxen. 4. In two or three days after harrowing, the
+peat is turned by an implement like our cultivator, this process being
+repeated at suitable intervals. 5. The fine and air-dry peat is gathered
+together by scrapers, and loaded into wagons; then drawn by rope
+connected with the engine, to the press or magazine. 6. If needful, the
+peat, thus collected, is further pulverized by passing it through
+toothed rollers. 7. The fine peat is now introduced into a complicated
+drying oven, see figures 5 and 6. It falls through the opening _T_, and
+is moved by means of the spirals along the horizontal floors _O_, _O_,
+falling from one to another until it emerges at _Q_. The floors, _O_,
+_O_, are made by wide and thin iron chambers, through which passes waste
+steam from an engine. The oven is heated further by hot air, which
+circulates through the canals _K_, _K_. The peat occupies about one hour
+in its passage through the oven and falls from _Q_, into the press,
+having a temperature of from 120° to 140°Fahrenheit. The press employed
+at Staltach is essentially the same as that now used at the Kolbermoor,
+and figured on p. 125. It is a powerful eccentric of simple
+construction, and turns out continuously 40 finished peats per minute.
+These occupy about one-fourth the space of the peat before pressing, the
+cubic foot weighing about 72 lbs. The peats are 7 inches long, 3 inches
+wide, and one half to three quarters of an inch thick, each weighing
+three quarters of a pound. Three presses furnish annually 180,000 cwt.
+of condensed peat, which is used exclusively for firing locomotives. Its
+specific gravity is 1.14, and its quality as fuel is excellent.
+Ruehlmann estimated its cost, at Haspelmoor in 1857, at 8-1/2 Kreuzers,
+or a little more than 6 cents per cwt., and calculated that by adopting
+certain obvious improvements, and substituting steam power for the labor
+of men and cattle, the cost might be reduced to 6-1/2 Kreuzers, or a
+little more than 4 cents per cwt.
+
+Exter's method has been adopted with some modifications at Kolbermoor,
+near Munich, in Bavaria, at Miskolz, in Hungary, and also at the
+Neustadt Smelting Works, in Hanover. At the latter place, however, it
+appears to have been abandoned for the reasons that it could be applied
+only to the better kinds of peat; and the expense was there so great,
+that the finished article could not compete with other fuel in the
+Hanoverian markets.
+
+Details of the mechanical arrangements at present employed on the
+Kolbermoor, are as follows: After the bog is drained, and the surface
+cleared of dwarf pines, etc., and suitably leveled, the peat is plowed
+by steam. This is accomplished in a way which the annexed cut serves to
+illustrate. The plot to be plowed, is traversed through the middle by
+the railway _x_, _y_. A locomotive _a_, sets in motion an endless
+wire-rope, which moves upon large horizontal pulleys _o_, _o_, stationed
+at either border of the land. Four gang plows _b_, _b_, are attached to
+the rope, and as the latter is set in motion, they break up the strip of
+peat they pass over, completely. The locomotive and the pulleys are then
+moved back, and the process is repeated until the whole field has been
+plowed. The plows are square frames, carrying six to eight shares and as
+many coulters.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 7.]
+
+The press employed at Kolbermoor, is shown in figs. 8 and 9. The hot
+peat falls into the hopper, _b_, _c_. The plunger _d_, worked in the
+cavity _e_, by an eccentric, allows the latter to fill with peat as it
+is withdrawn, and by its advance compresses it into a block. The blocks
+_m_, once formed, by their friction in the channel _e_, oppose enough
+resistance to the peat to effect its compression. In order to regulate
+this resistance according to the varying quality of the peat, the piece
+of metal _g_, which hangs on a pivot at _o_, is depressed or raised, by
+the screw _i_, so as to contract or enlarge the channel. At each stroke
+of the plunger a block is formed, and when the channel _e_ is once
+filled, the peats fall continuously from its extremity. Their dimensions
+are 7 inches long, 3-1/2 wide, and 1-1/2 thick.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 8.--EXTER'S PEAT PRESS.]
+
+Several presses are worked by the same engine at the Kolbermoor, each of
+which turns out daily 200 to 300 cwt. of peats, which, in 1863, were
+sold at 24 Kreuzers (16 cents), per cwt.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 9.--EXTER'S PEAT PRESS.]
+
+C. Hodgson has patented in Great Britain a compressing-ram similar to
+Exter's, and works were put up at Derrylea, in Ireland, some years ago,
+in which Exter's process of manufacturing peat fuel appears to have been
+adopted.
+
+_Elsberg's Process._
+
+Dr. Louis Elsberg, of New York City, has invented a modification of
+Exter's method, which appears to be of great importance. His
+experimental machine, which is in operation near Belleville, N. J.,
+consists of a cylindrical pug-mill, in which the peat, air-dried as in
+Exter's method, is further broken, and at the same time is subjected to
+a current of steam admitted through a pipe and jacket surrounding the
+cylinder. The steamed peat is then condensed by a pair of presses
+similar to that just described, which are fed directly from the mill. In
+this way the complicated drying oven of Exter is dispensed with. Elsberg
+& Co. are still engaged in perfecting their arrangements. Some samples
+of their making are of very excellent quality, having a density of 1.2
+to 1.3.
+
+The pressing of air-dry peat only succeeds when it is made warm, and is,
+at the same time, moist. In Exter's original process the peat is
+considerably dried in the ovens, but on leaving them, is so moist as to
+bedew the hand that is immersed in it. It is, in fact, steamed by the
+vaporization of its own water. In Elsberg's process, the air-dry peat is
+not further desiccated, but is made moist and warm by the admission of
+hot steam. The latter method is the more ready and doubtless the more
+economical of the two. Whether the former gives a dryer product or not,
+the author cannot decide. Elsberg's peat occurs in cylindrical cakes 2
+inches broad, and one inch in thickness. The cakes are somewhat cracked
+upon the edges, as if by contraction, in drying. When wet, the surface
+of the cakes swells up, and exfoliates as far as the water has
+penetrated. In the fire, a similar breaking away of the surface takes
+place, and when coked, the coal is but moderately coherent.
+
+The reasons why steamed peat admits of solidification by pressure, are
+simply that the air, ordinarily adhering to the fibres and particles, is
+removed, and the fibres themselves become softened and more plastic, so
+that pressure brings them into intimate contact. The idea that the heat
+develops bituminous matters, or fuses the resins which exist in peat,
+and that these cement the particles, does not harmonize with the fact
+that the peat, thus condensed, flakes to pieces by a short immersion in
+water.
+
+The great advantage of Exter's and Elsberg's method consists in avoiding
+what most of the others require, viz.: the expensive transportation and
+handling of fresh peat, which contains 80 to 90 _per cent._ of water,
+and the rapid removal of this excess of water before the manufacture. In
+the other methods the surplus water must be slowly removed during or
+after condensation.
+
+Again, enough peat may be air-dried and stored during summer weather, to
+supply a machine with work during the whole year.
+
+Its disadvantages are, that it requires a large outlay of capital and
+great expenditure of mechanical force. Its product is, moreover, not
+adapted for coking.
+
+
+B.--_Condensation without Pressure._
+
+The methods of condensing peat, that remain to be described, are based
+upon radically different principles from those already noticed. In
+these, little or no pressure is employed in the operations; but
+advantage is taken of the important fact that when wet or moist peat is
+ground, cut or in any way reduced to a pulpy or pasty consistence, with
+destruction of the elastic fibres, it will, on drying, shrink together
+to a coherent mass, that may acquire a density and toughness much
+greater than it is possible to obtain by any amount of mere pressure.
+
+The various processes that remain to notice are essentially reducible to
+two types, of which the French method, invented by Challeton, and the
+German, invented it appears by Weber, are the original representatives.
+The former method is only applicable to earthy, well-decomposed peat,
+containing little fibre. The latter was originally applied to fibrous
+moss-peat, but has since been adapted to all kinds. Other inventors,
+English, German, and American, have modified these methods in their
+details, or in the construction of the requisite machinery, rendering
+them more perfect in their execution and perhaps more profitable in
+their results; but, as regards the essential principles of production,
+or the quality of product, no advance appears to have been made beyond
+the original inventors.
+
+a. _Condensation of Earthy Peat._
+
+_Challeton's Method_ consists essentially in destroying the fibres, and
+reducing the peat by cutting and grinding with water to a pulp; then
+slowly removing the liquid, until the peat dries away to a hard coherent
+mass. It provides also for the purification of the peat from earthy
+matters. It is, in many respects, an imitation of the old Dutch and
+Irish mode of making "hand peat" (_Baggertorf_), and is very like the
+paper manufacture in its operations. Challeton's Works, situated near
+Paris, at Mennecy, near Montanges, were visited in 1856 by a Commission
+of the Agricultural Society of Holstein, consisting of Drs. Meyn and
+Luetkens, and also by Dr. Ruehlmann, in the interest of the Hanoverian
+Government. From their account[22] the following statements are derived.
+
+The peat at Mennecy comes from the decay of grasses, is black, well
+decomposed, and occasionally intermingled with shells and sand. The moor
+is traversed by canals, which serve for the transport of the excavated
+peat in boats. The peat, when brought to the manufactory, is emptied
+into a cistern, which, by communicating with the adjacent canal,
+maintains a constant level of water. From this cistern the peat is
+carried up by a chain of buckets and emptied into a hopper, where it is
+caught by toothed cylinders in rapid revolution, and cut or torn to
+pieces. Thence it passes into a chamber where the fine parts are
+separated from unbroken roots and fibres by revolving brushes, which
+force the former through small holes in the walls of the chamber, while
+the latter are swept out through a larger passage. The pulverized peat
+finally falls into a cistern, in which it is agitated by revolving arms.
+A stream of water constantly enters this vessel from beneath, while a
+chain of buckets as rapidly carries off the peat pulp. All sand, shells,
+and other heavy matters, remain at the bottom of this cistern.
+
+The peat pulp, thus purified, flows through wooden troughs into a series
+of basins, in which the peat is formed and dried. These basins are made
+upon the ground by putting up a square frame (of boards on edge,) about
+one foot deep, and placing at the bottom old matting or a layer of flags
+or reeds. Each basin is about a rod square, and 800 of them are
+employed. They are filled with the peat pulp to the top. In a few days
+the water either filters away into the ground, or evaporates, so that a
+soft stratum of peat, about 3 inches in thickness, remains. Before it
+begins to crack from drying, it is divided into blocks, by pressing into
+it a light trellis-like framework, having thin partitions that serve to
+indent the peat in lines corresponding to the intended divisions. On
+further drying, the mass separates into blocks at the lines thus
+impressed, and in a few days, they are ready to remove and arrange for
+further desiccation.
+
+The finished peats from Challeton's works, as well as those made by the
+same method near Neuchatel, Switzerland, by the Messrs. Roy, were of
+excellent quality, and in the opinion of the Commission from Holstein,
+the method is admirably adapted for the purification and concentration
+of the heavy kinds of peat.
+
+In Holstein, a French company constructed, and in 1857 worked
+successfully a portable machine for preparing peat on this plan, but
+were shortly restrained by legal proceedings. Of their later operations
+we have no information.
+
+No data are at hand regarding the cost of producing fuel by Challeton's
+machinery. It is believed, however, that his own works were
+unremunerative, and several manufactories on his pattern, erected in
+Germany, have likewise proved unprofitable. The principle is, however, a
+good one, though his machinery is only applicable to earthy or pitchy,
+and not to very fibrous peat. It has been elsewhere applied with
+satisfactory results.
+
+_Simplified machinery_ for applying Challeton's method is in operation
+at Langenberg, near Stettin, in Prussia.[23] The moss-meadows along the
+river Oder, near which Langenberg is situated, are but a foot or so
+higher at the surface than the medium level of this river, and are
+subject to frequent and sudden inundations, so that draining and partial
+drying of the peat are out of the question. The character of the peat is
+unadapted to cutting by hand, since portions of it are pitchy and
+crumble too easily to form good sods; and others, usually the lower
+layers, at a depth of seven feet or more, are made up to a considerable
+extent of quite firm reeds and flags, having the consistence of half
+decayed straw. The earthy peat is manufactured after Challeton's method.
+It is raised with a steam dredger of 20 horse power, and emptied into
+flat boats, seven in number, which are drawn to the works by an endless
+rope operated by horse power. The works themselves are situated on a
+small sand hill in the middle of the moor, and communicate by canal with
+the dredger and with the drying ground. A chain of buckets, working in
+a frame 45 feet long, attached by a horizontal hinge to the top of the
+machine house, reaches over the dock where the boats haul up, into the
+rear end of the latter; and, as the buckets begin to raise the peat, the
+boat itself is moved under the frame towards the house, until, with a
+man's assistance, its entire load is taken up. The contents of one boat
+are six square yards, with a depth of one foot, and a boat is emptied in
+20 minutes time. Forty to forty-four boatloads are thus passed into the
+pulverizing machine daily, by two chains of buckets.
+
+The peat-mud falls from the buckets into a large wooden trough, which
+branches into two channels, conducting to two large tubs standing side
+by side. These tubs are 10 feet in diameter and 2 feet deep, and are
+made of 2-inch plank. Within each tub is placed concentrically a
+cylindrical sieve, or colander, 8 feet in diameter and 2 feet high, made
+of 3/8 round iron, and it is within this that the peat is emptied. The
+peat is stirred and forced through the meshes of the sieve by four arms
+of a shaft that revolves 20 times per minute, the arms carrying at their
+extremities stiff vertical brooms, which rub the inside of the sieve.
+
+In these four tubs the peat is pulverized under addition of water; the
+fine parts pass the sieves, while the latter retain the coarse fibres,
+roots, etc. The peat-mud flows from the tubs into mills, made like a
+flour mill, but the "stones" constructed of hard wood. The "stones" have
+a diameter of 8 feet 6 inches; the lower is 8 inches; the upper 21
+inches thick. The pressure of the upper "stone" is regulated by
+adjusting the level of the discharging channel, so that the "stone" may
+be more or less buoyed, or even fully floated by the water with which it
+is surrounded.
+
+The peat-substance, which is thus finely ground, gathers from the four
+mills into a common reservoir whence it is lifted by a centrifugal pump
+into a trough, which distributes it over the drying ground.
+
+The drying ground consists of the surface formed by grading the sand
+hill, on which the works are built, and includes about 30 English acres.
+This is divided into small plots, each of which is enclosed on three
+sides with a wall of earth, and on the fourth side by boards set on
+edge. Each plot is surrounded by a ditch to carry off water, and by
+means of portable troughs, the peat is let on from the main channel. The
+peat-slime is run into these beds to the depth of 20 to 22 inches, an
+acre being covered daily. After 4 to 8 days, according to the weather,
+the peat has lost so much water, which, rapidly soaks off through the
+sand, that its surface begins to crack. It is then thoroughly trodden by
+men, shod with boards 5 inches by 10 inches, and after 6 to 8 days more,
+it is cut with sharp spades into sods. The peats are dried in the usual
+manner.
+
+The works at Langenberg yielded, in 1863, as the result of the
+operations of 60 days of 12 hours each, 125,000 cwt. of marketable peat.
+It is chiefly employed for metallurgical purposes, and sells at 3-1/3
+Silver-groschen, or nearly 8 cents per cwt. The specific gravity of the
+peat ranges from 0.73 to 0.90.
+
+
+_Roberts' Process._
+
+In this country attempts have been made to apply Challeton's method. In
+1865, Mr. S. Roberts, of Pekin, N. Y., erected machinery at that place,
+which was described in the "Buffalo Express," of Nov. 17, 1865, as
+follows:--
+
+"In outward form, the machine was like a small frame house on wheels,
+supposing the smoke-stack to be a chimney. The engine and boiler are of
+locomotive style; the engine being of thirteen horse power. The
+principal features of the machine are a revolving elevator and a
+conveyer. The elevator is seventy-five feet long, and runs from the top
+of the machine to the ground, where the peat is dug up, placed on the
+elevator, carried to the top of the machine, and dropped into a
+revolving wheel that cuts it up; separates from it all the coarse
+particles, bits of sticks, stones, etc.; and throws them to one side.
+The peat is next dropped into a box below, where water is passed in,
+sufficient to bring it to the consistency of mortar. By means of a slide
+under the control of the engineer, it is next sent to the rear of the
+machine, where the conveyer, one hundred feet long, takes it, and
+carries it within two rods of the end; at which point the peat begins to
+drop through to the ground to the depth of about four or five inches.
+When sufficient has passed through to cover the ground to the end of the
+conveyer,--two rods,--the conveyer is swung around about two feet, and
+the same process gone through, as fast as the ground under the elevator,
+for the distance of two rods in length and two feet in width gets
+covered, the elevator being moved. At each swing of the elevator, the
+peat just spread is cut into blocks (soft ones, however) by knives
+attached to the elevator. It generally takes from three to four weeks
+before it is ready for use. It has to lie a week before it is touched,
+after the knives pass through it; when it is turned over, and allowed to
+lie another week. It has then to be taken up, and put in a shed, and
+within a week or ten days can be used, although it is better to let it
+remain a little longer time. The machine can spread the peat over
+eighteen square rods of ground--taking out one square rod of
+peat--without being moved. After the eighteen rods are covered, the
+machine is moved two rods ahead, enabling it to again spread a
+semicircular space of some thirty-two feet in width by eighteen rods in
+length. The same power, which drives the engine, moves the machine. It
+is estimated by Mr. Roberts, that, by the use of this machine, from
+twenty to thirty tons of peat can be turned out in a day."
+
+Mr. Roberts informs us that he is making (April 1866,) some
+modifications of his machinery. He employs a revolving digger to take up
+the peat from the bed, and carry it to the machine. At the time of going
+to press, we do not learn whether he regards his experiments as leading
+to a satisfactory conclusion, or otherwise.
+
+
+_Siemens' method._
+
+Siemens, Professor of Technology, in the Agricultural Academy, at
+Hohenheim, successfully applied the following mode of preparing peat for
+the Beet Sugar Manufactory at Boeblingen, near Hohenheim, in the year
+1857. Much of the peat there is simply cut and dried in the usual
+manner. There is great waste, however, in this process, owing to the
+frequent occurrence of shells and clay, which destroy the coherence of
+the peat. Besides, a large quantity of material accumulates in the
+colder months, from the ditches which are then dug, that cannot be
+worked in the usual manner at that time of the year. It was to economize
+this otherwise useless material that the following process was devised,
+after a failure to employ Challeton's method with profit.
+
+In the first place, the peat was dumped into a boarded cistern, where it
+was soaked and worked with water, until it could be raised by a chain of
+buckets into the pulverizer.
+
+The pulverization of the peat was next effected by passing it through a
+machine invented by Siemens, for pulping potatoes and beets. This
+machine, (the same we suppose as that described and figured in Otto's
+Landwirthschaftliche Gewerbe), perfectly breaks up and grates the peat
+to a fine pulp, delivers it in the consistency of mortar into the
+moulds, made of wooden frames, with divisions to form the peats. The
+peat-paste is plastered by hand into these moulds, which are immediately
+emptied to fill again, while the blocks are carried away to the drying
+ground where they are cured in the ordinary style without cover.
+
+In this simple manner 8 men were able to make 10,000 peats daily, which,
+on drying, were considerably denser and harder than the cut peat.
+
+The peat thus prepared, cost about one-third more than the cut peat.
+Siemens reckoned, this greater cost would be covered by its better
+heating effect, and its ability to withstand transportation without
+waste by crumbling.
+
+b. _Condensation of fibrous peat._
+
+_Weber's method._
+
+At Staltach, in Southern Bavaria, Weber has established an extensive
+peat works, of which Vogel has given a circumstantial account.[24] The
+peat at Staltach is very light and fibrous, but remarkably free from
+mineral matters, containing less than 2 _per cent._ of ash in the
+perfectly dry substance. The moor is large, (475 acres), and the peat is
+from 12 to 20 feet in depth. The preparation consists in converting the
+fresh peat into pulp or paste, forming it into moulds and drying it; at
+first by exposure to the air at ordinary temperature, and finally, by
+artificial heat, in a drying house constructed for the purpose.
+
+The peat is cut out by a gang of men, in large masses, cleared of coarse
+roots and sticks, and pushed on tram wagons to the works, which, are
+situated lower than the surface of the bog. Arrived at the works, the
+peat is carried upon an inclined endless apron, up to a platform 10 feet
+high, where a workman pushes it into the pulverizing mill, the
+construction of which is seen from the accompanying cut. The vertical
+shaft _b_ is armed with sickle-shaped knives, _d_, which revolve between
+and cut contrary to similar knives _c_, fixed to the interior of the
+vessel. The latter is made of iron, is 3-1/2 feet high, 2 feet across at
+top and 1-1/2 feet wide at the bottom. From the base of the machine at
+_g_, the perfectly pulverized or minced peat issues as a stiff paste. If
+the peat is dry, a little water is added. Vogel found the fresh peat to
+contain 90 _per cent._, of water, the pulp 92 _per cent._ Weber's
+machine, operated by an engine of 10 horse power, working usually to
+half its capacity only, reduced 400 cubic feet of peat per hour, to the
+proper consistency for moulding.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 10.--WEBER'S PEAT MILL.]
+
+Three modes of forming the paste into blocks have been practiced. One
+was in imitation of that employed with mud-peat. The paste was carried
+by railway to sheds, where it was filled by hand into moulds 17 inches
+by 7-1/4 by 5-1/2 inches, and put upon frames to dry. These sheds
+occupied together 52,000 square feet, and contained at once 200,000
+peats. The peats remained here 8 to 14 days or more, according to the
+weather, when they were either removed to the drying house, or piled in
+large stacks to dry slowly out-of-doors. The sheds could be filled and
+emptied at least 12 times each season, and since they protected from
+light frosts, the season began in April and lasted until November.
+
+The second mode of forming the peat was to run off the pulp into large
+and deep pits, excavated in the ground, and provided with drains for
+carrying off water. The water soaked away into the soil, and in a few
+weeks of good weather, the peat was stiff enough to cut out into blocks
+by the spade, having lost 20 to 25 _per cent._ of its water, and 15 _per
+cent._ of its bulk. The blocks were removed to the drying sheds, and set
+upon edge in the spaces left by the shrinking of the peats made by the
+other method. The working of the peat for the pits could go on, except
+in the coldest weather, as a slight covering usually sufficed to protect
+them from frost.
+
+Both of these methods have been given up as too expensive, and are
+replaced, at present, by the following:
+
+In the third method the peat-mass falls from the mill into a hopper,
+which directs it between the rolls _A B_ of fig. 11, (see next page).
+The roll _A_ has a series of boxes on its periphery _m m_, with movable
+bottoms which serve as moulds. The peat is carried into these boxes by
+the rolls _c c_. The iron projections _n n_ of the large roll _B_, which
+work cog-like into the boxes, compress the peat gently and, at last, the
+eccentric p acting upon the pin _z_, forces up the movable bottom of the
+box and throws out the peat-block upon an endless band of cloth, which
+carries it to the drying place.
+
+The peats which are dried at first under cover and therefore slowly,
+shrink more evenly and to a greater extent than those which are allowed
+to dry rapidly. The latter become cracked upon the surface and have
+cavities internally, which the former do not. This fact is of great
+importance for the density of the peat, for its usefulness in producing
+intense heat, and its power to withstand carriage.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 11--WEBER'S PEAT MOULDING MACHINE.]
+
+The _complete drying_ is, on the other hand, by this method, a much
+slower process, since the dense, fissureless exterior of the peats
+hinders the escape of water from within. It requires, in fact, several
+months of ordinary drying for the removal of the greater share of the
+water, and at the expiration of this time they are still often moist in
+the interior.
+
+Artificial drying is therefore employed to produce the most compact,
+driest, and best fuel.
+
+Weber's _Drying house_ is 120 feet long and 46 feet wide. Four large
+flues traverse the whole length of it, and are heated with the pine
+roots and stumps which abound in the moor. These flues are enclosed in
+brick-work, leaving a narrow space for the passage of air from without,
+which is heated by the flues, and is discharged at various openings in
+the brick-work into the house itself, where the peat is arranged on
+frames. The warm air being light, ascends through the peat, charges
+itself with moisture, thereby becomes heavier and falls to the floor,
+whence it is drawn off by flues of sheet zinc that pass up through the
+roof. This house holds at once 300,000 peats, which are heated to 130°
+to 145° F., and require 10 to 14 days for drying.
+
+The effect of the hot air upon the peat is, in the first place, to
+soften and cause it to swell; it, however, shortly begins to shrink
+again and dries away to masses of great solidity. It becomes almost
+horny in its character, can be broken only by a heavy blow, and endures
+the roughest handling without detriment. Its quality as fuel is
+correspondingly excellent.
+
+The effects of the mechanical treatment and drying on the Staltach peat,
+are seen from the subjoined figures:
+
+                                                    _Lbs.
+                                     _Specific    per Cubic  _Per cent of
+                                      Gravity._      Foot._      Water._
+
+ Peat, raised and dried in usual way,  0.24          15        18 to 20
+ Machine-worked and hot-dried          0.65          35           12
+
+Vogel estimates the cost of peat made by Weber's method at 5 Kreuzers
+per (Bavarian) hundred weight, while that of ordinary peat is 13-1/2
+Kreuzers. Schroeder, in his comparison of machine-wrought and ordinary
+peat, demonstrates that the latter can be produced much cheaper than was
+customary in Bavaria, in 1859, by a better system of labor.
+
+Weber's method was adopted with some improvements in an extensive works
+built in 1860, by the Government of Baden, at Willaringen, for the
+purpose of raising as much fuel as possible, during the course of a
+lease that expired with the year 1865.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 12.--GEYSSER'S PEAT MACHINE.]
+
+_Gysser's method._[25]--Rudolph Gysser, of Freiburg, who was charged
+with the erection of the works at Willaringen just alluded to, invented
+a portable hand-machine on the general plan of Weber, but with
+important improvements; and likewise omitted and varied some details of
+the manufacture, bringing it within the reach of parties of small means.
+
+In the accompanying cuts, (figs. 12, 13, and 14), are given an elevation
+of Gysser's machine, together with a bird's-eye view and vertical
+section of the interior mechanism.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 13.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 14.]
+
+It consists of a cast iron funnel _c d i_ of the elevation, (fig. 12),
+having above a sheet iron hopper _a b_ to receive the peat, and within a
+series of six knives fastened in a spiral, and curving outwards and
+downwards, (figs. 13 and 14); another series of three similar knives is
+affixed to a vertical shaft, which is geared to a crank and turned by a
+man standing on the platform _j k_; these revolving knives curve upwards
+and cut between and in a direction contrary to the fixed knives; below
+the knives, and affixed to the shaft a spiral plate of iron and a
+scraper _m_, (fig. 13), serve to force the peat, which has been at once
+minced and carried downwards by the knives, as a somewhat compressed
+mass through the lateral opening at the bottom of the funnel, whence it
+issues as a continuous hollow cylinder like drain-tile, having a
+diameter of four inches. The iron cone _i_, held in the axis of the
+opening by the thin and sharp-edged support _g h_, forms the bore of the
+tube of peat as it issues. Two men operate the machine; one turning the
+crank, which, by suitable gearing, works the shaft, and the other
+digging and throwing in the peat. The mass, as it issues from the
+machine, is received by two boys alternately, who hold below the opening
+a semi-cylindrical tin-plate shovel, (fig. 15), of the width and length
+of the required peats, and break or rather wipe them off, when they
+reach the length of 14 inches.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 15.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 16.]
+
+The formed peats are dried in light, cheap and portable houses, Fig. 17,
+each of which consists of six rectangular frames supported one above
+another, and covered by a light roof. The frames, Fig. 16, have square
+posts at each corner like a bedstead, and are made by nailing light
+strips to these posts. The tops of these posts are obtusely beveled to
+an edge, and at the bottom they are notched to correspond. The direction
+of the edges and of the notches in two diagonally opposite posts, is at
+right angles to that of the other two. By this construction the frames,
+being of the same size, when placed above each other, fit together by
+the edges and notches of their posts into a structure that cannot be
+readily overturned. The upper frame has a light shingled roof, which
+completes the house. Each frame has transverse slats, cast in plaster of
+Paris, 20 in number, which support the peats. The latter being tubular,
+dry more readily, uniformly, and to a denser consistence than they could
+otherwise.
+
+The machine being readily set up where the peat is excavated, the labor
+of transporting the fresh and water-soaked material is greatly reduced.
+The drying-frames are built up into houses as fast as they are filled
+from the machine. They can be set up anywhere without difficulty,
+require no leveling of the ground, and, once filled, no labor in turning
+or stacking the peats is necessary; while the latter are insured against
+damage from rain. These advantages, Gysser claims, more than cover their
+cost.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 17.]
+
+The daily production of a machine operated by two men with the
+assistance of one or two boys, is 2500 to 3000 peats, which, on drying,
+have 9-1/2 to 10 inches of length, and 2-1/2 in diameter, and weigh, on
+the average, one pound each.
+
+c.--_Condensation of peat of all kinds._--_Weber's method with modified
+machinery._
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 18.--SCHLICKEYSEN'S PEAT MILL.]
+
+_Schlickeysen's Machine._[26]--This machine has been in use in Germany
+since 1860, in the preparation of peat. It appears to have been
+originally constructed for the working and moulding of clay for making
+bricks. The principle of its operation is identical with that of Weber's
+process. The peat is finely pulverized, worked into a homogenous mass,
+and moulded into suitable forms. Like Gysser's machine, it forces the
+peat under some pressure through a nozzle, or, in the larger kinds
+through several nozzles, whence it issues in a continuous block or pipe
+that is cut off in proper lengths, either by hand or by mechanism It
+consists of a vertical cylinder, through the axis of which revolves a
+shaft, whereon are fastened the blades, whose edges cut and whose
+winding figure forces down the peat. The blades are arranged nearly, but
+not exactly, in a true spiral; the effect is therefore that they act
+unequally upon the mass, and thus mix and divide it more perfectly. No
+blades or projections are affixed to the interior of the cylinder.
+Above, where the peat enters into a flaring hopper, is a scraper, that
+prevents adhesion to the sides and gives downward propulsion to the
+peat. The blades are, by this construction, very strong, and not liable
+to injury from small stones or roots, and effectually reduce the
+toughest and most compact peat.
+
+Furthermore, addition of water is not only unnecessary in any case, but
+the peat may be advantageously air-dried to a considerable extent before
+it enters the machine. Wet peat is, indeed, worked with less expenditure
+of power; but the moulded peats are then so soft as to require much care
+in the handling, and must be spread out in single courses, as they will
+not bear to be placed one upon another. Peat, that is somewhat dry,
+though requiring more power to work, leaves the machine in blocks that
+can be piled up on edge and upon each other, six or eight high, without
+difficulty, and require, of course, less time for curing.
+
+The cut, (fig. 18), represents one of Schlickeysen's portable
+peat-mills, with elevator for feeding, from which an idea of the
+pulverizing arrangements may be gathered.
+
+In Livonia, near Pernan, according to Leo, two of Schlickeysen's
+machines, No. 6, were put in operation upon a purely fibrous peat. They
+were driven by an engine of 12 horse-power. The peat was plowed, once
+harrowed, then carted directly to the hopper of the machine. These two
+machines, with 26 men and 4 horses, produced daily 60,000 peats = 7500
+cubic feet. 100 cubic feet of these peats were equal in heating effect
+to 130 cubic feet of fir-wood, and cost but two-thirds as much. The
+peats were extremely hard, and dried in a few days sufficiently for use.
+In 1864, five large Schlickeysen machines were in operation at one
+establishment at St. Miskolz, in Hungary.
+
+The smaller sizes of Schlickeysen's machine are easily-portable, and
+adapted for horse or hand-power.
+
+_Leavitt's Peat-condensing and Moulding Mill._[27]--In this country, Mr.
+T. H. Leavitt, of Boston, has patented machinery, which is in operation
+at East Lexington, Mass., at the works of the Boston Peat Company. The
+process is essentially identical with that of Weber, the hot-drying
+omitted. The fresh peat is pulverized or cut fine, moulded into blocks,
+and dried on light frames in the open air. The results claimed by Mr.
+Leavitt, indicate, that his machine is very efficacious.
+
+It consists, principally, of a strong box or cistern, three feet in
+diameter, and six feet high, the exterior of which, with its gearing, is
+shown in figure 19. The mill is adapted to be driven by a four
+horse-power engine.
+
+"The upper portion of the box is divided by a series of horizontal
+partitions, the upper ones being open latticework, and the lower ones
+perforated with numerous holes. The upright shaft, which rotates in the
+centre of the box, carries a series of arms or blades, extending
+alternately on opposite sides, and as these revolve, they cut the peat,
+and force it through the openings in the diaphragms. The lower portion
+of the box, in place of complete partitions, has a series of corrugated
+shelves extending alternately from opposite sides, and the peat is
+pressed and scraped from these by a series of arms adapted to the work.
+By this series of severe operations the air-bubbles are expelled from
+the peat, and it is reduced to a homogeneous paste. When it arrives at
+the bottom of the box, it is still further compressed by the converging
+sides of the hopper, and it is received in light moulds which are
+carried on an endless belt." Mr. Leavitt has patented the use of
+powdered peat for the purpose of preventing the prepared peat from
+adhering to the moulds.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 19.--LEAVITT'S PEAT MILL.]
+
+This mill, it is asserted, will condense 40 tons of crude peat daily,
+which, at Lexington, is estimated to yield 10 to 14 tons of dry
+merchantable fuel. The cost of producing the latter is asserted to be
+less than $2.00 per ton; while its present value, in Boston, is $10 per
+ton. It requires seven men, three boys, and two horses to dig, cart,
+mill, and spread the peat. The machine costs $600, the needful
+buildings, engine, etc., from $2000 to $3000. The samples of peat,
+manufactured by this machine, are of excellent quality. The drying in
+the open air is said to proceed with great rapidity, eight or ten days
+being ordinarily sufficient in the summer season. The dry peat, at
+Lexington, occupies one-fourth the bulk, and has one-fourth to one-third
+the weight of the raw material; the latter, as we gather, being by no
+means saturated with water, but well drained, and considerably dry,
+before milling.
+
+
+_Ashcroft & Betteley's Machinery._
+
+The American Peat Company, of Boston, are the owners of five patents,
+taken out by Messrs. Ashcroft & Betteley, for peat machinery. They claim
+to "make fuel equal to the best English Cannel coal," and really do make
+a very good peat, though with a rather complicated apparatus. The
+following statement is derived from the circular issued by the company.
+The machinery consists of the following parts:--
+
+_First._--TRITURATING MACHINE--36 inches diameter, 4 feet 6 inches high,
+with arms both on the inside of this cylinder and on the upright
+revolving shaft. In the bottom of the cylinder or tub a large slide gate
+is fitted to work with a lever, so that the peat may be discharged, at
+pleasure, into the Combing Machine, which is placed directly under this
+Triturator.
+
+_Second._--COMBING MACHINE--Semi-circular vessel 6 feet long and 3 feet
+6 inches in diameter. Inside, a shaft is placed, which is provided with
+fingers, placed one inch apart; the fingers to be 20 inches long, so as
+to reach within 2 inches of the bottom and sides of this vessel. Another
+shaft, of the same size and dimensions, is placed at an angle of 45°, 26
+inches from the first shaft, with arms of the same dimensions placed
+upon this shaft, with the same spaces, and so placed that this set of
+arms pass between the first set, both shafts revolving in the same
+direction; the second shaft mentioned being driven at double the speed
+of the first. At the bottom of this Combing Machine is to be fixed a
+gate, to be operated by a lever, to deliver, at pleasure, the cleansed
+peat into the Manipulator or Kneading Machine.
+
+_Third._--MANIPULATOR.--A Tube of iron 7 feet long and 16 inches
+diameter, fitted with a shaft, with flanges upon it, to gain 6 inches in
+each revolution.
+
+_Fourth._--CONVEYOR.--This Conveyor, to be made with two endless chains
+and buckets of iron, with a driving shaft. The hopper, to receive the
+peat when first taken from the bog, to be placed below the surface of
+the ground, so that the top edge of the hopper may be level with the
+surface, that the peat may be dumped from the car by which it is taken
+from the bog, and carried to the hopper without hand labor; and this
+conveyor to be so arranged that the peat will be delivered into the
+Triturator without hand labor.
+
+_Fifth._--CONVEYOR.--Another conveyor, precisely like the one above
+described, is to be placed so as to convey the peat from the Manipulator
+into the Tank without hand labor.
+
+_Sixth._--TANK.--A tank 35 feet high and 15 feet in diameter; the bottom
+of this tank is made sloping towards the sides, at an angle of 65°, and
+is covered with sole tile or drain tile, and the entire inside of this
+tank is also ribbed with these tile; the ends of these pipes of tile
+being left open, so that the water which percolates through the pores of
+the tile, by the pressure of the column of peat, will pass out at the
+bottom, through the false floor of the tank into the drain, and the
+solid peat is retained in the tank. A worm is fixed in the bottom of
+this tank, which is driven by machinery, which forces out the peat in
+the form of brick, which are cut to any length, and stacked up in sheds,
+for fuel, after it is fully dried by the air.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 20.--VERSMANN'S PEAT PULVERIZER.]
+
+_Versmann's Machine_[28]--This machine, see Fig. 20, was invented by a
+German engineer, in London, and was patented there in Sept., 1861. It
+consists of a funnel or hollow cone _b_, of boiler-plate, from one to
+two feet in diameter at top, and perforated with 200 to 300 small holes
+per square foot of surface, within which rapidly revolves an iron cone
+_a_, carrying on its circumference two spiral knives. The peat thrown in
+at the top of the funnel is carried down by the knives, and at once cut
+or broken and forced in a state of fine division through the holes of
+the funnel, as through a colander. The fine peat collects on the
+inclined bottom of the chamber _d_, whence it is carried by means of
+Archimedean screws to a moulding machine. The coarse stuff that escapes
+pulverization falls through _e_ into the cavity _c_. It may be employed
+as fuel for the engine, or again put through the machine.
+
+This machine effects a more perfect pulverization of the peat, than any
+other hitherto described. This extreme division is, however, unnecessary
+to the perfection of the product, and is secured at great expense of
+power. Through the opening at the bottom of the funnel, much
+unpulverized peat finds its way, which must be continually returned to
+the machine. Again, stones, entering the funnel, are likely to break or
+damage the spiral knives, which bear close to the walls of the funnel.
+
+The pulverized peat must be moulded by hand, or by a separate
+instrument.
+
+_Buckland's Machine_[29] is identical in principle with Versmann's, and
+in construction differs simply in the fact of the interior cone having
+spiral grooves instead of spiral knives. This gives greater simplicity
+and durability to the machine. It appears, however, to require too much
+power to work it, and can hardly equal other machines in the quantity of
+product it will deliver for a given expenditure. The ground peat yielded
+by it, must be moulded by hand, or by other machinery. This machine, we
+understand, has been tried near Boston, and abandoned as uneconomical.
+
+The machines we have described are by no means all that have been
+proposed and patented. They include, however, so the author believes,
+all that have been put into actual operation, at the date of this
+writing, or that present important peculiarities of construction.
+
+The account that has been given of them will serve to illustrate what
+mechanism has accomplished hitherto in the manufacture of peat-fuel, and
+may save the talent of the American inventor from wasting itself on what
+is already in use, or having been tried, has been found wanting. At
+present, very considerable attention is devoted to the subject.
+Scarcely a week passes without placing one or more Peat-mill patents on
+record. In this treatise our business is with what has been before the
+public in a more or less practical way, and it would, therefore, be
+useless to copy the specifications of new, and for the most part untried
+patents, which can be found in the files of our mechanical Journals.
+
+14. _Artificial Drying of Peat._
+
+As we have seen, air-dry peat contains 20 to 30 and may easily contain
+50 _per cent._ of water, and the best hot-made machine peat contains 15
+_per cent._ When peat is used as fuel in ordinary furnaces, this water
+must be evaporated, and in this process a large amount of heat is
+consumed, as is well understood. It is calculated, that the temperature
+which can be produced in perfectly burning full-dried peat, compares
+with that developed in the combustion of peat containing water, as
+follows:--
+
+ Pyrometric effect of perfectly dry peat                   4000°  F.
+    "         "       peat with 30 _per cent._ of water    3240°  "
+    "         "         "       50        "         "      2848°  "
+
+But, furthermore, moist or air-dried peat does not burn in ordinary
+furnaces, except with considerable waste, as is evident from the
+smokiness of its flame. When air-dried peat is distilled in a retort, a
+heavy yellow vapor escapes for some time after the distillation begins,
+which, obviously, contains much inflammable matter, but which is so
+mixed and diluted with steam that it will not burn at all, or but
+imperfectly. It is obvious then, that when a high temperature is to be
+attained, anhydrous or full-dried peat is vastly superior to that which
+has simply been cured in the open air.
+
+Notice has already been made of Weber's drying-house, the use of which
+is an essential part of his system of producing peat-fuel. Various other
+arrangements have been proposed from time to time, for accomplishing
+the same object. It appears, however, that in most cases the
+anticipations regarding their economy have not been fully realized. It
+is hardly probable, that artificially dried peat can be employed to
+advantage except where waste heat is utilized in the operation.
+
+A point of the utmost importance in reference to the question of drying
+peat by artificial warmth is this, viz.: Although the drying may be
+carried so far as to remove the whole of the water, and produce an
+absolutely dry fuel, the peat absorbs moisture from the air again on
+exposure; so that drying to less than 15 _per cent._ of water is of no
+advantage, unless the peat is to be used immediately, or within a few
+days. The employment of highly dried peat is consequently practicable
+only for smelting-works, locomotives, and manufacturing establishments,
+where it may be consumed as fast as it is produced.
+
+A fact likewise to be regarded is, that artificial drying is usually
+inapplicable to fresh peat. The precautions needful in curing peat have
+already been detailed. Above all, slow drying is necessary, in order
+that the blocks shrink uniformly, without cracking and warping in such a
+way as to seriously injure their solidity and usefulness. In general,
+peat must be air-dried to a considerable extent before it can be
+kiln-dried to advantage. If exposed to dry artificial heat, when
+comparatively moist, a hard crust is formed externally, which greatly
+hinders subsequent desiccation. At the same time this crust, contracting
+around the moist interior, becomes so rifted and broken, that the
+ultimate shrinkage and condensation of the mass is considerably less
+than it would have been had the drying proceeded more slowly.
+
+Besides Weber's drying oven, the fuel for firing which is derived
+without cost from the stumps and roots of trees that are abundant on the
+moor, at Staltach, and which are thus conveniently disposed of, we have
+briefly to notice several other drying kilns with regard to all of
+which, however, it must be remarked, that they can only be employed with
+profit, by the use of waste heat, or, as at Staltach, of fuel that is
+comparatively worthless for other purposes.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 21.--CARINTHIAN PEAT DRYING-KILN.]
+
+The _Peat Kilns_ employed at Lippitzbach, in Carinthia, and at Neustadt,
+in Hanover, are of the kind shown in fig. 21. The peat with which the
+main chamber is filled, is heated directly by the hot gases that arise
+from a fire made in the fire-place at the left. These gases first enter
+a vault, where they intermingle and cool down somewhat; thence they
+ascend through the openings of the brick grating, and through the mass
+of peat to the top of the chamber. On their way they become charged
+with vapor, and falling, pass off through the chimney, as is indicated
+by the arrows. The draught is regulated by the damper on the top of the
+chimney. To manage the fire, so that on the one hand the chimney is
+sufficiently heated to create a draught, and on the other waste of fuel,
+or even ignition of the peat itself is prevented, requires some care.
+
+In _Welkner's Peat Kiln_[30] (fig. 22) the peat, previously air-dried,
+is exposed to a stream of hot air, until it is completely desiccated,
+and the arrangement is such, that air-dried peat may be thrown in at the
+top, and the hot-dried fuel be removed at the bottom, continuously.
+
+In the cut, _A_ represents the section of a wooden cylinder about 10
+feet wide and 6-1/2 feet deep, which surmounts a funnel of iron plate
+_A'_. The mouth of the funnel is closed by a door _n_; about 20 inches
+above the door the pipe _B_, which conducts hot air, terminates in the
+ring _a a_, through the holes in which, _e e_, it is distributed into
+the funnel filled with peat. The air is driven in by a blower, and is
+heated by circulating through a system of pipes, which are disposed in
+the chimney of a steam boiler. From time to time a quantity of dried
+peat is drawn off into the wagon _D_, which runs on rails, and a similar
+amount of undried peat is thrown in above.
+
+According to Welkner, a kiln of the dimensions stated, which cost, about
+$1800 gold, is capable of desiccating daily ten tons of peat with 20
+_per cent._ of water, using thereby 2000 cubic feet of air of a
+temperature of 212° F. When the air is heated by a fire kept up
+exclusively for that purpose, 10 _per cent._ of the dried peat, or its
+equivalent, is consumed in the operation. At the Alexis Smelting Works,
+near Lingen, in Hanover, this peat kiln furnishes about half the fuel
+for a high furnace, in which bog iron ore is smelted. The drying costs
+but little, since half the requisite heat is obtained from the waste
+heat of the furnace itself.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 22.--WELKNER'S PEAT DRYING KILN.]
+
+The advantages of this drying kiln are, that it is cheap in construction
+and working; dries gradually and uniformly; occupies little ground, and
+runs without intermission.
+
+Other drying ovens are described in Knapp's _Lehrbuch_ der _Chemischen
+Technologie_, 3. Aufl. Bd. 1, Theil 1, pp. 178-9; _Jahrbuch der
+Bergakademien Schemnitz_ und _Leoben_, 1860, p. 108, 1861, p. 55;
+Wagner's _Jahresbericht der Chemischen Technologie_, 1863, p. 748;
+Zerrenner's _Metallurgische Gasfeuerung in Oesterreich_; Tunner's
+_Stabeisen- und Stahlbereitung_, 2. Auflage, Bd. I, pp. 23-25.
+
+15. _Peat Coal, or Coke._
+
+When peat is charred, it yields a coal or coke which, being richer in
+carbon, is capable of giving an intenser heat than peat itself, in the
+same way that charcoal emits an intenser heat in its combustion than the
+wood from which it is made.
+
+Peat coal has been and is employed to some extent in metallurgical
+processes, as a substitute for charcoal, and when properly prepared from
+good peat, is in no way inferior to the latter; is, in fact, better.
+
+It is only, however, from peat which naturally dries to a hard and dense
+consistency, or which has been solidified on the principles of
+Challeton's and Weber's methods, that a coal can be made possessing the
+firmness necessary for furnace use. Fibrous peat, or that condensed by
+pressure, as in Exter's, Elsberg's, and the Lithuanian process, yields
+by coking or charring, a friable coal comparatively unsuited for heating
+purposes.
+
+A peat which is dense as the result of proper mechanical treatment and
+slow drying, yields a very homogeneous and compact coal, superior to any
+wood charcoal, the best qualities weighing nearly twice as much per
+bushel.
+
+Peat is either charred in pits and heaps, or in kilns. From the
+regularity of the rectangular blocks into which peat is usually formed,
+it may be charred more easily in pits than wood, since the blocks admit
+of closer packing in the heap, and because the peat coal is less
+inflammable than wood coal. The heaps may likewise be made much smaller
+than is needful in case of wood, viz.: six to eight feet in diameter,
+and four feet high. The pit is arranged as follows: The ground is
+selected and prepared as for charcoal burning, and should be elevated,
+dry and compact. Three stout poles are firmly driven into the ground, so
+as to stand vertically and equi-distant from each other, leaving within
+them a space of six or eight inches. Around these poles the peats are
+placed endwise, in concentric rows to the required width and height,
+leaving at the bottom a number of air-channels of the width of one peat,
+radiating from the centre outwards. The upper layers of peat are
+narrowed in so as to round off the heap, which is first covered with dry
+leaves, sods, or moss, over which a layer of soil is thrown. Dry, light
+wood being placed at the bottom of the central shaft, it is kindled from
+one of the canals at the bottom, and the charring is conducted as is
+usual in making wood coal. The yield of coal ranges from 25 to 35 _per
+cent._ of the peat by weight, and from 30 to 50 _per cent._ by volume.
+
+Gysser recommends to mould the peat for charring in the form of
+cylinders of 3 to 4 feet long, which, when dry, may be built up into a
+heap like wood.
+
+A great variety of ovens or kilns have been constructed for coking peat.
+
+At the Gun Factory of Oberndorf, in Wirtemberg, peat is charred in the
+kiln represented in the accompanying figure. The chamber is 9 feet high,
+and 5-1/2 feet in diameter. The oven proper, _b b_, is surrounded by a
+mantle of brick _a a_, and the space between, _c c_, is filled with
+sand. Each wall, as well as the space, is 15 inches in thickness, and
+the walls are connected by stones _d d_, at intervals of three feet.
+Above the sole of the kiln, are three series of air holes, made by
+imbedding old gun barrels in the walls. The door, which serves to empty
+the kiln, is a plate of cast iron, the sides of its frame are wider than
+the thickness of the wall, and by means of a board _e_, a box _m_ can be
+made in front of the door, which is filled with sand to prevent access
+of air. The peat is filled in through _i_, a channel being arranged
+across the bottom of the kiln, from the door _f_, for kindling. When the
+firing begins, the lowest air-holes and _i_ are open. When, through the
+lower gun barrels, the peat is seen to be ignited, these are corked, and
+those above are opened. When the smoke ceases to escape above, all the
+openings are closed, _m_, is filled with sand, _i_ is covered over with
+it, and the whole is left to cool. It requires about 8 to 9 days to
+finish the charring of a charge. Several kilns are kept in operation, so
+that the work proceeds uninterruptedly.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 23.--OBERNDORFER PEAT CHARRING KILN.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 24.--WEBER'S CHARRING FURNACE.--TRANSVERSE SECTION.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 25.--WEBER'S CHARRING FURNACE.--LONGITUDINAL
+SECTION.]
+
+At Staltach, Weber prepares peat coal in a cylinder of sheet iron, which
+is surrounded by masonry. Below, it rests on a grating of stout wire.
+Above, it has a cover, that may be raised by a pulley and on one side is
+attached a small furnace, figure 24, the draught of which is kept up by
+means of a blower, or an exhauster, and the flame and hot gases from
+it, _which contain no excess of oxygen_, play upon the peat and
+decompose it, expelling its volatile portions without burning or wasting
+it in the slightest degree. The construction of the furnace, see fig.
+24, is such, that the sticks of wood, which are employed for fuel, are
+supported at their ends on shoulders in the brick-work, and the draught
+enters the fire above instead of below. The wood is hereby completely
+consumed, and by regulating the supply of air at _a_ (fig. 25) by a
+sliding cover, and at _b_ by a register, the flame and current of air
+which enters the cylinder containing the peat, is intensely hot and
+accomplishes a rapid carbonization of the peat, but as before stated,
+does not burn it. In this furnace the wood, which is cut of uniform
+length, is itself the grate, since iron would melt or rapidly burn out;
+and the coals that fall are consumed by the air admitted through c. The
+hot gases which enter the cylinder filled with peat near its top, are
+distributed by pipes, and, passing off through the grating at the
+bottom, enter the surrounding brick mantle. Before reaching the
+exhaustor, however, they pass through a cooler in which a quantity of
+tar and pyroligneous acid is collected.
+
+Weber's oven is 15 feet in diameter, and 3-1/2 feet high; 528 cubic feet
+of peat may be coked in it in the space of 15 hours. The wood furnace is
+2 feet in section, and consumes for the above amount of peat 3-1/2 cwt.
+of wood. So perfectly are the contents of the iron cylinder protected
+from contact of oxygen, that a rabbit placed within it, has been
+converted into coal without the singeing of a hair; and a bouquet of
+flowers has been carbonized, perfectly retaining its shape. The yield of
+coal in Weber's oven is nearly 50 _per cent._ of the peat by weight.
+
+Whenever possible, charring of peat should be carried on, or aided by
+waste heat, or the heat necessary to coking should be itself economized.
+In manufacturing and metallurgical establishments, a considerable
+economy in both the drying and coking may often be effected in this
+manner.
+
+On the bog of Allen, in Ireland, we have an example of this kind. Peat
+is placed in iron ovens in the form of truncated pyramids, the bottoms
+of which consist of movable and perforated iron plates. The ovens are
+mounted on wheels, and run on a rail track.
+
+Five ovens filled with peat are run into a pit in a drying house, in
+which blocks of fresh peat are arranged for drying. Each oven is
+connected with a flue, and fire is applied. The peat burns below, and
+the heat generated in the coking, warms the air of the drying house.
+When the escaping smoke becomes transparent, the pit in which the ovens
+stand is filled with water slightly above their lower edges, whereby
+access of air to the burning peat is at once cut off. When cool, the
+ovens are run out and replaced by others filled with peat. Each oven
+holds about 600 lbs. of peat, and the yield of coal is 25 _per cent._ by
+weight. The small yield compared with that obtained by Weber's method,
+is due to the burning of the peat and the coal itself, in the draught of
+air that passes through the ovens.
+
+The author has carbonized, in an iron retort, specimens of peat prepared
+by Elsberg's, Leavitt's, and Aschcroft and Betteley's processes.
+Elsberg's gave 35, the others 37 _per cent._ of coal. The coal from
+Elsberg's peat was greatly fissured, and could be crushed in the fingers
+to small fragments. That from the other peats was more firm, and
+required considerable exertion to break it. All had a decided metallic
+brilliancy of surface.
+
+16.--_Metallurgical Uses of Peat._
+
+In Austria, more than any other country, peat has been employed in the
+manufacture of iron. In Bavaria, Prussia, Wirtemberg, Hanover, and
+Sweden, and latterly in Great Britain, peat has been put to the same
+use. The general results of experience, are as follows:--
+
+Peat can only be employed to advantage, when wood and mineral coal are
+expensive, or of poor quality.
+
+Peat can be used in furnaces adapted for charcoal, but not in those
+built for mineral coal.
+
+Good air-dry peat, containing 20 to 30 _per cent._ of water, in some
+cases may replace a share of charcoal in the high furnace.
+
+At Pillersee, in Austria, spathic iron ore has been reduced by a mixture
+of fir-wood charcoal, and air-dry peat in the proportions of three
+parts by bulk of the former to one of the latter. The use of peat was
+found to effect a considerable saving in the outlay for fuel, and
+enabled the production to be somewhat increased, while the excellence of
+the iron was in no way impaired. The peat was of the best quality, and
+was worked and moulded by hand.
+
+When the ore is refractory and contains impurities that must be fluxed
+and worked off in slag, a large proportion of air-dry peat cannot be
+used to advantage, because the evaporation of the water in it consumes
+so much heat, that the requisite temperature is not easily attained.
+
+At Achthal, in Bavaria, air-dry peat was employed in 1860, to replace a
+portion of the fir wood charcoal, which had been used for smelting an
+impure clay-iron-stone: the latter fuel having become so dear, that peat
+was resorted to as a make shift. Instead of one "sack," or 33 cubic feet
+of charcoal, 24 cubic feet of charcoal and 15 cubic feet of peat were
+employed in each charge, and the quantity of ore had to be diminished
+thereby, so that the yield of pig was reduced, on the average, by about
+17 _per cent._ In this case the quality of the iron, when worked into
+bar, was injured by the use of peat, obviously from an increase of its
+content of phosphorus. The exclusive use of air-dry peat as fuel in the
+high furnace, appears to be out of the question.
+
+At Ransko, in Bohemia, _kiln-dried peat_, nearly altogether free from
+water, has been employed in a high furnace, mixed with but one-third its
+bulk of charcoal, and in cupola furnaces for re-melting pig, full-dried
+peat has been used alone, answering the purpose perfectly.
+
+The most important metallurgical application of peat is in the refining
+of iron.
+
+Dried peat is extensively used in puddling furnaces, especially in the
+so-called gas puddling furnaces, in Carinthia, Steyermark, Silesia,
+Bavaria, Wirtemberg, Sweden, and other parts of Europe. In Steyermark,
+peat has been thus employed for 25 years.
+
+Air-dry peat is, indeed, also employed, but is not so well adapted for
+puddling, as its water burns away a notable quantity of iron. It is one
+of the best known facts in chemistry, that ignited iron is rapidly
+oxidized in a stream of water-vapor, free hydrogen being at the same
+time evolved.
+
+In the high furnace, _peat-coal_, when compact and firm (not crumbly)
+may replace charcoal perfectly, but its cost is usually too great.
+
+When peat or peat-coal is employed in smelting, it must be as free as
+possible from ash, because the ash usually consists largely of silica,
+and this must be worked off by flux. If the ash be carbonate of lime, it
+will, in most cases, serve itself usefully as flux. In hearth puddling,
+it is important not only that the peat or peat-coal contain little ash,
+but especially that the ash be as free as possible from sulphates and
+phosphates, which act so deleteriously on the metal. The notion that, in
+general, peat and peat charcoal are peculiarly adapted for the iron
+manufacture, because they are free from sulphur and phosphorus, is
+extremely erroneous. Not infrequently they contain these bodies in such
+quantity, as to forbid their use in smelting.
+
+In the gas-puddling furnace, or in the ordinary reverberatory, impure
+peat may, however, be employed, since the ashes do not come in contact
+with the metal. The only disadvantage in the use of peat in these
+furnaces is, that the grates require cleaning more frequently, which
+interrupts the fire, and, according to Tunner, increases the consumption
+of fuel 8 to 10 _per cent._, and diminishes the amount of metal that can
+be turned out in a given time by the same quantity.
+
+Notwithstanding the interruption of work, it has been found, at
+Rothburga, in Austria, that by substitution of machine-made and
+kiln-dried peat for wood in the gas-puddling furnace, a saving of 50
+_per cent._ in the cost of bar iron was effected, in 1860. What is to
+the point, in estimating the economy of peat, is the fact that while 6.2
+cubic feet of dry fir-wood were required to produce 100 lbs. of crude
+bar, this quantity of iron could be puddled with 4.3 cubic feet of peat.
+
+In the gas furnace, a second blast of air is thrown into the flame,
+effecting its complete combustion; Dellvik asserts, that at Lesjoeforss,
+in Sweden, 100 lbs. of kiln-dried peat are equal to 197 lbs. of
+kiln-dried wood in heavy forging. In an ordinary fire, the peat would be
+less effective from the escape of unburned carbon in the smoke.
+
+In other metallurgical and manufacturing operations where flame is
+required, as well as in those which are not inconvenienced by the
+ingredients of its ash, it is obvious that peat can be employed when
+circumstances conspire to render its use economical.
+
+17.--_Peat as a source of illuminating gas._
+
+Prof Pettenkofer, of Munich, was the first to succeed in making
+illuminating gas from wood; and peat, when operated according to his
+method, furnishes also a gas of good quality, though somewhat inferior
+to wood-gas in illuminating power.
+
+It is essential, that well-dried peat be employed, and the waste heat
+from the retorts may serve in part, at least, for the drying.
+
+The retorts must be of a good conducting material; therefore cast iron
+is better than clay. They are made of the [symbol: D] form, and must be
+relatively larger than those used for coal. A retort of two feet width,
+one foot depth, and 8 to 9 feet length, must receive but 100 lbs. of
+peat at a charge.
+
+The quantity of gas yielded in a given time, is much greater than from
+bituminous coal. From retorts of the size just named, 8000 to 9000 cubic
+feet of gas are delivered in 24 hours. The exit pipes must, therefore,
+be large, not less than 5 to 6 inches, and the coolers must be much more
+effective than is needful for coal gas, in order to separate from it the
+tarry matters.
+
+The number of retorts requisite to furnish a given volume of gas, is
+much less than in the manufacture from coal. On the other hand, the
+dimensions of the furnace are considerably greater, because the
+consumption of fuel must be more rapid, in order to supply the heat,
+which is carried off by the copious formation of gas.
+
+Gas may be made from peat at a comparatively low temperature, but its
+illuminating power is then trifling. At a red heat alone can we procure
+a gas of good quality.
+
+The chief impurity of peat-gas is carbonic acid: this amounts to 25 to
+30 _per cent._ of the gas before purification, and if the peat be
+insufficiently dried, it is considerably more. The quantity of slaked
+lime that is consumed in purifying, is therefore much greater than is
+needed for coal-gas, and is an expensive item in the making of peat-gas.
+
+While wood-gas is practically free from sulphur compounds and ammonia,
+peat-gas may contain them both, especially the latter, in quantity that
+depends upon the composition of the peat, which, as regards sulphur and
+nitrogen, is very variable.
+
+Peat-gas is denser than coal-gas, and therefore cannot be burned to
+advantage except from considerably wider orifices than answer for the
+latter, and under slight pressure.
+
+The above statements show the absurdity of judging of the value of peat
+as a source of gas, by the results of trials made in gas works arranged
+for bituminous coal.
+
+As to the yield of gas we have the following data, weights and measures
+being English:--
+
+ 100 lbs. of peat of medium quality from Munich, gave REISSIG   303 cub. ft.
+      "   air-dry peat from Biermoos, Salzburg, gave RIEDINGER  305    "
+      "   very light fibrous peat, gave REISSIG          379 to 430    "
+      "   Exter's machine-peat, from Haspelmoor, gave           367    "
+
+Thenius states, that, to produce 1000 English cubic feet of purified
+peat-gas, in the works at Kempten, Bavaria, there are required in the
+retorts 292 lbs of peat. To distil this, 138-1/2 lbs. of peat are
+consumed in the fire; and to purify the gas from carbonic acid, 91-1/2
+lbs. of lime are used. In the retorts remain 117 lbs. of peat coal, and
+nearly 6 lbs. of tar are collected in the operation, besides smaller
+quantities of acetic acid and ammonia.
+
+According to Stammer, 4 cwt. of dry peat are required for 1000 cubic
+feet of purified gas.
+
+The quality of the gas is somewhat better than that made from bituminous
+coal.
+
+18.--_The examination of Peat as to its value for Fuel_, begins with and
+refers to the air-dry substance, in which:
+
+1.--Water is estimated, by drying the pulverized peat, at 212°, as long
+as any diminution of weight occurs. Well-dried peat-fuel should not
+contain more than 20 _per cent._ of water. On the other hand it cannot
+contain less than 15 _per cent._, except it has been artificially dried
+at a high temperature, or kept for a long time in a heated apartment.
+
+2.--_Ash_ is estimated by carefully burning the dry residue in 1. In
+first-rate fuel, it should amount to less than 3 _per cent._ If more
+than 8 _per cent._, the peat is thereby rendered of inferior quality,
+though peat is employed which contains considerably more.
+
+3.--_Sulphur_ and _phosphorus_ are estimated by processes, which it
+would be useless to describe here. Only in case of vitriol peats is so
+much sulphur present, that it is recognizable by the suffocating fumes
+of sulphuric acid or of sulphurous acid, which escape in the burning.
+When peat is to be employed for iron manufacture, or under steam
+boilers, its phosphorus, and especially its sulphur, should be
+estimated, as they injure the quality of iron when their quantity
+exceeds a certain small amount, and have a destructive effect on
+grate-bars and boilers. For common uses it is unnecessary to regard
+these substances.
+
+4.--The quantity of _coal_ or _coke_ yielded by peat, is determined by
+heating a weighed quantity of the peat to redness in an iron retort, or
+in a large platinum crucible, until gases cease to escape. The neck of
+the retort is corked, and when the vessel is cool, the coal is removed
+and weighed. In case a platinum crucible is employed, it should have a
+tight-fitting cover, and when gases cease to escape, the crucible is
+quickly cooled by placing it in cold water.
+
+Coal, or coke, includes of course the ash of the peat. This, being
+variable, should be deducted, and the _ash-free coal_ be considered in
+comparing fuels.
+
+5.--The _density_ of peat-fuel may be ascertained by cutting out a block
+that will admit of accurate measurement, calculating its cubic contents,
+and comparing its weight with that of an equal bulk of water. To avoid
+calculation, the block may be made accurately one or several cubic
+inches in dimensions and weighed. The cubic inch of water at 60° F.,
+weighs 252-1/2 grains.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[10] The apparent specific gravity here means the weight of the
+mass,--the air-filled cavities and pores included--as compared with an
+equal bulk of water. The real specific gravity of the _peat itself_ is
+always greater than that of water, and all kinds of peat will sink in
+water when they soak long enough, or are otherwise treated so that all
+air is removed.
+
+[11] The "full" cubic foot implies a cubic foot having no cavities or
+waste space, such as exist in a pile, made up of numerous blocks. If a
+number of peat blocks be put into a box and shaken together, the empty
+space between the more or less irregular blocks, may amount to 46 _per
+cent._ of the whole; and when closely packed, the cavities amount to 30
+_per cent._, according to the observations of _Wasserzieher_.
+(_Dingler's Journal_, Oct., 1864, p. 118.) Some confusion exists in the
+statements of writers in regard to this matter, and want of attention to
+it, has led to grave errors in estimating the weight of fuel.
+
+[12] The _waste space_ in peat and wood as commonly piled, is probably
+included here in the statement, and is usually about the same in both;
+viz.: not far from 40 _per cent._
+
+[13] See note on the preceding page.
+
+[14] _Der Torf, etc._, S. 43.
+
+[15] See page 00.
+
+[16] On account of the great convenience of the decimal weights and
+measures, and their nearly universal recognition by scientific men, we
+have adopted them here. The gramme = 15 grains; 5 degrees centigrade = 9
+degrees Fahrenheit.
+
+[17] Pliny, Hist. Nat. (Lib. XVI, 1) expresses his pity for the
+"miserable people" living in East Friesland and vicinity in his day, who
+"dug out with the hands a moor earth, which, dried more by wind than
+sun, they used for preparing their food and warming their bodies:"
+_captum manibus lutum ventis magis quam sole siccantis, terra cibos et
+rigentia septembrione viscera sua urunt_.
+
+As regards the "_misera gens_," it should be said that rich grain fields
+and numerous flourishing villages have occupied for several centuries
+large portions of the Duevel moor near Bremen.
+
+[18] For further account and plans of this machine see Dingler's
+Polytechnisches Journal, Bd. 176, S. 336.
+
+[19] Described and figured in Bulletin de la Societe d'Encouragement,
+August 1857, p. 513; also Dingler's Polytechnisches Journal, Bd. 146, S.
+252.
+
+[20] Berg- und Huettenmænnische Zeitung, 1859, Nr. 26.
+
+[21] Henneberg's Journal fuer Landwirthschaft, 1858, S. 42.
+
+[22] Henneberg's Journal fuer Landwirthschaft, 1858, p.p. 42 and 83.
+
+[23] Dingler's Journal, Oct., 1864.
+
+[24] Dingler's Polytechnisches Journal, Bd. 152, S. 272. See also,
+Knapp, Lehrbuch der Chemischen Technologie, 3te Auflage, 1., 167.
+
+[25] Der Torf; seine Bildung und Bereitungsweise, von Rudolph Gysser,
+Weimar, 1864.
+
+[26] Dingler's Journal, Bd. 165, S. 184.; und Bd. 172, S, 333.
+
+[27] Scientific American, Feb. 10, 1866; also, Facts about Peat as Fuel,
+by T. H. Leavitt, 2d Ed., Boston, p. 23.
+
+[28] Dingler's Journal, Bd. 168, S. 306, und Bd. 172, S. 332.
+
+[29] Described in Journal of the Society of Arts, 1860, p. 437.
+
+[30] Bernemann & Kerl's Berg und Huettenmænnische Zeitung, 1862, 221.
+
+
+
+
+     +-------------------------------------------+
+     |            Transcriber's Note:            |
+     |                                           |
+     | Typographical errors corrected in text:   |
+     |                                           |
+     | Page   6  Robert's changed to Roberts'    |
+     | Page  24  Jaeckel changed to Jæckel       |
+     | Page  47  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock |
+     | Page  49  connexion changed to connection |
+     | Page  51  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock |
+     | Page  53  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock |
+     | Page  53  Russel changed to Russell       |
+     | Page  62  subtances changed to substances |
+     | Page  67  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock |
+     | Page  89  5 changed to 4                  |
+     | Page  89  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock |
+     | Page  90  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock |
+     | Page  91  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock |
+     | Page 116  artifical changed to artificial |
+     | Page 127  developes changed to develops   |
+     | Page 149  Kneeding changed to Kneading    |
+     | Page 165  The symbol looks like a D       |
+     |           lying on its back.              |
+     |                                           |
+     +-------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and
+Fuel, by Samuel William Johnson
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and Fuel, by 
+Samuel William Johnson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and Fuel
+
+Author: Samuel William Johnson
+
+Release Date: July 28, 2008 [EBook #26142]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEAT AND ITS USES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven Giacomelli, Barbara Kosker, Jeannie
+Howse and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+produced by Core Historical Literature in Agriculture
+(CHLA), Cornell University)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h1>PEAT AND ITS USES,</h1>
+<br />
+<h2>AS</h2>
+<br />
+<h2>FERTILIZER AND FUEL.</h2>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+<br />
+<h2>SAMUEL W. JOHNSON, A. M.,</h2>
+<br />
+<h3>PROFESSOR OF ANALYTICAL AND AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY, YALE COLLEGE.</h3>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h3>FULLY ILLUSTRATED.</h3>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h3>NEW-YORK:</h3>
+<h3>ORANGE JUDD &amp; COMPANY.</h3>
+<h3>245 BROADWAY.</h3>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<h4>Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by</h4>
+<h3>ORANGE JUDD &amp; CO.,</h3>
+<h4>At the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the<br />
+Southern District of New-York.</h4>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span class="smcap"><b>Lovejoy &amp; Son</b></span>,<br />
+<span class="smcap"><b>Electrotypers and Stereotypers</b></span><br />
+<b>15 Vandewater street N. Y.</b><br />
+</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h3>TO MY FATHER,</h3>
+<h3>MY EARLIEST AND BEST</h3>
+<h3>INSTRUCTOR IN RURAL AFFAIRS,</h3>
+<h3>THIS VOLUME</h3>
+<h3>IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED.</h3>
+<h4>S. W. J.</h4>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 35%;" />
+<br />
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="80%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="Contents">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="3%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" width="3%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" width="3%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" width="83%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdrb" width="3%">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="5">Introduction</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_vii">vii</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdc" colspan="6"><a href="#PART_I">PART I.</a>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Origin, Varieties, and Chemical Characters of Peat</span>.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="5">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdrb">PAGE</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">What is Peat?</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Conditions of its Formation</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Different Kinds of Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_14">14</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Swamp Muck</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Salt Mud</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Chemical Characters and Composition of Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">a.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Organic or combustible part</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Ulmic and Humic Acids</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Ulmin and Humin&mdash;Crenic and Apocrenic Acids</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Ulmates and Humates</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Crenates and Apocrenates</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Gein and Geic Acid&mdash;Elementary Composition of Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Ultimate Composition of the Constituents of Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">b.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Mineral Part&mdash;Ashes</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Chemical Changes that occur in the Formation of Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdc" colspan="6"><a href="#PART_II">PART II.</a>&mdash;<span class="smcap">On the Agricultural Uses of Peat and Swamp Muck</span>.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Characters that adapt Peat for Agricultural Use</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">A.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Physical or Amending Characters</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">I.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Absorbent Power for Water, as Liquid and Vapor</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">II.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Absorbent Power for Ammonia</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">III.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Influence in Disintegrating the Soil</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">IV.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Influence on the Temperature of Soils</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">B.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Fertilizing Characters</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdrt">I.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Fertilizing Effects of the Organic Matters, excluding
+    Nitrogen</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">1.</td>
+  <td class="tdl">Organic Matters as Direct Food to Plants</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">2.</td>
+  <td class="tdl">Organic Matters as Indirect Food to Plants</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">3.</td>
+  <td class="tdl">Nitrogen, including Ammonia and Nitric Acid</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">II.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Fertilizing Effects of the Ashes of Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">III.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Peculiarities in the Decay of Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">IV.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Comparison of Peat with Stable Manure</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Characters of Peat that are detrimental, or that need
+    correction</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" colspan="3">I.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Possible Bad Effects on Heavy Soils</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" colspan="3">II.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Noxious Ingredients</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">a.</td>
+  <td class="tdl">Vitriol Peats</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">b.</td>
+  <td class="tdl">Acidity&mdash;c. Resinous Matters</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Preparation of Peat for Agricultural Use</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">a.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Excavation</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">b.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Exposure, or Seasoning</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">c.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Composting</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Compost with Stable Manure</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Compost with Night Soil</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Compost with Guano</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Compost with Fish and other Animal Matters</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Compost with Potash-lye &amp; Soda-ash; Wood-ashes, Shell-marl, Lime</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Compost with Salt and Lime Mixture</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Compost with Carbonate of Lime, Mortar, etc.</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">The Author's Experiments with Peat Composts</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Examination of Peat with reference to its Agricultural Value</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;6.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Composition of Connecticut Peats</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Method of Analysis</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Tables of Composition</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_88">88-89-90</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdc" colspan="6"><a href="#PART_III">PART III</a>.&mdash;<span class="smcap">On Peat as Fuel</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Kinds of Peat that Make the Best Fuel</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Density of Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Heating Power of Peat as Compared with Wood and Anthracite</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Modes of Burning Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Burning of Broken Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;6.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Hygroscopic Water of Peat-fuel</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Shrinkage</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Time of Excavation and Drying</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;9.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Drainage</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_106">106</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">10.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Cutting of Peat for Fuel&mdash;a. Preparations for
+    Cutting</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">b.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Cutting by Hand; with Common Spade; German Peat Knife</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Cutting with Irish Slane&mdash;System employed in East
+    Friesland</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">c.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Machines for Cutting Peat; Brosowsky's Machine; Lepreux's
+    Machine</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_113">113</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">11.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Dredging of Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">12.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Moulding of Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">13.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Preparation of Peat-fuel by Machinery, etc</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">A.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Condensation by Pressure</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">a.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Of Fresh Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Mannhardt's Method</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">The Neustadt Method</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">b.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Of Air-dried Peat&mdash;Lithuanian Process</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdrt">c.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Of Hot-dried Peat&mdash;Gwynne's Method; Exter's Method</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Elsberg's Process</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_125">125</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">B.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Condensation without Pressure</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">a.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Of Earthy Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_128">128</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Challeton's Method, at Mennecy, France</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_128">128</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Challeton's Method, at Langenberg, Prussia</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_130">130</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Roberts' Method, at Pekin, N. Y.</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Siemens' Method, at B&oelig;blingen, Wirtemberg</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_134">134</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdrt">b.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Condensation of Fibrous Peat&mdash;Weber's Method;           135
+    Hot-drying Gysser's Method and Machine</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdrt">c.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Condensation of Peat of all Kinds&mdash;Schlickeysen's
+    Machine</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Leavitt's Peat Mill, Lexington, Mass</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Ashcroft &amp; Betteley's Machine</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Versmann's Machine, Great Britain</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Buckland's Machine, Great Britain</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">14.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Artificial Drying of Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">15.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Peat Coal</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">16.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Metallurgical Uses of Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">17.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Peat as a Source of Illuminating Gas</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_165">165</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">18.</td>
+  <td class="tdlt" colspan="4">Examination of Peat with regard to its Value as Fuel</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_167">167</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 35%;" /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>In the years 1857 and 1858, the writer, in the capacity of Chemist to
+the State Agricultural Society of Connecticut, was commissioned to make
+investigations into the agricultural uses of the deposits of peat or
+swamp muck which are abundant in this State; and, in 1858, he submitted
+a Report to Henry A. Dyer, Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the Society,
+embodying his conclusions. In the present work the valuable portions of
+that Report have been recast, and, with addition of much new matter,
+form Parts I. and II. The remainder of the book, relating to the
+preparation and employment of peat for fuel, &amp;c., is now for the first
+time published, and is intended to give a faithful account of the
+results of the experience that has been acquired in Europe, during the
+last twenty-five years, in regard to the important subject of which it
+treats.</p>
+
+<p>The employment of peat as an amendment and absorbent for agricultural
+purposes has proved to be of great advantage in New-England farming.</p>
+
+<p>It is not to be doubted, that, as fuel, it will be even more valuable
+than as a fertilizer. Our peat-beds, while they do not occupy so much
+territory as to be an impediment and a reproach to our country, as they
+have been to Ireland, are yet so abundant and so widely
+distributed&mdash;occurring from the Atlantic to the Missouri, along and
+above the 40th parallel, and appearing on our Eastern Coast at least as
+far South as North Carolina<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>&mdash;as to present, at numberless points,
+material, which, sooner or later, will serve us most usefully when other
+fuel has become scarce and costly.</p>
+
+<p>The high prices which coal and wood have commanded for several years
+back have directed attention to peat fuel; and, such is the adventurous
+character of American enterprise, it cannot be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>doubted that we shall
+rapidly develop and improve the machinery for producing it. As has
+always been the case, we shall waste a vast deal of time and money in
+contriving machines that violate every principle of mechanism and of
+economy; but the results of European invention furnish a safe basis from
+which to set out, and we have among us the genius and the patience that
+shall work out the perfect method.</p>
+
+<p>It may well be urged that a good degree of caution is advisable in
+entering upon the peat enterprise. In this country we have exhaustless
+mines of the best coal, which can be afforded at a very low rate, with
+which other fuel must compete. In Germany, where the best methods of
+working peat have originated, fuel is more costly than here; and a
+universal and intense economy there prevails, of which we, as a people,
+have no conception.</p>
+
+<p>If, as the Germans themselves admit, the peat question there is still a
+nice one as regards the test of dollars and cents, it is obvious, that,
+for a time, we must "hasten slowly." It is circumstances that make peat,
+and gold as well, remunerative or otherwise; and these must be well
+considered in each individual case. Peat is the name for a material that
+varies extremely in its quality, and this quality should be investigated
+carefully before going to work upon general deductions.</p>
+
+<p>In my account of the various processes for working peat by machinery,
+such data as I have been able to find have been given as to cost of
+production. These data are however very imperfect, and not altogether
+trustworthy, in direct application to American conditions. The cheapness
+of labor in Europe is an item to our disadvantage in interpreting
+foreign estimates. I incline to the belief that this is more than offset
+among us by the quality of our labor, by the energy of our
+administration, by the efficiency of our overseeing, and, especially, by
+our greater skill in the adaptation of mechanical appliances. While
+counselling caution, I also recommend enterprise in developing our
+resources in this important particular; knowing full well, however, that
+what I can say in its favor will scarcely add to the impulse already
+apparent among my countrymen.</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Samuel W. Johnson</span>.</p>
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;" class="noin"><i>Sheffield Scientific School</i>,<br />
+<i>Yale College, June, 1866.</i></p>
+
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The great Dismal Swamp is a grand peat bog, and doubtless
+other of the swamps of the coast, as far south as Florida and the Gulf,
+are of the same character.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%;" /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2><a name="PART_I" id="PART_I">PART I.</a></h2>
+<h2>THE ORIGIN, VARIETIES, AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERS OF PEAT.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>1. <i>What is Peat?</i></p>
+
+<p>By the general term Peat, we understand the organic matter or vegetable
+soil of bogs, swamps, beaver-meadows and salt-marshes.</p>
+
+<p>It consists of substances that have resulted from the decay of many
+generations of aquatic or marsh plants, as mosses, sedges, coarse
+grasses, and a great variety of shrubs, mixed with more or less mineral
+substances, derived from these plants, or in many cases blown or washed
+in from the surrounding lands.</p>
+
+<p>2. <i>The conditions under which Peat is formed.</i></p>
+
+<p>In this country the production of Peat from fallen and decaying plants,
+depends upon the presence of so much water as to cover or saturate the
+vegetable matters, and thereby hinder the full access of air. Saturation
+with water also has the effect to maintain the decaying matters <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>at a
+low temperature, and by these two causes in combination, the process of
+decay is made to proceed with great slowness, and the solid products of
+such slow decay, are compounds that themselves resist decay, and hence
+they accumulate.</p>
+
+<p>In the United States there appears to be nothing like the extensive
+<i>moors</i> or <i>heaths</i>, that abound in Ireland, Scotland, the north of
+England, North Germany, Holland, and the elevated plains of Bavaria,
+which are mostly level or gently sloping tracts of country, covered with
+peat or turf to a depth often of 20, and sometimes of 40, or more, feet.
+In this country it is only in low places, where streams become
+obstructed and form swamps, or in bays and inlets on salt water, where
+the flow of the tide furnishes the requisite moisture, that our
+peat-beds occur. If we go north-east as far as Anticosti, Labrador, or
+Newfoundland, we find true moors. In these regions have been found a few
+localities of the <i>Heather</i> (<i>Calluna vulgaris</i>), which is so
+conspicuous a plant on the moors of Europe, but which is wanting in the
+peat-beds of the United States.</p>
+
+<p>In the countries above named, the weather is more uniform than here, the
+air is more moist, and the excessive heat of our summers is scarcely
+known. Such is the greater humidity of the atmosphere that the
+bog-mosses,&mdash;the so-called <i>Sphagnums</i>,&mdash;which have a wonderful avidity
+for moisture, (hence used for packing plants which require to be kept
+moist on journeys), are able to keep fresh and in growth during the
+entire summer. These mosses decay below, and throw out new vegetation
+above, and thus produce a bog, especially wherever the earth is springy.
+It is in this way that in those countries, moors and peat-bogs actually
+grow, increasing in depth and area, from year to year, and raise
+themselves above the level of the surrounding country.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>Prof. Marsh informs the writer that he has seen in Ireland, near the
+north-west coast, a granite hill, capped with a peat-bed, several feet
+in thickness. In the Bavarian highlands similar cases have been
+observed, in localities where the atmosphere and the ground are kept
+moist enough for the growth of moss by the extraordinary prevalence of
+fogs. Many of the European moors rise more or less above the level of
+their borders towards the centre, often to a height of 10 or 20 and
+sometimes of 30 feet. They are hence known in Germany as <i>high</i> moors
+(<i>Hochmoore</i>) to distinguish from the level or dishing <i>meadow-moors</i>,
+(<i>Wiesenmoore</i>). The peat-producing vegetation of the former is chiefly
+moss and heather, of the latter coarse grasses and sedges.</p>
+
+<p>In Great Britain the reclamation of a moor is usually an expensive
+operation, for which not only much draining, but actual cutting out and
+burning of the compact peat is necessary.</p>
+
+<p>The warmth of our summers and the dryness of our atmosphere prevent the
+accumulation of peat above the highest level of the standing water of
+our marshes, and so soon as the marshes are well drained, the peat
+ceases to form, and in most cases the swamp may be easily converted into
+good meadow land.</p>
+
+<p>Springy hill-sides, which in cooler, moister climates would become
+moors, here dry up in summer to such an extent that no peat can be
+formed upon them.</p>
+
+<p>As already observed, our peat is found in low places. In many instances
+its accumulation began by the obstruction of a stream. To that
+remarkable creature, the beaver, we owe many of our peat-bogs. These
+animals, from time immemorial, have built their dams across rivers so as
+to flood the adjacent forest. In the rich leaf-mold at the water's
+verge, and in the cool shade of the standing trees, has begun the growth
+of the sphagnums, sedges, and va<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>rious purely aquatic plants. These in
+their annual decay have shortly filled the shallow borders of the
+stagnating water, and by slow encroachments, going on through many
+years, they have occupied the deeper portions, aided by the trees,
+which, perishing, give their fallen branches and trunks, towards
+completing the work. The trees decay and fall, and become entirely
+converted into peat; or, as not unfrequently happens, especially in case
+of resinous woods, preserve their form, and to some extent their
+soundness.</p>
+
+<p>In a similar manner, ponds and lakes are encroached upon; or, if
+shallow, entirely filled up by peat deposits. In the Great Forest of
+Northern New York, the voyager has abundant opportunity to observe the
+formation of peat-swamps, both as a result of beaver dams, and of the
+filling of shallow ponds, or the narrowing of level river courses. The
+formation of peat in water of some depth greatly depends upon the growth
+of aquatic plants, other than those already mentioned. In our Eastern
+States the most conspicuous are the Arrow-head, (<i>Sagittaria</i>); the
+Pickerel Weed, (<i>Pontederia</i>;) Duck Meat, (<i>Lemna</i>;) Pond Weed,
+(<i>Potamogeton</i>;) various <i>Polygonums</i>, brothers of Buckwheat and
+Smart-weed; and especially the Pond Lilies, <i>(Nymph&oelig;a</i> and <i>Nuphar</i>).
+The latter grow in water four or five feet deep, their leaves and long
+stems are thick and fleshy, and their roots, which fill the oozy mud,
+are often several inches in diameter. Their decaying leaves and stems,
+and their huge roots, living or dead, accumulate below and gradually
+raise the bed of the pond. Their living foliage which often covers the
+water almost completely for acres, becomes a shelter or support for
+other more delicate aquatic plants and sphagnums, which, creeping out
+from the shore, may so develop as to form a floating carpet, whereon the
+leaves of the neighboring wood, and dust <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>scattered by the wind collect,
+bearing down the mass, which again increases above, or is reproduced
+until the water is filled to its bottom with vegetable matter.</p>
+
+<p>It is not rare to find in our bogs, patches of moss of considerable area
+concealing deep water with a treacherous appearance of solidity, as the
+hunter and botanist have often found to their cost. In countries of more
+humid atmosphere, they are more common and attain greater dimensions. In
+Zealand the surfaces of ponds are so frequently covered with floating
+beds of moss, often stout enough to bear a man, that they have there
+received a special name "<i>Hangesak</i>." In the Russian Ural, there occur
+lakes whose floating covers of moss often extend five or six feet above
+the water, and are so firm that roads are made across them, and forests
+of large fir-trees find support. These immense accumulations are in fact
+floating moors, consisting entirely of peat, save the living vegetation
+at the surface.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes these floating peat-beds, bearing trees, are separated by
+winds from their connection with the shore, and become swimming peat
+islands. In a small lake near Eisenach, in Central Germany, is a
+swimming island of this sort. Its diameter is 40 rods, and it consists
+of a felt-like mass of peat, three to five feet in depth, covered above
+by sphagnums and a great variety of aquatic plants. A few birches and
+dwarf firs grow in this peat, binding it together by their roots, and
+when the wind blows, they act as sails, so that the island is constantly
+moving about upon the lake.</p>
+
+<p>On the Neusiedler lake, in Hungary, is said to float a peat island
+having an area of six square miles, and on lakes of the high Mexican
+Plateau are similar islands which, long ago, were converted in fruitful
+gardens.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>3. <i>The different kinds of Peat.</i></p>
+
+<p>Very great differences in the characters of the deposits in our
+peat-beds are observable. These differences are partly of color, some
+peats being gray, others red, others again black; the majority, when
+dry, possess a dark brown-red or snuff color. They also vary remarkably
+in weight and consistency. Some are compact, destitute of fibres or
+other traces of the vegetation from which they have been derived, and on
+drying, shrink greatly and yield tough dense masses which burn readily,
+and make an excellent fuel. Others again are light and porous, and
+remain so on drying; these contain intermixed vegetable matter that is
+but little advanced in the peaty decomposition. Some peats are almost
+entirely free from mineral matters, and on burning, leave but a few <i>per
+cent.</i> of ash, others contain considerable quantities of lime or iron,
+in chemical combination, or of sand and clay that have been washed in
+from the hills adjoining the swamps. As has been observed, the peat of
+some swamps is mostly derived from mosses, that of others originates
+largely from grasses; some contain much decayed wood and leaves, others
+again are free from these.</p>
+
+<p>In the same swamp we usually observe more or less of all these
+differences. We find the surface peat is light and full of partly
+decayed vegetation, while below, the deposits are more compact. We
+commonly can trace distinct strata or layers of peat, which are often
+very unlike each other in appearance and quality, and in some cases the
+light and compact layers alternate so that the former are found below
+the latter.</p>
+
+<p>The light and porous kinds of peat appear in general to be formed in
+shallow swamps or on the surface of bogs, where there is considerable
+access of air to the decaying matters, while the compacter, older, riper
+peats are found <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>at a depth, and seem to have been formed beneath the
+low water mark, in more complete exclusion of the atmosphere, and under
+a considerable degree of pressure.</p>
+
+<p>The nature of the vegetation that flourishes in a bog, has much effect
+on the character of the peat. The peats chiefly derived from mosses that
+have grown in the full sunlight, have a yellowish-red color in their
+upper layers, which usually becomes darker as we go down, running
+through all shades of brown until at a considerable depth it is black.
+Peats produced principally from grasses are grayish in appearance at the
+surface, being full of silvery fibres&mdash;the skeletons of the blades of
+grasses and sedges, while below they are commonly black.</p>
+
+<p><i>Moss peat</i> is more often fibrous in structure, and when dried forms
+somewhat elastic masses. <i>Grass peat</i>, when taken a little below the
+surface, is commonly destitute of fibres; when wet, is earthy in its
+look, and dries to dense hard lumps.</p>
+
+<p>Where mosses and grasses have grown together simultaneously in the same
+swamp, the peat is modified in its characters accordingly. Where, as may
+happen, grass succeeds moss, or moss succeeds grass, the different
+layers reveal their origin by their color and texture. At considerable
+depths, however, where the peat is very old, these differences nearly or
+entirely disappear.</p>
+
+<p>The geological character of a country is not without influence on the
+kind of peat. It is only in regions where the rocks are granitic or
+silicious, where, at least, the surface waters are free or nearly free
+from lime, that <i>mosses</i> make the bulk of the peat.</p>
+
+<p>In limestone districts, peat is chiefly formed from <i>grasses</i> and
+<i>sedges</i>.</p>
+
+<p>This is due to the fact that mosses (sphagnums) need little lime for
+their growth, while the grasses require much; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>aquatic grasses cannot,
+therefore, thrive in pure waters, and in waters containing the requisite
+proportion of lime, grasses and sedges choke out the moss.</p>
+
+<p>The accidental admixtures of soil often greatly affect the appearance
+and value of a peat, but on the whole it would appear that its quality
+is most influenced by the degree of decomposition it has been subjected
+to.</p>
+
+<p>In meadows and marshes, overflowed by the ocean tides, we have
+<i>salt-peat</i>, formed from Sea-weeds (<i>Alg&aelig;</i>,) Salt-wort (<i>Salicornia</i>,)
+and a great variety of marine or strand-plants. In its upper portions,
+salt-peat is coarsely fibrous from the grass roots, and dark-brown in
+color. At sufficient depth it is black and destitute of fibres.</p>
+
+<p>The fact that peat is fibrous in texture shows that it is of
+comparatively recent formation, or that the decomposition has been
+arrested before reaching its later stages. Fibrous peat is found near
+the surface, and as we dig down into a very deep bed we find almost
+invariably that the fibrous structure becomes less and less evident
+until at a certain depth it entirely disappears.</p>
+
+<p>It is not depth simply, but age or advancement in decomposition, which
+determines these differences of texture.</p>
+
+<p>The "ripest," most perfectly formed peat, that in which the peaty
+decomposition has reached its last stage,&mdash;which, in Germany, is termed
+<i>pitchy-peat</i> or <i>fat peat</i>, (<i>Pechtorf</i>, <i>Specktorf</i>)&mdash;is dark-brown or
+black in color, and comparatively heavy and dense. When moist, it is
+firm, sticky and coherent almost like clay, may be cut and moulded to
+any shape. Dried, it becomes hard, and on a cut or burnished surface
+takes a luster like wax or pitch.</p>
+
+<p>In Holland, West Friesland, Holstein, Denmark and Pomerania, a so-called
+<i>mud-peat</i> (<i>Schlammtorf</i>, also <i>Baggertorf</i> and <i>Streichtorf</i>,) is
+"fished up" from the bottoms <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>of ponds, as a black mud or paste, which,
+on drying, becomes hard and dense like the pitchy-peat.</p>
+
+<p>The two varieties of peat last named are those which are most prized as
+fuel in Europe.</p>
+
+<p><i>Vitriol peat</i> is peat of any kind impregnated with sulphate of iron
+(<i>copperas</i>,) and sulphate of alumina, (the astringent ingredient of
+alum.)</p>
+
+<p><i>Swamp Muck.</i>&mdash;In New England, the vegetable remains occurring in
+swamps, etc., are commonly called <i>Muck</i>. 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&mdash;formerly, more
+than now, it must be admitted,&mdash;the word as applied to the subject of
+our treatise, has been qualified as <i>Swamp Muck</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In Germany, peat of whatever character, is designated by the single word
+<i>Torf</i>; in France it is <i>Tourbe</i>, and of the same origin is the word
+<i>Turf</i>, applied to it in Great Britain. With us turf appears never to
+have had this signification.</p>
+
+<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>rough distinction is better than none, and
+we shall therefore employ the two terms when any greater clearness of
+meaning can be thereby conveyed.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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 a source is, however, so far as
+the writer is informed, unknown to any extent in this country. We might
+distinguish as <i>leaf-muck</i> the leaves which have decomposed under or
+saturated with water, retaining the well established term leaf-mold to
+designate the dry or drier covering of the soil in a dense forest of
+deciduous trees.</p>
+
+<p><i>Salt-mud.</i>&mdash;In the marshes, bays, and estuaries along the sea-shore,
+accumulate large quantities of fine silt, brought down by rivers or
+deposited from the sea-water, which are more or less mixed with finely
+divided peat or partly decomposed vegetable matters, derived largely
+from Sea-weed, and in many cases also with animal remains (mussels and
+other shell-fish, crabs, and myriads of minute organisms.) This black
+mud has great value as a fertilizer.</p>
+
+<p>4. <i>The Chemical Characters and Composition of Peat.</i></p>
+
+<p>The process of burning, demonstrates that peat consists of two kinds of
+substance; one of which, the larger <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>portion, is combustible, and is
+<i>organic</i> or vegetable matter; the other, smaller portion, remaining
+indestructible by fire is <i>inorganic matter</i> or <i>ash</i>. We shall consider
+these separately.</p>
+
+<p>a. <i>The organic or combustible part of peat</i> varies considerably in its
+proximate composition. It is in fact an indefinite mixture of several or
+perhaps of many compound bodies, whose precise nature is little known.
+These bodies have received the collective names <i>Humus</i> and <i>Geine</i>. We
+shall employ the term <i>humus</i> to designate this mixture, whether
+occurring in peat, swamp-muck, salt-mud, in composts, or in the arable
+soil. Its chemical characters are much the same, whatever its appearance
+or mode of occurrence; and this is to be expected since it is always
+formed from the same materials and under essentially similar conditions.</p>
+
+<p><i>Resinous</i> and <i>Bituminous matters</i>.&mdash;If dry pulverized peat be agitated
+and warmed for a short time with alcohol, there is usually extracted a
+small amount of <i>resinous</i> and sometimes of <i>bituminous</i> matters, which
+are of no account in the agricultural applications of peat, but have a
+bearing on its value as fuel.</p>
+
+<p><i>Ulmic</i> and <i>Humic acids</i>.&mdash;On boiling what remains from the treatment
+with alcohol, with a weak solution of carbonate of soda (sal-soda), we
+obtain a yellowish-brown or black liquid. This liquid contains certain
+acid ingredients of the peat which become soluble by entering into
+chemical combination with soda.</p>
+
+<p>On adding to the solution strong vinegar, or any other strong acid,
+there separates a bulky brown or black substance, which, after a time,
+subsides to the bottom of the vessel as a precipitate, to use a chemical
+term, leaving the liquid of a more or less yellow tinge. This deposit,
+if obtained from light brown peat, is <i>ulmic acid</i>; if from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>black peat,
+it is <i>humic acid</i>. These acids, when in the precipitated state, are
+insoluble in vinegar; but when this is washed away, they are
+considerably soluble in water. They are, in fact, modified by the action
+of the soda, so as to acquire much greater solubility in water than they
+otherwise possess. On drying the bulky bodies thus obtained, brown or
+black lustrous masses result, which have much the appearance of coal.</p>
+
+<p><i>Ulmin</i> and <i>Humin</i>.&mdash;After extracting the peat with solution of
+carbonate of soda, it still contains ulmin or humin. These bodies cannot
+be obtained in the pure state from peat, since they are mixed with more
+or less partially decomposed vegetable matters from which they cannot be
+separated without suffering chemical change. They have been procured,
+however, by the action of muriatic acid on sugar. They are indifferent
+in their chemical characters, are insoluble in water and in solution of
+carbonate of soda; but upon heating with solution of hydrate of soda
+they give dark-colored liquids, being in fact converted by this
+treatment into ulmic and humic acids, respectively, with which they are
+identical in composition.</p>
+
+<p>The terms ulmic and humic acids do not refer each to a single compound,
+but rather to a group of bodies of closely similar appearance and
+properties, which, however, do differ slightly in their characteristics,
+and differ also in composition by containing more or less of oxygen and
+hydrogen in equal equivalents.</p>
+
+<p>After complete extraction with hydrate of soda, there remains more or
+less undecomposed vegetable matter, together with sand and soil, were
+these contained in the peat.</p>
+
+<p><i>Crenic</i> and <i>apocrenic acids</i>.&mdash;From the usually yellowish liquid out
+of which the ulmic and humic acids have been separated, may further be
+procured by appropriate <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>chemical means, not needful to be detailed
+here, two other bodies which bear the names respectively of <i>Crenic
+Acid</i> and <i>Apocrenic Acid</i>. These acids were discovered by Berzelius,
+the great Swedish chemist, in the water and sediment of the Porla
+spring, in Sweden.</p>
+
+<p>By the action upon peat of carbonate of ammonia, which is generated to
+some extent in the decay of vegetable matters and is also absorbed from
+the air, ulmic and humic acids are made soluble, and combine with the
+ammonia as well as with lime, oxide of iron, etc. In some cases the
+ulmates and humates thus produced may be extracted from the peat by
+water, and consequently occur dissolved in the water of the swamp from
+which the peat is taken, giving it a yellow or brown color.</p>
+
+<p><i>Ulmates</i> and <i>Humates</i>.&mdash;Of considerable interest to us here, are the
+properties of the compounds of these acids, that may be formed in peat
+when it is used as an ingredient of composts. The ulmates and humates of
+the alkalies, viz.: <i>potash</i>, <i>soda</i>, and <i>ammonia</i>, dissolve readily in
+water. They are formed when the alkalies or their carbonates act on
+ulmin and humin, or upon ulmates or humates of lime, iron, etc. Their
+dilute solutions are yellow, or brown.</p>
+
+<p>The ulmates and humates of <i>lime</i>, <i>magnesia</i>, oxide of <i>iron</i>, oxide of
+<i>manganese</i> and <i>alumina</i>, are insoluble, or nearly so in water.</p>
+
+<p>In ordinary soils, the earths and oxides just named, predominate over
+the alkalies, and although they may contain considerable ulmic and humic
+acids, water is able to extract but very minute quantities of the
+latter, on account of the insolubility of the compounds they have
+formed.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, peat, highly manured garden soil, leaf-mold, rotted
+manure and composts, yield yellow or brown extracts with water, from the
+fact that alkalies are here present to form soluble compounds.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>An important fact established by Mulder is, that when solutions of
+alkali-carbonates are put in contact with the insoluble ulmates and
+humates, the latter are decomposed; soluble alkali-ulmates and humates
+being formed, and <i>in these, a portion of the otherwise insoluble
+ulmates and humates dissolve</i>, so that thus, in a compost, lime,
+magnesia, oxide of iron, and even alumina may exist in soluble
+combinations, by the agency of these acids.</p>
+
+<p><i>Crenates</i> and <i>Apocrenates</i>.&mdash;The ulmic and humic acids when separated
+from their compounds, are nearly insoluble, and, so far as we know,
+comparatively inert bodies; by further change, (uniting with oxygen)
+they pass into or yield the crenic and apocrenic acids which, according
+to Mulder, have an acid taste, being freely soluble in water, and in all
+respects, decided acids. The compounds of both these acids with the
+alkalies are soluble. The crenates of lime, magnesia, and protoxide of
+iron are soluble, crenates of peroxide of iron and of oxide of manganese
+are but very slightly soluble; crenate of alumina is insoluble. The
+apocrenates of iron and manganese are slightly soluble; those of lime,
+magnesia, and alumina are insoluble. All the insoluble crenates and
+apocrenates, are soluble in solutions of the corresponding salts of the
+alkalies.</p>
+
+<p>Application of these facts will be given in subsequent paragraphs. It
+may be here remarked, that the crenate of protoxide of iron is not
+unfrequently formed in considerable quantity in peat-bogs, and
+dissolving in the water of springs gives them a chalybeate character.
+Copious springs of this kind occur at the edge of a peat-bed at
+Woodstock, Conn., which are in no small repute for their medicinal
+qualities, having a tonic effect from the iron they contain. Such
+waters, on exposure to the air, shortly absorb oxygen, and the substance
+is thereby <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>converted into crenate and afterwards into apocrenate of
+peroxide of iron, which, being but slightly soluble, or insoluble,
+separates as a yellow or brown ochreous deposit along the course of the
+water. By further exposure to air the organic acid is oxidized to
+carbonic acid, and hydrated oxide of iron remains. Bog-iron ore appears
+often to have originated in this way.</p>
+
+<p><i>Gein and Geic acid.</i>&mdash;Mulder formerly believed another substance to
+exist in peat which he called <i>Gein</i>, and from this by the action of
+alkalies he supposed geic acid to be formed. In his later writings,
+however, he expresses doubt as to the existence of such a substance, and
+we may omit further notice of it, especially since, if it really do
+occur, its properties are not distinct from those of humic acid.</p>
+
+<p>We should not neglect to remark, however, that the word gein has been
+employed by some writers in the sense in which we use humus, viz.: to
+denote the brown or black products of the decomposition of vegetable
+matters.</p>
+
+<p>It is scarcely to be doubted that other organic compounds exist in peat.
+As yet, however, we have no knowledge of any other ingredients, while it
+appears certain that those we have described are its chief constituents,
+and give it its peculiar properties. With regard to them it must
+nevertheless be admitted, that our chemical knowledge is not entirely
+satisfactory, and new investigations are urgently demanded to supply the
+deficiencies of the researches so ably made by Mulder, more than twenty
+years ago.</p>
+
+<p><i>Elementary Composition of Peat.</i></p>
+
+<p>After this brief notice of those organic <i>compounds</i> that have been
+recognized in or produced from peat, we may give attention to the
+elementary composition of peat itself.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>Like that of the vegetation from which it originates, the organic part
+of peat consists of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen. In the
+subjoined table are given the proportions of these elements as found in
+the combustible part of sphagnum, of several kinds of wood, and in that
+of a number of peats in various stages of ripeness. They are arranged in
+the order of their content of carbon.</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="100%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png024">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="50%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="10%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="10%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="10%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="10%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="10%">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdcb">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl"><i>Analyst.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcbl"><i>Carbon.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcbl"><i>Hydrogen.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcbl"><i>Oxygen.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcbl"><i>Nitrogen.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1&mdash;Sphagnum, undecomposed</td>
+  <td class="tdll">Websky</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">49.88</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">6.54</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">42.42</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.16</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2&mdash;Peach wood, undecomposed</td>
+  <td class="tdll">Chevandier</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">49.90</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">6.10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">43.10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.90</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3&mdash;Poplar wood, undecomposed</td>
+  <td class="tdll">Chevandier</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">50.30</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">6.30</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">42.40</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.00</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4&mdash;Oak wood, undecomposed</td>
+  <td class="tdll">Chevandier</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">50.60</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">6.00</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">42.10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.30</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5&mdash;Peat, porous, light-brown, sphagnous</td>
+  <td class="tdll">Websky</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">50.86</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">5.80</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" style="border-bottom: 1px black dashed;">42.57</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" style="border-bottom: 1px black dashed;">0.77</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;6&mdash;Peat, porous, red-brown</td>
+  <td class="tdll">J&aelig;ckel</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">53.51</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">5.90</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">40.59</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7&mdash;Peat, heavy, brown</td>
+  <td class="tdll">J&aelig;ckel</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">56.43</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">5.32</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">38.25</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8&mdash;Peat, dark red-brown, well decomposed</td>
+  <td class="tdll">Websky</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">59.47</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">6.52</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">31.51</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.51</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;9&mdash;Peat, black, very dense and hard</td>
+  <td class="tdll">Websky</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">59.70</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">5.70</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">33.04</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.56</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">10&mdash;Peat, black, heavy, best quality for fuel</td>
+  <td class="tdll">Websky</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">59.71</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">5.27</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">32.07</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.59</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb">11&mdash;Peat, brown, heavy, best quality for fuel</td>
+  <td class="tdlbl">Websky</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">62.54</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">6.81</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">29.24</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">1.41</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>From this table it is seen that sphagnum, and the wood of our forest
+trees are very similar in composition, though not identical. Further, it
+is seen from analyses 1 and 5, that in the first stages of the
+conversion of sphagnum into peat&mdash;which are marked by a change of color,
+but in which the form of the sphagnum is to a considerable extent
+preserved&mdash;but little alteration occurs in ultimate composition; about
+one <i>per cent.</i> of carbon being gained, and one of hydrogen lost. We
+notice in running down the columns that as the peat becomes heavier and
+darker in color, it also becomes richer in carbon and poorer in oxygen.
+Hydrogen varies but slightly.</p>
+
+<p>As a general statement we may say that the ripest and heaviest peat
+contains 10 or 12 <i>per cent.</i> more carbon and 10 or 12 <i>per cent.</i> less
+oxygen than the vegetable matter from which it is produced; while
+between the unaltered vegetation and the last stage of humification, the
+peat runs through an indefinite number of intermediate stages.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>Nitrogen is variable, but, in general, the older peats contain the most.
+To this topic we shall shortly recur, and now pass on to notice&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>The ultimate composition of the compounds of which peat consists.</i></p>
+
+<p>Below are tabulated analyses of the organic acids of peat:&mdash;</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png025">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="55%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="15%"><i>Carbon.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="15%"><i>Hydrogen.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="15%"><i>Oxygen.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Ulmic acid, artificial from sugar</td>
+  <td class="tdc">67.10</td>
+  <td class="tdc">4.20</td>
+  <td class="tdc">28.70</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Humic acid, from Frisian peat</td>
+  <td class="tdc">61.10</td>
+  <td class="tdc">4.30</td>
+  <td class="tdc">34.60</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Crenic acid</td>
+  <td class="tdc">56.47</td>
+  <td class="tdc">2.74</td>
+  <td class="tdc">40.78</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Apocrenic acid</td>
+  <td class="tdc">45.70</td>
+  <td class="tdc">4.80</td>
+  <td class="tdc">49.50</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p>It is seen that the amount of carbon diminishes from ulmic acid to
+apocrenic, that of oxygen increases in the same direction and to the
+same extent, viz.: about 21 <i>per cent.</i>, while the hydrogen remains
+nearly the same in all.</p>
+
+<p>b. <i>The mineral part of peat, which remains as ashes</i> when the organic
+matters are burned away, is variable in quantity and composition.
+Usually a portion of sand or soil is found in it, and this not
+unfrequently constitutes its larger portion. Some peats leave on burning
+much carbonate of lime; others chiefly sulphate of lime; the ash of
+others again is mostly oxyd of iron; silicic, and phosphoric acids,
+magnesia, potash, soda, alumina and chlorine, also occur in small
+quantities in the ash of all peats.</p>
+
+<p>With one exception (alumina) all these bodies are important ingredients
+of agricultural plants.</p>
+
+<p>In some rare instances, peats are found, which are so impregnated with
+soluble sulphates of iron and alumina, as to yield these salts to water
+in large quantity; and sulphate of iron (green vitriol,) has actually
+been manufactured from such peats, which in consequence have been
+characterized as <i>vitriol peats</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>Those bases (lime, oxide of iron, etc.,) which are found as carbonates
+or simple oxides in the ashes, exist in the peat itself in combination
+with the humic and other organic acids. When these compounds are
+destroyed by burning, the bases remain united to carbonic acid.</p>
+
+<p>5.&mdash;<i>Chemical Changes that occur in the formation of Peat.</i> When a plant
+perishes, its conversion into humus usually begins at once. When exposed
+to the atmosphere, the oxygen of the air attacks it, uniting with its
+carbon producing carbonic acid gas, and with its hydrogen generating
+water. This action goes on, though slowly, even at some depth under
+water, because the latter dissolves oxygen from the air in small
+quantity,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> and constantly resupplies itself as rapidly as the gas is
+consumed.</p>
+
+<p>Whether exposed to the air or not, the organic matter suffers internal
+decomposition, and portions of its elements assume the gaseous or liquid
+form. We have seen that ripe peat is 10 to 12 <i>per cent.</i> richer in
+carbon and equally poorer in oxygen, than the vegetable matters from
+which it originates. Organic matters, in passing into peat, lose carbon
+and nitrogen; but they lose oxygen more rapidly than the other two
+elements, and hence the latter become relatively more abundant. The loss
+of hydrogen is such that its proportion to the other elements is but
+little altered.</p>
+
+<p>The bodies that separate from the decomposing vegetable matter are
+carbonic acid gas, carburetted hydrogen (marsh gas), nitrogen gas, and
+water.</p>
+
+<p>Carbonic acid is the most abundant gaseous product of the peaty
+decomposition. Since it contains nearly 73 <i>per cent.</i> of oxygen and but
+27 <i>per cent.</i> of carbon, it is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>obvious that by its escape the
+proportion of carbon in the residual mass is increased. In the formation
+of water from the decaying matters, 1 part of hydrogen carries off 8
+parts of oxygen, and this change increases the proportion of carbon and
+of hydrogen. Marsh gas consists of one part of hydrogen to three of
+carbon, but it is evolved in comparatively small quantity, and hence has
+no effect in diminishing the <i>per cent.</i> of carbon.</p>
+
+<p>The gas that bubbles up through the water of a peat-bog, especially if
+the decomposing matters at the bottom be stirred, consists largely of
+marsh gas and nitrogen, often with but a small proportion of carbonic
+acid. Thus Websky found in gas from a peat-bed</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="50%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png027">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="95%">Carbonic acid</td>
+  <td class="tdr" width="5%">2.97</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Marsh gas</td>
+  <td class="tdr">43.36</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Nitrogen</td>
+  <td class="tdr" style="border-bottom: .5pt black solid;">53.67</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">100.00</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p>Carbonic acid, however, dissolves to a considerable extent in water, and
+is furthermore absorbed by the living vegetation, which is not true of
+marsh gas and nitrogen; hence the latter escape while the former does
+not. Nitrogen escapes in the uncombined state, as it always (or usually)
+does in the decay of vegetable and animal matters that contain it. Its
+loss is, in general, slower than that of the other elements, and it
+sometimes accumulates in the peat in considerable quantity. A small
+portion of nitrogen unites with hydrogen, forming ammonia, which remains
+combined with the humic and other acids.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%;" /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2><a name="PART_II" id="PART_II">PART II.</a></h2>
+<h2>ON THE AGRICULTURAL USES OF PEAT AND SWAMP MUCK.</h2>
+<br />
+
+
+<p>After the foregoing account of the composition of peat, we may proceed
+to notice:</p>
+
+<p>1.&mdash;<i>The characters that adapt it for agricultural uses.</i></p>
+
+<p>These characters are conveniently discussed under two heads, viz.:</p>
+
+<p>Those which render it useful in improving the texture and physical
+characters of the soil, and indirectly contribute to the nourishment of
+crops,&mdash;characters which constitute it an <i>amendment</i> to the soil (<i>A</i>);
+and</p>
+
+<p>Those which make it a direct <i>fertilizer</i> (<i>B</i>).</p>
+
+<p>A.&mdash;Considered as an amendment, the value of peat depends upon</p>
+
+<p><i>Its remarkable power of absorbing and retaining water, both as a liquid
+and as a vapor</i> (I):</p>
+
+<p><i>Its power of absorbing ammonia</i> (II):</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span><i>Its effect in promoting the disintegration and solution of mineral
+ingredients, that is the stony matters of the soil</i> (III): <i>and</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Its influence on the temperature of the soil</i> (IV).</p>
+
+<p>The agricultural importance of these properties of peat is best
+illustrated by considering the faults of a certain class of soils.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the State of Connecticut, for instance, are found abundant
+examples of light, leachy, hungry soils, which consist of coarse sand or
+fine gravel; are surface-dry in a few hours after the heaviest rains,
+and in the summer drouths, are as dry as an ash-heap to a depth of
+several or many feet.</p>
+
+<p>These soils are easy to work, are ready for the plow early in the
+spring, and if well manured give fair crops in wet seasons. In a dry
+summer, however, they yield poorly, or fail of crops entirely; and, at
+the best, they require constant and very heavy manuring to keep them in
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>Crops fail on these soils from two causes, viz.; <i>want of moisture</i> and
+<i>want of food</i>. Cultivated plants demand as an indispensable condition
+of their growth and perfection, to be supplied with water in certain
+quantities, which differ with different crops. Buckwheat will flourish
+best on dry soils, while cranberries and rice grow in swamps.</p>
+
+<p>Our ordinary cereal, root, forage and garden crops require a medium
+degree of moisture, and with us it is in all cases desirable that the
+soil be equally protected from excess of water and from drouth. Soils
+must be thus situated either naturally, or as the result of improvement,
+before any steadily good results can be obtained in their cultivation.
+The remedy for excess of water in too heavy soils, is thorough drainage.
+It is expensive, but effectual. It makes the earth more porous, opens
+and maintains <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>channels, through which the surplus water speedily runs
+off, and permits the roots of crops to go down to a considerable depth.</p>
+
+<p>What, let us consider, is the means of obviating the defects of soils
+that are naturally too porous, from which the water runs off too
+readily, and whose crops "burn up" in dry seasons?</p>
+
+<p>In wet summers, these light soils, as we have remarked, are quite
+productive if well manured. It is then plain that if we could add
+anything to them which would retain the moisture of dews and rains in
+spite of the summer-heats, our crops would be uniformly fair, provided
+the supply of manure were kept up.</p>
+
+<p>But why is it that light soils, need more manure than loamy or heavy
+lands? We answer&mdash;because, in the first place the rains which quickly
+descend through the open soil, wash down out of the reach of vegetation
+the soluble fertilizing matters, especially the nitrates, for which the
+soil has no retentive power; and in the second place, from the porosity
+of the soil, the air has too great access, so that the vegetable and
+animal matters of manures decay too rapidly, their volatile portions,
+ammonia and carbonic acid, escape into the atmosphere, and are in
+measure lost to the crops. From these combined causes we find that a
+heavy dressing of well-rotted stable manure, almost if not entirely,
+disappears from such soils in one season, so that another year the field
+requires a renewed application; while on loamy soils the same amount of
+manure would have lasted several years, and produced each year a better
+effect.</p>
+
+<p>We want then to <i>amend</i> light soils by incorporating with them something
+that prevents the rains from leaching through them too rapidly, and also
+that renders them less open to the air, or absorbs and retains for the
+use of crops the volatile products of the decay of manures.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>For these purposes, vegetable matter of some sort is the best and almost
+the only amendment that can be economically employed. In many cases a
+good peat or muck is the best form of this material, that lies at the
+farmer's command.</p>
+
+<p>I.&mdash;<i>Its absorbent power for liquid water</i> is well known to every farmer
+who has thrown it up in a pile to season for use. It holds the water
+like a sponge, and, according to its greater or less porosity, will
+retain from 50 to 100 or more <i>per cent.</i> of its weight of liquid,
+without dripping. Nor can this water escape from it rapidly. It dries
+almost as slowly as clay, and a heap of it that has been exposed to sun
+and wind for a whole summer, though it has of course lost much water, is
+still distinctly wet to the eye and the feel a little below the surface.</p>
+
+<p><i>Its absorbent power for vapor of water</i> is so great that more than once
+it has happened in Germany, that barns or close sheds filled with
+partially dried peat, such as is used for fuel, have been burst by the
+swelling of the peat in damp weather, occasioned by the absorption of
+moisture from the air. This power is further shown by the fact that when
+peat has been kept all summer long in a warm room, thinly spread out to
+the air, and has become like dry snuff to the feel, it still contains
+from 8 to 30 <i>per cent.</i> (average 15 <i>per cent.</i>) of water. To dry a
+peat thoroughly, it requires to be exposed for some time to the
+temperature of boiling water. It is thus plain, as experience has
+repeatedly demonstrated, that no ordinary summer heats can dry up a soil
+which has had a good dressing of this material, for on the one hand, it
+soaks up and holds the rains that fall upon it, and on the other, it
+absorbs the vapor of water out of the atmosphere whenever it is moist,
+as at night and in cloudy weather.</p>
+
+<p>When peat has once become <i>air-dry</i>, it no longer manifests this avidity
+for water. In drying it shrinks, loses <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>its porosity and requires long
+soaking to saturate it again. In the soil, however, it rarely becomes
+air-dry, unless indeed, this may happen during long drouth with a peaty
+soil, such as results from the draining of a bog.</p>
+
+<p>II.&mdash;<i>Absorbent power for ammonia.</i></p>
+
+<p>All soils that deserve to be called fertile, have the property of
+absorbing and retaining ammonia and the volatile matters which escape
+from fermenting manures, but light and coarse soils may be deficient in
+this power. Here again in respect to its absorptive power for ammonia,
+peat comes to our aid.</p>
+
+<p>It is easy to show by direct experiment that peat absorbs and combines
+with ammonia.</p>
+
+<p>In 1858 I took a weighed quantity of air-dry peat from the New Haven
+Beaver Pond, (a specimen furnished me by Chauncey Goodyear, Esq.,) and
+poured upon it a known quantity of dilute solution of ammonia, and
+agitated the two together occasionally during 48 hours. I then distilled
+off at a boiling heat the unabsorbed ammonia and determined its
+quantity. This amount subtracted from that of the ammonia originally
+employed, gave the quantity of ammonia absorbed and retained by the peat
+at the temperature of boiling water.</p>
+
+<p>The peat retained ammonia to the amount of 0.95 of <i>one per cent.</i></p>
+
+<p>I made another trial at the same time with carbonate of ammonia, adding
+excess of solution of this salt to a quantity of peat, and exposing it
+to the heat of boiling water, until no smell of ammonia was perceptible.
+The entire nitrogen in the peat was then determined, and it was found
+that the dry peat which originally contained nitrogen equivalent to 2.4
+<i>per cent.</i> of ammonia, now yielded an amount corresponding to 3.7 <i>per
+cent.</i> The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>quantity of ammonia absorbed and retained at a temperature
+of 212&deg;, was thus 1.3 <i>per cent.</i></p>
+
+<p>This last experiment most nearly represents the true power of
+absorption; because, in fermenting manures, ammonia mostly occurs in the
+form of carbonate, and this is more largely retained than free ammonia,
+on account of its power of decomposing the humate of lime, forming with
+it carbonate of lime and humate of ammonia.</p>
+
+<p>The absorbent power of peat is well shown by the analyses of three
+specimens, sent me in 1858, by Edwin Hoyt, Esq., of New Canaan, Conn.
+The first of these was the swamp muck he employed. It contained in the
+air-dry state nitrogen equivalent to 0.58 <i>per cent.</i> of ammonia. The
+second sample was the same muck that had lain under the flooring of the
+horse stables, and had been, in this way, partially saturated with
+urine. It contained nitrogen equivalent to 1.15 <i>per cent.</i> of ammonia.
+The third sample was, finally, the same muck composted with white-fish.
+It contained nitrogen corresponding to 1.31 <i>per cent.</i> of ammonia.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>The quantities of ammonia thus absorbed, both in the laboratory and
+field experiments are small&mdash;from 0.7 to 1.3 <i>per cent.</i> The absorption
+is without doubt chiefly due to the organic matter of the peats, and in
+all the specimens on which these trials were made, the proportion of
+inorganic matter is large. The results therefore become a better
+expression of the power of <i>peat</i>, in general, to absorb ammonia, if we
+reckon them on the organic matter alone. Calculated in this way, the
+organic matter of the Beaver Pond peat (which constitutes but 68 <i>per
+cent.</i> of the dry peat) absorbs 1.4 <i>per cent.</i> of free ammonia, and 1.9
+<i>per cent.</i> of ammonia out of the carbonate of ammonia.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>Similar experiments, by Anderson, on a Scotch peat, showed it to
+possess, when wet, an absorptive power of 2 <i>per cent.</i>, and, after
+drying in the air, it still retained 1.5 <i>per cent.</i>&mdash;[Trans. Highland
+and Ag'l Soc'y.]</p>
+
+<p>When we consider how small an ingredient of most manures nitrogen is,
+viz.: from one-half to three-quarters of one <i>per cent.</i> in case of
+stable manure, and how little of it, in the shape of guano for instance,
+is usually applied to crops&mdash;not more than 40 to 60 lbs. to the acre,
+(the usual dressings with guano are from 250 to 400 lbs. per acre, and
+nitrogen averages but 15 <i>per cent.</i> of the guano), we at once perceive
+that an absorptive power of one or even one-half <i>per cent.</i> is greatly
+more than adequate for every agricultural purpose.</p>
+
+<p>III.&mdash;<i>Peat promotes the disintegration of the soil.</i></p>
+
+<p>The soil is a storehouse of food for crops; the stores it contains are,
+however, only partly available for immediate use. In fact, by far the
+larger share is locked up, as it were, in insoluble combinations, and
+only by a slow and gradual change can it become accessible to the plant.
+This change is largely brought about by the united action of <i>water</i> and
+<i>carbonic acid gas</i>. Nearly all the rocks and minerals out of which
+fertile soils are formed,&mdash;which therefore contain those inorganic
+matters that are essential to vegetable growth,&mdash;though very slowly
+acted on by pure water, are decomposed and dissolved to a much greater
+extent by water, charged with carbonic acid gas.</p>
+
+<p>It is by these solvents that the formation of soil from broken rocks is
+to a great extent due. Clay is invariably a result of their direct
+action upon rocks. The efficiency of the soil depends greatly upon their
+chemical influence.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span><i>The only abundant source of carbonic acid in the soil, is decaying
+vegetable matter.</i></p>
+
+<p>Hungry, leachy soils, from their deficiency of vegetable matter and of
+moisture, do not adequately yield their own native resources to the
+support of crops, because the conditions for converting their fixed into
+floating capital are wanting. Such soils dressed with peat or green
+manured, at once acquire the power of retaining water, and keep that
+water ever charged with carbonic acid: thus not only the extraneous
+manures which the farmer applies are fully economized; but the soil
+becomes more productive from its own stores of fertility which now begin
+to be unlocked and available.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Peters, of Saxony, has made some instructive experiments that are
+here in point. He filled several large glass jars, (2-&frac12; feet high and
+5-&frac12; inches wide) with a rather poor loamy sand, containing
+considerable humus, and planted in each one, June 14, 1857, an equal
+number of seeds of oats and peas. Jar No. 2 had daily passed into it
+through a tube, adapted to the bottom, about 3-&frac14; pints of common air.
+No. 3 received daily the same bulk of a mixture of air and carbonic acid
+gas, of which the latter amounted to one-fourth. No. 1 remained without
+any treatment of this kind, <i>i. e.</i>: in just the condition of the soil
+in an open field, having no air in its pores, save that penetrating it
+from the atmosphere. On October 3, the plants were removed from the
+soil, and after drying at the boiling point of water, were weighed. The
+crops from the pots into which air and carbonic acid were daily forced,
+were about <i>twice as heavy</i> as No. 1, which remained in the ordinary
+condition.</p>
+
+<p>Examination of the soil further demonstrated, that in the last two
+soils, a considerably greater quantity of mineral and organic matters
+had become soluble in water, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>than in the soil that was not artificially
+a&euml;rated. The actual results are given in the table below in grammes, and
+refer to 6000 grammes of soil in each case:&mdash;</p>
+<br />
+
+<p class="cen">ACTION OF CARBONIC ACID ON THE SOIL.</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="80%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png036">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="55%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="15%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="15%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="15%">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdcb" rowspan="5"><i>Substances soluble in water, etc.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcl"><i>No. 1,</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdcl"><i>Without</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcl"><i>No. 2,</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcl"><i>No. 3,</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdcl"><i>Artificial</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcl"><i>Common</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcl"><i>Air and</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdcl"><i>Supply of</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcl"><i>Air</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcl"><i>Carbonic</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdcbl"><i>Air.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcbl"><i>Added.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcbl"><i>acid added.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Mineral matters</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.04</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.71</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.99</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Potash</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.07</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.17</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.14</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Soda</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.17</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.23</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.28</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Organic matters</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.76</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.32</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.43</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb">Weight of Crops</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">5.89</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">10.49</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">12.35</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p>It will be seen from the above that air alone exercised nearly as much
+solvent effect as the mixture of air with one-fourth its weight of
+carbonic acid; this is doubtless, in part due to the fact that the air,
+upon entering the soil rich in humus, caused the abundant formation of
+carbonic acid, as will be presently shown must have been the case. It
+is, however, probable that organic acids (crenic and apocrenic,) and
+nitric acid were also produced (by oxidation,) and shared with carbonic
+the work of solution.</p>
+
+<p>It is almost certain, that the acids of peat exert a powerful
+decomposing, and ultimately solvent effect on the minerals of the soil;
+but on this point we have no precise information, and must therefore be
+content merely to present the probability. This is sustained by the fact
+that the crenic, apocrenic and humic acids, though often partly
+uncombined, are never wholly so, but usually occur united in part to
+various bases, viz.: lime, magnesia, ammonia, potash, alumina and oxide
+of iron.</p>
+
+<p>The crenic and apocrenic acids (that are formed by the oxidation of
+ulmic and humic acids,) have such decided acid characters,&mdash;crenic acid
+especially, which has a strongly sour taste&mdash;that we cannot well doubt
+their dissolving action.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>IV.&mdash;<i>The influence of peat on the temperature</i> of light soils dressed
+with it may often be of considerable practical importance. A light dry
+soil is subject to great variations of temperature, and rapidly follows
+the changes of the atmosphere from cold to hot, and from hot to cold. In
+the summer noon a sandy soil becomes so warm as to be hardly endurable
+to the feel, and again it is on such soils that the earliest frosts take
+effect. If a soil thus subject to extremes of temperature have a
+dressing of peat, it will on the one hand not become so warm in the hot
+day, and on the other hand it will not cool so rapidly, nor so much in
+the night; its temperature will be rendered more uniform, and on the
+whole, more conducive to the welfare of vegetation. This regulative
+effect on temperature is partly due to the stores of water held by peat.
+In a hot day this water is constantly evaporating, and this, as all
+know, is a cooling process. At night the peat absorbs vapor of water
+from the air, and condenses it within its pores, this condensation is
+again accompanied with the evolution of heat.</p>
+
+<p>It appears to be a general, though not invariable fact, that dark
+colored soils, other things being equal, are constantly the warmest, or
+at any rate maintain the temperature most favorable to vegetation. It
+has been repeatedly observed that on light-colored soils plants mature
+more rapidly, if the earth be thinly covered with a coating of some
+black substance. Thus Lampadius, Professor in the School of Mines at
+Freiberg, a town situated in a mountainous part of Saxony, found that he
+could ripen melons, even in the coolest summers, by strewing a coating
+of coal-dust an inch deep over the surface of the soil. In some of the
+vineyards of the Rhine, the powder of a black slate is employed to
+hasten the ripening of the grape.</p>
+
+<p>Girardin, an eminent French agriculturist, in a series of experiments on
+the cultivation of potatoes, found that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>time of their ripening
+varied eight to fourteen days, according to the character of the soil.
+He found, on the 25th of August, in a very dark soil, made so by the
+presence of much humus or decaying vegetable matter, twenty-six
+varieties ripe; in sandy soil but twenty, in clay nineteen, and in a
+white lime soil only sixteen.</p>
+
+<p>It cannot be doubted then, that the effect of dressing a light sandy or
+gravelly soil with peat, or otherwise enriching it in vegetable matter,
+is to render it warmer, in the sense in which that word is usually
+applied to soils. The upward range of the thermometer is not, indeed,
+increased, but the uniform warmth so salutary to our most valued crops
+is thereby secured.</p>
+
+<p>In the light soils stable-manure wastes too rapidly because, for one
+reason, at the extremes of high temperature, oxidation and decay proceed
+with great rapidity, and the volatile portions of the fertilizer are
+used up faster than the plant can appropriate them, so that not only are
+they wasted during the early periods of growth, but they are wanting at
+a later period when their absence may prove the failure of a crop.</p>
+
+
+<p>B. The ingredients and qualities which make peat <i>a direct fertilizer</i>
+next come under discussion. We shall notice:</p>
+
+<p><i>The organic matters including nitrogen (ammonia and nitric acid)</i> (I):</p>
+
+<p><i>The inorganic or mineral ingredients</i> (II):</p>
+
+<p><i>Peculiarities in the decay of Peat</i> (III), <i>and</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Institute a comparison between peat and stable manure</i> (IV).</p>
+
+<p>I.&mdash;Under this division we have to consider:</p>
+
+<p>1. <i>The organic matters as direct food to plants.</i></p>
+
+<p>Thirty years ago, when Chemistry and Vegetable <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>Physiology began to be
+applied to Agriculture, the opinion was firmly held among scientific
+men, that the organic parts of humus&mdash;by which we understand decayed
+vegetable matter, such as is found to a greater or less extent in all
+good soils, and <i>abounds</i> in many fertile ones, such as constitutes the
+leaf-mold of forests, such as is produced in the fermenting of stable
+manure, and that forms the principal part of swamp-muck and peat,&mdash;are
+the true nourishment of vegetation, at any rate of the higher orders of
+plants, those which supply food to man and to domestic animals.</p>
+
+
+<p>In 1840, Liebig, in his celebrated treatise on the "Applications of
+Chemistry to Agriculture and Physiology," gave as his opinion that these
+organic bodies do not nourish vegetation except by the products of their
+decay. He asserted that they cannot enter the plant directly, but that
+the water, carbonic acid and ammonia resulting from their decay, are the
+substances actually imbibed by plants, and from these alone is built up
+the organic or combustible part of vegetation.</p>
+
+<p>To this day there is a division of opinion among scientific men on this
+subject, some adopting the views of Liebig, others maintaining that
+certain soluble organic matters, viz., crenic and apocrenic acids are
+proper food of plants.</p>
+
+<p>On the one hand it has been abundantly demonstrated that these organic
+matters are not at all essential to the growth of agricultural plants,
+and can constitute but a small part of the actual food of vegetation
+taken in the aggregate.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, we are acquainted with no satisfactory evidence that
+the soluble organic matters of the soil <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>and of peat, especially the
+crenates and apocrenates, are not actually appropriated by, and, so far
+as they go, are not directly serviceable as food to plants.</p>
+
+<p>Be this as it may, practice has abundantly demonstrated the value of
+humus as an ingredient of the soil, and if not directly, yet indirectly,
+it furnishes the material out of which plants build up their parts.</p>
+
+<p>2. <i>The organic matters of peat as indirect food to plants.</i> Very nearly
+one-half, by weight, of our common crops, when perfectly dry, consists
+of <i>carbon</i>. The substance which supplies this element to plants is the
+gas, carbonic acid. Plants derive this gas mostly from the atmosphere,
+absorbing it by means of their leaves. But the free atmosphere, at only
+a little space above the soil, contains on the average but 1/2500 of its
+bulk of this gas, whereas plants flourish in air containing a larger
+quantity, and, in fact, their other wants being supplied, they grow
+better as the quantity is increased to 1/12 the bulk of the air. These
+considerations make sufficiently obvious how important it is that the
+soil have in itself a constant and abundant source of carbonic acid gas.
+As before said, <i>organic matter, in a state of decay</i>, is the single
+material which the farmer can incorporate with his soil in order to make
+the latter a supply of this most indispensable form of plant-food.</p>
+
+<p>When organic matters decay in the soil, their carbon ultimately assumes
+the form of Carbonic acid. This gas, constantly exhaling from the soil,
+is taken up by the foliage of the crops, and to some extent is absorbed
+likewise by their roots.</p>
+
+<p>Boussingault &amp; Lewy have examined the air inclosed in the interstices of
+various soils, and invariably found it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>much richer (10 to 400 times)
+than that of the atmosphere above. Here follow some of their results:</p>
+<br />
+
+<p class="cen">CARBONIC ACID IN SOILS.</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="80%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png041">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="74%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="8%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="10%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="8%">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Key:</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">A - <i>Volumes of Carbonic acid in 100 of air in pores of Soil.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">B - <i>Cubic feet of air in acre to depth of 14 inches.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">C - <i>Cubic feet of Carbonic acid in acre to depth of 14 inches.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">D - <i>Volumes of Carbonic acid to 100 of air above the soil.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">E - <i>Cubic feet of air over one acre to height of 14 inches.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb" colspan="4">F - <i>Cubic feet of Carbonic acid over one acre to a height of 14 inches.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdcb"><i>Designation and Condition of Soil.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">A</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">B</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">C</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Sandy subsoil of forest</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.24</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4,326</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;14</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Loamy subsoil of forest</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.82</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3,458</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;28</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Surface soil of forest</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.86</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5,768</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;56</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Clayey soil of artichoke field</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.66</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">10,094</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;71</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Soil of asparagus bed, unmanured for one year</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.79</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">10,948</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;86</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Soil of asparagus bed, newly manured</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.54</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">10,948</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;172</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Sandy soil, six days after manuring, and three days of rain</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.21</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">11,536</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;257</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Sandy soil, ten days after manuring, and three days of rain</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">9.74</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">11,536</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1144</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Compost of vegetable mold</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">3.64</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">20,608</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;772</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdc"><i>Carbonic Acid in Atmosphere</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">D</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">E</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">F</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">0.025</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">50,820</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;14</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p>From the above it is seen that in soils containing little decomposing
+organic matters&mdash;as the forest sub-soils&mdash;the quantity of carbonic acid
+is no greater than that contained in an equal bulk of the atmosphere. It
+is greater in loamy and clayey soils; but is still small. In the
+artichoke field (probably light soil not lately manured), and even in an
+asparagus bed unmanured for one year, the amount of carbonic acid is not
+greatly larger. In newly manured fields, and especially in a vegetable
+compost, the quantity is vastly greater.</p>
+
+<p>The organic matters which come from manures, or from the roots and other
+residues of crops, are the source of the carbonic acid of the soil.
+These matters continually waste in yielding this gas, and must be
+supplied anew. Boussingault found that the rich soil of his kitchen
+garden (near Strasburg) which had been heavily manured <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>from the
+barn-yard for many years, lost one-third of its carbon by exposure to
+the air for three months (July, August and September,) being daily
+watered. It originally contained 2.43 <i>per cent.</i> At the conclusion of
+the experiment it contained but 1.60 <i>per cent.</i>, having lost 0.83 <i>per
+cent.</i></p>
+
+<p>Peat and swamp-muck, when properly prepared, furnish carbonic acid in
+large quantities during their slow oxidation in the soil.</p>
+
+<p>3. <i>The Nitrogen of Peat, including Ammonia and Nitric Acid.</i></p>
+
+<p>The sources of the nitrogen of plants, and the real cause of the value
+of nitrogenous fertilizers, are topics that have excited more discussion
+than any other points in Agricultural Chemistry. This is the result of
+two circumstances. One is the obscurity in which some parts of the
+subject have rested; the other is the immense practical and commercial
+importance of this element, as a characteristic and essential ingredient
+of the most precious fertilizers. It is a rule that the most valuable
+manures, <i>commercially considered</i>, are those containing the most
+nitrogen. Peruvian guano, sulphate of ammonia, soda-saltpeter, fish and
+flesh manures, bones and urine, cost the farmer more money per ton than
+any other manures he buys or makes, superphosphate of lime excepted, and
+this does not find sale, for general purposes, unless it contains
+several <i>per cent.</i> of nitrogen. These are, in the highest sense,
+nitrogenous fertilizers, and, if deprived of their nitrogen, they would
+lose the greater share of their fertilizing power.</p>
+
+<p>The importance of the nitrogen of manures depends upon the fact that
+those forms (compounds) of nitrogen which are capable of supplying it to
+vegetation are comparatively scarce.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>It has long been known that peat contains a considerable quantity of
+nitrogen. The average amount in thirty specimens, analyzed under the
+author's direction, including peats and swamp mucks of all grades of
+quality, is equivalent to 1-&frac12; <i>per cent.</i> of the air-dried substance,
+or more than thrice as much as exists in ordinary stable or yard manure.
+In several peats the amount is as high as 2.4 <i>per cent.</i>, and in one
+case 2.9 <i>per cent.</i> were found.</p>
+
+<p>Of these thirty samples, one-half were largely mixed with soil, and
+contained from 15 to 60 <i>per cent.</i> of mineral matters.</p>
+
+<p>Reducing them to an average of 15 <i>per cent.</i> of water and 5 <i>per cent.</i>
+of ash, they contain 2.1 <i>per cent.</i> of nitrogen, while the organic
+part, considered free from water and mineral substances, contains on the
+average 2.6 <i>per cent.</i> See table, page 90.</p>
+
+<p>The five peats, analyzed by Websky and Chevandier, as cited on page 24,
+considered free from water and ash, contain an average of 1.8 <i>per
+cent.</i> of nitrogen.</p>
+
+<p>We should not neglect to notice that peat is often comparatively poor in
+nitrogen. Of the specimens, examined in the Yale Analytical Laboratory,
+several contained but half a <i>per cent.</i> or less. So in the analyses of
+Websky, one sample contained but 0.77 <i>per cent.</i> of the element in
+question.</p>
+
+<p>As concerns the state of combination in which nitrogen exists in peat,
+there is a difference of opinion. Mulder regards it as chiefly occurring
+in the form of <i>ammonia</i> (a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen), united
+to the organic acids from which it is very difficult to separate it.
+Recent investigations indicate that in general, peat contains but a
+small proportion of ready-formed ammonia.</p>
+
+<p>The great part of the nitrogen of peat exists in an insoluble and inert
+form: but, by the action of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>atmosphere upon it, especially when
+mixed with and divided by the soil, it gradually becomes available to
+vegetation to as great an extent as the nitrogen of ordinary
+fertilizers.</p>
+
+<p>It appears from late examinations that weathered peat may contain
+<i>nitric acid</i> (compound of nitrogen with oxygen) in a proportion which,
+though small, is yet of great importance, agriculturally speaking. What
+analytical data we possess are subjoined.</p>
+<br />
+
+<p class="cen">PROPORTIONS OF NITROGEN, ETC., IN PEAT.</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="90%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png044">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="19%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="16%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="16%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="17%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="16%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="16%">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl"><i>Analyst.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcbl"><i>Total<br /> Nitrogen.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcbl"><i>Ammonia,<br /> per cent.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcbl"><i>Nitric Acid.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">1&mdash;Brown Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">Air dry (?)</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">Boussingault</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.20</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.018</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">2&mdash;Black Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">Air dry (?)</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">Boussingault</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">Undetermined</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.025</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">Undetermined</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">3&mdash;Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">Dried at 212&deg;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">Reichardt<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></td>
+  <td class="tdcl">Undetermined</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.152</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.483</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">4&mdash;Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">Dried at 212&deg;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">Reichardt</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">Undetermined</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.165</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.525</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">5&mdash;Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">Dried at 212&deg;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">Reichardt</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">Undetermined</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.305</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.241</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb">6&mdash;Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">Dried at 212&deg;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">Reichardt</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">Undetermined</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">0.335</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">0.421</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p>Specimens 3, 4 and 5, are swamp (or heath) mucks, and have been
+weathered for use in flower-culture. 3 and 4 are alike, save that 3 has
+been weathered a year longer than 4. They contain respectively 41, 56
+and 67 <i>per cent.</i> of organic matter.</p>
+
+<p>Sample 6, containing 86 <i>per cent.</i> of organic matter, is employed as a
+manure with great advantage, and probably was weathered before analysis.
+It contained 85 <i>per cent.</i> of organic substance.</p>
+
+<p>More important to us than the circumstance that this peat contains but
+little or no ammonia or nitric acid, and the other contains such or such
+a fraction of one <i>per cent.</i> of these bodies, is the grand fact that
+all peats may yield a good share of their nitrogen to the support of
+crops, when properly treated and applied.</p>
+
+<p>Under the influence of Liebig's teachings, which were logically based
+upon the best data at the disposal of this distinguished philosopher
+when he wrote 25 years ago, it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>has been believed that the nitrogen of a
+fertilizer, in order to be available, must be converted into ammonia and
+presented in that shape to the plant. It has been recently made clear
+that nitric acid, rather than ammonia, is the form of nitrogenous food
+which is most serviceable to vegetation, and the one which is most
+abundantly supplied by the air and soil. The value of ammonia is however
+positive, and not to be overlooked.</p>
+
+<p>When peat, properly prepared by weathering or composting, is suitably
+incorporated with a poor or light soil, it slowly suffers decomposition
+and wastes away. If it be wet, and air have access in limited quantity,
+especially if <i>lime</i> be mixed with it, a portion of its nitrogen is
+gradually converted into ammonia. With full access of air <i>nitric acid</i>
+is produced. In either case, it appears that a considerable share of the
+nitrogen escapes in the free state as gas, thereby becoming useless to
+vegetation until it shall have become converted again into ammonia or
+nitric acid. It happens in a cultivated soil that the oxygen of the air
+is in excess at the surface, and less abundant as we go down until we
+get below organic matters: it happens that one day it is saturated with
+water more or less, and another day it is dry, so that at one time we
+have the conditions for the formation of ammonia, and at another, those
+favorable to producing nitric acid. In this way, so far as our present
+knowledge warrants us to affirm, organic matters, decaying in the soil,
+continuously yield portions of their nitrogen in the forms of ammonia
+and nitric acid for the nourishment of plants.</p>
+
+<p>The farmer who skillfully employs as a fertilizer a peat containing a
+good proportion of nitrogen, may thus expect to get from it results
+similar to what would come from the corresponding quantity of nitrogen
+in guano or stable manure.</p>
+
+<p>But the capacity of peat for feeding crops with, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>nitrogen appears not
+to stop here. Under certain conditions, <i>the free nitrogen of the air
+which cannot be directly appropriated by vegetation, is oxidized in the
+pores of the soil to nitric acid, and thus, free of expense to the
+farmer, his crops are daily dressed with the most precious of all
+fertilizers</i>.</p>
+
+<p>This gathering of useless nitrogen from the air, and making it over into
+plant-food cannot go on in a soil destitute of organic matter, requires
+in fact that vegetable remains or humified substances of some sort be
+present there. The evidence of this statement, whose truth was
+maintained years ago as a matter of opinion by many of the older
+chemists, has recently become nearly a matter of demonstration by the
+investigations of Boussingault and Knop, while the explanation of it is
+furnished by the researches of Sch&oelig;nbein and Zabelin. To attempt any
+elucidation of it here would require more space than is at our disposal.</p>
+
+<p>It is plain from the contents of this paragraph that peat or swamp muck
+is, in general, an abundant source of nitrogen, and is often therefore
+an extremely cheap means of replacing the most rare and costly
+fertilizers.</p>
+
+<p>II.&mdash;With regard to the <i>inorganic matters of peat</i> considered as food
+to plants, it is obvious, that, leaving out of the account for the
+present, some exceptional cases, they are useful as far as they go.</p>
+
+<p>In the ashes of peats, we almost always find small quantities of
+sulphate of lime, magnesia and phosphoric acid. Potash and soda too, are
+often present, though rarely to any considerable amount. Carbonate and
+sulphate of lime are large ingredients of the ashes of about one-half,
+of the thirty-three peats and swamp mucks I have examined. The ashes of
+the other half are largely mixed with sand and soil, but in most cases
+also contain <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>considerable sulphate of lime, and often carbonates of
+lime and magnesia.</p>
+
+<p>In one swamp-muck, from Milford, Conn., there was found but two <i>per
+cent.</i> of ash, at least one-half of which was sand, and the remainder
+sulphate of lime, (gypsum.) In other samples 20, 30, 50 and even 60 <i>per
+cent.</i> remained after burning off the organic matter. In these cases the
+ash is chiefly sand. The amount of ash found in those peats which were
+most free from sand, ranges from five to nine <i>per cent.</i> Probably the
+average proportion of true ash, viz.: that derived from the organic
+matters themselves, not including sand and accidental ingredients, is
+not far from five <i>per cent.</i></p>
+
+<p>In twenty-two specimens of European peat, examined by Websky, J&aelig;ckel,
+Walz, Wiegmann, Einhof and Berthier, eleven contained from 0.6 to 3.5
+<i>per cent.</i> of ash. The other eleven yielded from 5.3 to 22 <i>per cent.</i>
+The average of the former was 2.4, that of the latter 12.7 <i>per cent.</i>
+Most of these contained a considerable proportion of sand or soil.</p>
+
+<p>Variation in the composition as well as in the quantity of ash is very
+great.</p>
+
+<p>Three analyses of peat-ashes have been executed at the author's instance
+with the subjoined results:</p>
+<br />
+
+<p class="cen">ANALYSIS OF PEAT-ASHES.</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png047">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="55%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="15%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="15%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" width="15%">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">A.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">B.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">C.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Potash</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.69</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;0.80&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3.46</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Soda</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.58</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">-</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;trace.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Lime</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">40.52</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;35.59&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;6.60</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Magnesia</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;6.06</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4.92&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1.05</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Oxide of iron and alumina</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.17</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;9.08&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;15.59</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Phosphoric acid</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.50</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;0.77&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1.55</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Sulphuric acid</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.52</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;10.41&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4.04</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Chlorine</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.15</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;0.43&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;0.70</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Soluble silica</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8.23</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1.40 }</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Carbonic acid</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">19.60</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;22.28 }</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;67.01</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Sand</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">12.11</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">&nbsp;&nbsp;15.04 }</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">99.13</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">100.74</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">100.00</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p>A was furnished by Mr. Daniel Buck, Jr., of Poquonock, Conn., and comes
+from a peat which he uses as fuel.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>B was sent by Mr. J. H. Stanwood, of Colebrook, Conn.</p>
+
+<p>C was sent from Guilford, Conn., by Mr. Andrew Foote.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of citing in full the results of Websky, J&aelig;ckel 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.</p>
+<br />
+
+<p class="cen">VARIAIONS AND AVERAGES IN COMPOSITION OF PEAT-ASHES</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png048">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="36%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="18%"><i>Minimum.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="13%"><i>Maximum.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="28%"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Average.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Potash</td>
+  <td class="tdc">0.05</td>
+  <td class="tdc">to</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.64</td>
+  <td class="tdr">0.89 per cent.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Soda</td>
+  <td class="tdc">none</td>
+  <td class="tdc">to</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.73</td>
+  <td class="tdr">0.83 per cent.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Lime</td>
+  <td class="tdc">4.72</td>
+  <td class="tdc">to</td>
+  <td class="tdc">58.38</td>
+  <td class="tdr">24.00 per cent.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Magnesia</td>
+  <td class="tdc">none</td>
+  <td class="tdc">to</td>
+  <td class="tdc">24.39</td>
+  <td class="tdr">3.20 per cent.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Alumina</td>
+  <td class="tdc">0.90</td>
+  <td class="tdc">to</td>
+  <td class="tdc">20.50</td>
+  <td class="tdr">5.78 per cent.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Oxide of iron</td>
+  <td class="tdc">none</td>
+  <td class="tdc">to</td>
+  <td class="tdc">73.33</td>
+  <td class="tdr">18.70 per cent.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Sulphuric acid</td>
+  <td class="tdc">none</td>
+  <td class="tdc">to</td>
+  <td class="tdc">37.40</td>
+  <td class="tdr">7.50 per cent.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Chlorine</td>
+  <td class="tdc">none</td>
+  <td class="tdc">to</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;6.50</td>
+  <td class="tdr">0.60 per cent.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Phosphoric acid</td>
+  <td class="tdc">none</td>
+  <td class="tdc"> to</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;6.29</td>
+  <td class="tdr">2.56 per cent.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Sand</td>
+  <td class="tdc">0.99</td>
+  <td class="tdc">to</td>
+  <td class="tdc">56.97</td>
+  <td class="tdr">25.50 per cent.</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>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, (<i>Journal fuer Praktische Chemie, Bd. 92, S. 87</i>,) "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."</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>The causes of this variation in the ash-content of peat, deserve a
+moment's notice. The plants that produce peat contain considerable
+proportions of lime, magnesia, alkalies, sulphuric acid, chlorine and
+phosphoric acid, as seen from the following analysis by Websky.</p>
+<br />
+
+<p class="cen">COMPOSITION OF THE ASH OF SPHAGNUM.</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="50%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png049">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="85%">Potash</td>
+  <td class="tdr" width="15%">17.2</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Soda</td>
+  <td class="tdr">8.3</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Lime</td>
+  <td class="tdr">11.8</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Magnesia</td>
+  <td class="tdr">6.7</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Sulphuric acid</td>
+  <td class="tdr">6.5</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Chlorine</td>
+  <td class="tdr">6.2</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Phosphoric acid</td>
+  <td class="tdr">6.7</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><i>Per cent.</i> of ash, 2.5.</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p>The mineral matters of the sphagnum do not all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>become ingredients of
+the peat; but, as rapidly as the moss decays below, its soluble matters
+are to a great degree absorbed by the vegetation, which is still living
+and growing above. Again, when a stream flows through a peat-bed,
+soluble matters are carried away by the water, which is often dark-brown
+from the substances dissolved in it. Finally the soil of the adjacent
+land is washed or blown upon the swamp, in greater or less quantities.</p>
+
+<p>III.&mdash;<i>The decomposition of peat in the soil offers some peculiarities</i>
+that are worthy of notice in this place. Peat is more gradual and
+regular in decay than the vegetable matters of stable dung, or than that
+furnished by turning under sod or green crops. It is thus a more steady
+and lasting benefit, especially in light soils, out of which ordinary
+vegetable manures disappear too rapidly. The decay of peat appears to
+proceed through a regular series of steps. In the soil, especially in
+contact with soluble alkaline bodies, as ammonia and lime, there is a
+progressive conversion of the <i>insoluble</i> or <i>less soluble</i> into
+<i>soluble</i> compounds. Thus the inert matters that resist the immediate
+solvent power of alkalies, absorb oxygen from the air, and form the
+humic or ulmic acids soluble in alkalies; the humic acids undergo
+conversion into crenic acid, and this body, by oxidation, passes into
+apocrenic acid. The two latter are soluble in water, and, in the porous
+soil, they are rapidly brought to the end-results of decay, viz.: water,
+carbonic acid, ammonia and free nitrogen.</p>
+
+<p>Great differences must be observed, however, in the rapidity with which
+these changes take place. Doubtless they go on most slowly in case of
+the fibrous compact peats, and perhaps some of the lighter and more
+porous samples of swamp muck, would decay nearly as fast as rotted
+stable dung.</p>
+
+<p>It might appear from the above statement, that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>effect of exposing
+peat to the air, as is done when it is incorporated with the soil, would
+be to increase relatively the amount of soluble organic matters; but the
+truth is, that they are often actually diminished. In fact, the
+oxidation and consequent removal of these soluble matters (crenic and
+apocrenic acids,) is likely to proceed more rapidly than they can be
+produced from the less soluble humic acid of the peat.</p>
+
+<p>IV.&mdash;<i>Comparison of Peat with Stable Manure.</i></p>
+
+<p>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 <i>good quality</i>.</p>
+
+<p>No. <i>I</i>, is the analysis of Peat; No. <i>II</i>, that of well rotted stable
+manure:&mdash;</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png051">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="10%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" width="70%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="10%"><i>I.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="10%"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;II.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Water expelled at 212 degrees</td>
+  <td class="tdc">79.000&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">79.00</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" rowspan="2" style="margin-bottom: -1px;">Organic matter.</td>
+  <td class="tdl" style="margin-bottom: -1px;">{Soluble in dilute solution of carbonate of soda</td>
+  <td class="tdc" style="margin-bottom: -1px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;7.312 }</td>
+  <td class="tdr" rowspan="2" style="margin-bottom: -1px;">14.16</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">{Insoluble in solution of carbonate of soda</td>
+  <td class="tdc">12.210 }</td>
+  </tr>
+
+
+
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Potash</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.010&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">0.65</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Soda</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.009&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;-</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Lime</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.608&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.57</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Magnesia</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.091&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.19</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Phosphoric acid</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.008&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.23</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Sulphuric acid</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.082&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.27</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Nitrogen</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.600&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.55</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Matters, soluble in water</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.450&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.42</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p>To make the comparison as just as possible, the peat is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>calculated with
+the same content of water, that stable dung usually has.</p>
+
+<p>We observe then, that the peat contains in a given quantity, <i>about
+one-third more organic matter, an equal amount of lime and nitrogen</i>;
+but is <i>deficient in potash, magnesia, phosphoric and sulphuric acids</i>.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, the additions just named, will convert <i>any fresh peat</i>,
+containing not more than 80 <i>per cent.</i> of water and not less than 20
+<i>per cent.</i> of organic matter, into a mixture having as much fertilizing
+matters as stable dung, with the possible exception of nitrogen.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>As before insisted upon, it is true in general, that peat is more slow
+of decomposition than yard-manure, and this fact, which is an advantage
+in an amendment, is a disadvantage in a fertilizer. Though there may be
+some peats, or rather swamp mucks, which are energetic and rapid in
+their action, it seems that they need to be applied in larger quantities
+than stable manure in order to produce corresponding fertilizing
+effects. In many cases peat requires some preparation by weathering, or
+by chemical action&mdash;"fermentation"&mdash;induced by decomposing animal
+matters or by alkalies. This topic will shortly be discussed.</p>
+
+<p>We adopt, as a general fact, the conclusion that peat is inferior in
+fertilizing power to stable manure.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>Experience asserts, however, with regard to some individual kinds, that
+they are equal to common yard manure without any preparation whatever.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Daniel Buck, of Poquonock, Conn., says, of the 'muck,' over-lying
+the peat, whose composition has just been compared with stable manure,
+that it "has been applied fresh to meadow with good results; the grass
+is not as tall but thicker and finer, and of a darker green in the
+spring, than when barn-yard manure is spread on."</p>
+
+<p>A swamp muck, from Mr. A. M. Haling, Rockville, Conn., "has been used as
+a top-dressing, on grass, with excellent results. It is a good
+substitute for barn-yard manure."</p>
+
+<p>A peat, from Mr. Russell U. Peck, of Berlin, Conn., "has been used
+fresh, on corn and meadow, with good effect."</p>
+
+<p>Of the peat, from the 'Beaver Pond,' near New Haven, Mr. Chauncey
+Goodyear, says, "it has been largely used in a fresh state, and in this
+condition is as good as cow dung."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Henry Keeler, remarks, concerning a swamp muck occurring at South
+Salem, N. Y., that "it has been used in the fresh state, applied to corn
+and potatoes, and appears to be equal to good barn manure:"
+further:&mdash;"it has rarely been weathered more than two months, and then
+applied side by side with the best yard manure has given equally good
+results."</p>
+
+<p>A few words as to the apparent contradiction between Chemistry, which
+says that peat is not equal to stable dung as a fertilizer, and
+Practice, which in these cases affirms that it is equal to our standard
+manure.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, the chemical conclusion is a general one, and does
+not apply to individual peats, which, in a few instances, may be
+superior to yard manure. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>practical judgment also is, that, in
+general, yard manure is the best.</p>
+
+<p>To go to the individual cases; second: A peat in which nitrogen exists
+in as large a proportion as is found in stable or yard manure, being
+used in larger quantity, or being more durable in its action, may for a
+few seasons produce better results than the latter, merely on account of
+the presence of this one ingredient, it may in fact, for the soil and
+crop to which it is applied, be a better fertilizer than yard manure,
+because nitrogen is most needed in that soil, and yet for the generality
+of soils, or in the long run, it may prove to be an inferior fertilizer.</p>
+
+<p>Again; third&mdash;the melioration of the physical qualities of a soil, the
+amendment of its dryness and excessive porosity, by means of peat, may
+be more effective for agricultural purposes, than the application of
+tenfold as much fertilizing, <i>i. e.</i> plant-feeding materials; in the
+same way that the mere draining of an over-moist soil often makes it
+more productive than the heaviest manuring.</p>
+
+<p>2.&mdash;<i>On the characters of Peat that are detrimental, or that may
+sometimes need correction before it is agriculturally useful.</i></p>
+
+<p>I.&mdash;<i>Bad effects on wet heavy soils.</i></p>
+
+<p>We have laid much stress on the amending qualities of peat, when applied
+to dry and leachy soils, which by its use are rendered more retentive of
+moisture and manure. These properties, which it would seem, are just
+adapted to renovate very light land, under certain circumstances, may
+become disadvantageous on heavier soils. On clays no application is
+needed to retain moisture. They are already too wet as a general thing.</p>
+
+<p>Peat, when put into the soil, lasts much longer than stubble, or green
+crops plowed in, or than long manure. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>If buried too deeply, or put into
+a heavy soil, especially if in large quantity, it does not decay, but
+remains wet, and tends to make a bog of the field itself.</p>
+
+<p>For soils that are rather heavy, it is therefore best to compost the
+peat with some rapidly fermenting manure. We thus get a compound which
+is quicker than muck, and slower than stable manure, etc., and is
+therefore better adapted to the wants of the soil than either of these
+would be alone.</p>
+
+<p>Here it will be seen that much depends on the character of the peat
+itself. If light and spongy, and easily dried, it may be used alone with
+advantage on loamy soils, whereas if dense, and coherent, it would most
+likely be a poor amendment on a soil which has much tendency to become
+compact, and therefore does not readily free itself from excess of
+water.</p>
+
+<p>But even a clay soil, if <i>thorough-drained and deeply plowed</i>, may be
+wonderfully improved by even a heavy dressing of muck, as then, the
+water being let off, the muck can exert no detrimental action; but
+operates as effectually to loosen a too heavy soil, as in case of sand,
+it makes an over-porous soil compact or retentive. A clay may be made
+friable, if well drained, by incorporating with it any substance as
+lime, sand, long manure or muck, which interposing between the clayey
+particles, prevents their adhering together.</p>
+
+<p>II.&mdash;<i>Noxious ingredients.</i></p>
+
+<p>a. <i>Vitriol peat.</i> Occasionally a peat is met with which is injurious if
+applied in the fresh state to crops, from its containing some substance
+which exerts a poisonous action on vegetation. The principal detrimental
+ingredients that occur in peat, appear to be sulphate of protoxide of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>iron,&mdash;the same body that is popularly known under the names copperas
+and green-vitriol,&mdash;and sulphate of alumina, the astringent component of
+alum.</p>
+
+<p>I have found these substances ready formed in large quantity in but one
+of the peats that I have examined, viz.: that sent me by Mr. Perrin
+Scarborough; of Brooklyn, Conn. This peat dissolved in water to the
+extent of 15 <i>per cent.</i>, and the soluble portion, although containing
+some organic matter and sulphate of lime, consisted in great part of
+green-vitriol.</p>
+
+<p>Portions of this muck, when thrown up to the air, become covered with "a
+white crust, having the taste of alum or saltpeter."</p>
+
+<p>The bed containing this peat, though drained, yields but a little poor
+bog hay, and the peat itself, even after weathering for a year, when
+applied, mixed with one-fifth of stable manure to corn in the hill, gave
+no encouraging results, though a fair crop was obtained. It is probable
+that the sample analyzed was much richer in salts of iron and alumina,
+than the average of the muck.</p>
+
+<p>Green-vitriol in minute doses is not hurtful, but rather beneficial to
+vegetation; but in larger quantity it is fatally destructive.</p>
+
+<p>In a salt-marsh mud sent me by the Rev. Wm. Clift, of Stonington, Conn.,
+there was found sulphate of iron in considerable quantity.</p>
+
+<p>This noxious substance likewise occurred in small amount in swamp muck
+from E. Hoyt, Esq., New Canaan, Conn., and in hardly appreciable
+quantity in several others that I have examined. Besides green-vitriol,
+it is possible that certain organic salts of iron, may be deleterious.</p>
+
+<p>The poisonous properties of vitriol-peats may be effectually corrected
+by composting with lime, or wood-ashes. By the action of these
+substances, sulphate of lime, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>(plaster of Paris) is formed, while the
+iron separates as peroxide, which, being insoluble, is without
+deleterious effect on vegetation. Where only soluble organic salts of
+iron (crenate of iron) are present, simple exposure to the air suffices
+to render them innocuous.</p>
+
+<p>b. <i>The acidity of Peats.</i>&mdash;Many writers have asserted that peat and
+muck possess a hurtful "acidity" which must be corrected before they can
+be usefully employed. It is indeed a fact, that peat consists largely of
+acids, but, except perhaps in the vitriol-peats, (those containing
+copperas,) they are so insoluble, or if soluble, are so quickly modified
+by the absorption of oxygen, that they do not exhibit any "acidity" that
+can be deleterious to vegetation. It is advised to neutralize this
+supposed acidity by lime or an alkali before using peat as a fertilizer
+or amendment, and there is great use in such mixtures of peat with
+alkaline matters, as we shall presently notice under the head of
+composts.</p>
+
+<p>By the word acidity is conveyed the idea of something hurtful to plants.
+This something is, doubtless, in many cases, the salts of iron we have
+just noticed. In others, it is simply the inertness, "coldness" of the
+peat, which is not positively injurious, but is, for a time at least, of
+no benefit to the soil.</p>
+
+<p>c. <i>Resinous matters</i> are mentioned by various writers as injurious
+ingredients of peat, but I find no evidence that this notion is
+well-founded. The peat or muck formed from the decay of resinous wood
+and leaves does not appear to be injurious, and the amount of resin in
+peat is exceedingly small.</p>
+
+<p>3.&mdash;<i>The Preparation of Peat for Agricultural use.</i></p>
+
+<p>a. <i>Excavation.</i>&mdash;As to the time and manner of getting out peat, the
+circumstances of each case must <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>determine. I only venture here to offer
+a few hints on this subject, which belongs so exclusively to the farm.
+The month of August is generally the appropriate time for throwing up
+peat, as then the swamps are usually most free from water, and most
+accessible to men and teams; but peat is often dug to best advantage in
+the winter, not only on account of the cheapness of labor, and from
+there being less hurry with other matters on the farm at that season,
+but also, because the freezing and thawing of the peat that is thrown
+out, greatly aid to disintegrate it and prepare it for use.</p>
+
+<p>A correspondent of The <i>Homestead</i>, signing himself "Commentator," has
+given directions for getting out peat that are well worth the attention
+of farmers. He says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The composting of muck and peat, with our stable and
+barn-yard manures, is surely destined to become one of the
+most important items in farm management throughout all the
+older States at least. One of the difficulties which lie in
+the way, is the first removal of the muck from its low and
+generally watery bed; to facilitate this, in many locations,
+it is less expensive to dry it before carting, by beginning an
+excavation at the border of the marsh in autumn, sufficiently
+wide for a cart path, throwing the muck out upon the surface
+on each side, and on a floor of boards or planks, to prevent
+it from absorbing moisture from the wet ground beneath; this
+broad ditch to be carried a sufficient length and depth to
+obtain the requisite quantity of muck. Thus thrown out, the
+two piles are now in a convenient form to be covered with
+boards, and, if properly done, the muck kept covered till the
+succeeding autumn, will be found to be dry and light, and in
+some cases may be carted away on the surface, or it may be
+best to let it remain a few months longer until the bottom of
+the ditch has become sufficiently frozen to bear a team; it
+can then be more easily <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>loaded upon a sled or sleigh, and
+drawn to the yards and barn. In other localities, and where
+large quantities are wanted, and it lies deep, a sort of
+wooden railroad and inclined plane can be constructed by means
+of a plank track for the wheels of the cart to run upon, the
+team walking between these planks, and if the vehicle is
+inclined to 'run off the track,' it may usually be prevented
+by scantlings, say four inches thick, nailed upon one of the
+tracks on each side of the place where the wheel should run.
+Two or more teams and carts may now be employed, returning
+into the excavation outside of this track. As the work
+progresses, the track can be extended at both ends, and by
+continuing or increasing the inclination at the upper end, a
+large and high 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."</p></div>
+
+<p>b. <i>Exposure, weathering, or seasoning of peat.</i>&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+<i>per cent.</i> 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.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. J. H. Stanwood says of a peat, from Colebrook, Conn., that it "has
+been used to some extent as a top-dressing for grass and other crops
+with satisfactory results, <i>although no particular benefit was
+noticeable during the first year</i>. After that, the effects might be seen
+for a number of years."</p>
+
+<p>Rev. Wm. Clift observes, concerning a salt peat, from Stonington,
+Conn.:&mdash;"It has not been used fresh; is too acid; even potatoes do not
+yield well <i>in it the first season</i>, without manure."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>The nature of the chemical changes induced by weathering, is to some
+extent understood so far as the nitrogen, the most important fertilizing
+element, is concerned. The nitrogen of peat, as we have seen, is mostly
+inert, a small portion of it only, existing in a soluble or available
+form. By weathering, portions of this nitrogen become converted into
+nitric acid. This action goes on at the surface of the heap, where it is
+most fully exposed to the air. Below, where the peat is more moist,
+ammonia is formed, perhaps simply by the reduction of nitric acid&mdash;not
+unlikely also, by the transformation of inert nitrogen. On referring to
+the analyses given on page 44, it is seen, that the first two samples
+contain but little ammonia and no nitric acid. Though it is not stated
+what was the condition of these peats, it is probable they had not been
+weathered. The other four samples were weathered, and the weathering had
+been the more effectual from the large admixture of sand with them. They
+yielded to the analyst very considerable quantities of ammonia and
+nitrates.</p>
+
+<p>When a peat contains sulphate of protoxide of iron, or soluble organic
+salts of iron, to an injurious extent, these may be converted into other
+insoluble and innocuous bodies, by a sufficient exposure to the air.
+Sulphate of protoxide of iron is thus changed into sulphate of peroxide
+of iron, which is insoluble, and can therefore exert no hurtful effect
+on vegetation, while the soluble organic bodies of peat are oxydized and
+either converted into carbonic acid gas, carbonate of ammonia and water,
+or else made insoluble.</p>
+
+<p>It is not probable, however, that merely throwing up a well
+characterized vitriol-peat into heaps, and exposing it thus imperfectly
+to the atmosphere, is sufficient to correct its bad qualities. Such
+peats need the addition of some alkaline body, as ammonia, lime, or
+potash, to render them salutary fertilizers.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>c. <i>This brings us to the subject of composting</i>, which appears to be
+the best means of taking full advantage of all the good qualities of
+peat, and of obviating or neutralizing the ill results that might follow
+the use of some raw peats, either from a peculiarity in their
+composition, (soluble organic compounds of iron, sulphate of protoxide
+of iron,) or from too great indestructibility. The chemical changes
+(oxidation of <i>iron</i> and <i>organic acids</i>), which prepare the inert or
+even hurtful ingredients of peat to minister to the support of
+vegetation, take place most rapidly in presence of certain other
+substances.</p>
+
+<p>The substances which rapidly induce chemical change in peats, are of two
+kinds, viz.: 1.&mdash;animal or vegetable matters that are highly susceptible
+to alteration and decay, and 2.&mdash;alkalies, either <i>ammonia</i> coming from
+the decomposition of animal matters, or <i>lime</i>, <i>potash</i> and <i>soda</i>.</p>
+
+<p>A great variety of matters may of course be employed for making or
+mixing with peat composts; but there are comparatively few which allow
+of extensive and economical use, and our notice will be confined to
+these.</p>
+
+<p>First of all, the composting of peat with <i>animal manures</i> deserves
+attention. Its advantages may be summed up in two statements.</p>
+
+<p>1.&mdash;It is an easy and perfect method of economizing all such manures,
+even those kinds most liable to loss by fermentation, as night soil and
+horse dung; and,</p>
+
+<p>2.&mdash;It develops most fully and speedily the inert fertilizing qualities
+of the peat itself.</p>
+
+<p>Without attempting any explanation of the changes undergone by a peat
+and manure compost, further than to say that the fermentation which
+begins in the manure extends to and involves the peat, reducing the
+whole nearly, if not exactly, to the condition of well-rotted dung, and
+that in this process the peat effectually prevents the loss of nitrogen
+as ammonia,&mdash;I may appropriately give <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>the practical experience of
+farmers who have proved in the most conclusive manner how profitable it
+is to devote a share of time and labor to the manufacture of this kind
+of compost.</p>
+
+<p><i>Preparation of Composts with Stable Manure.</i>&mdash;The best plan of
+composting is to have a water tight trench, four inches deep and twenty
+inches wide, constructed in the stable floor, immediately behind the
+cattle, and every morning put a bushel-basketful of muck behind each
+animal. In this way the urine is perfectly absorbed by the muck, while
+the warmth of the freshly voided excrements so facilitates the
+fermentative process, that, according to Mr. F. Holbrook, Brattleboro,
+Vt., who has described this method, <i>much more muck can thus be well
+prepared for use</i> in the spring, than by any of the ordinary modes of
+composting. When the dung and muck are removed from the stable, they
+should be well intermixed, and as fast as the compost is prepared, it
+should be put into a compact heap, and covered with a layer of muck
+several inches thick. It will then hardly require any shelter if used in
+the spring.</p>
+
+<p>If the peat be sufficiently dry and powdery, or free from tough lumps,
+it may usefully serve as bedding, or litter for horses and cattle, as it
+absorbs the urine, and is sufficiently mixed with the dung in the
+operation of cleaning the stable. It is especially good in the pig-pen,
+where the animals themselves work over the compost in the most thorough
+manner, especially if a few kernels of corn be occasionally scattered
+upon it.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Edwin Hoyt, of New Canaan, Conn., writes:&mdash;"Our horse stables are
+constructed with a movable floor and pit beneath, which holds 20 loads
+of muck of 25 bushels per load. Spring and fall, this pit is filled with
+fresh muck, which receives all the urine of the horses, and being
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>occasionally worked over and mixed, furnishes us annually with 40 loads
+of the most valuable manure."</p>
+
+<p>"Our stables are sprinkled with muck every morning, at the rate of one
+bushel per stall, and the smell of ammonia, etc., so offensive in most
+stables, is never perceived in ours. Not only are the stables kept
+sweet, but the ammonia is saved by this procedure."</p>
+
+<p>When it is preferred to make the compost out of doors, the plan
+generally followed is to lay down a bed of weathered peat, say eight to
+twelve inches thick; cover this with a layer of stable dung, of four to
+eight inches; put on another stratum of peat, and so, until a heap of
+three to four feet is built up. The heap may be six to eight feet wide,
+and indefinitely long. It should be finished with a thick coating of
+peat, and the manure should be covered as fast as brought out.</p>
+
+<p>The proportions of manure and peat should vary somewhat according to
+their quality and characters. Strawy manure, or that from milch-cows,
+will "ferment" less peat than clear dung, especially when the latter is
+made by horses or highly fed animals. Some kinds of peat heat much
+easier than others. There are peats which will ferment of themselves in
+warm moist weather&mdash;even in the bog, giving off ammonia in perceptible
+though small amount. Experience is the only certain guide as to the
+relative quantities to be employed, various proportions from one to five
+of peat for one of manure, by bulk, being used.</p>
+
+<p>When the land is light and needs amending, as regards its retentive
+power, it is best to make the quantity of peat as large as can be
+thoroughly fermented by the manure.</p>
+
+<p>The making of a high heap, and the keeping it trim and in shape, is a
+matter requiring more labor than is generally necessary. Mr. J. H.
+Stanwood, of Colebrook, Conn., writes me:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>"My method of composting is as follows: I draw my muck to the barn-yard,
+placing the loads as near together as I can tip them from the cart. Upon
+this I spread whatever manure I have at hand, and mix with the feet of
+the cattle, and heap up with a scraper."</p>
+
+<p>Peat may be advantageously used to save from waste the droppings of the
+yard.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Edwin Hoyt, of New Canaan, Conn., says:&mdash;"We use muck largely in our
+barn-yards, and after it becomes thoroughly saturated and intermixed
+with the droppings of the stock, it is piled up to ferment, and the yard
+is covered again with fresh muck."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. N. Hart, Jr., of West Cornwall, Conn., writes:&mdash;"In the use of muck
+we proceed as follows: Soon after haying we throw up enough for a year's
+use, or several hundred loads. In the fall, the summer's accumulation in
+hog-pens and barn cellars is spread upon the mowing grounds, and a
+liberal supply of muck carted in and spread in the bottoms of the
+cellars, ready for the season for stabling cattle. When this is well
+saturated with the drippings of the stables, a new supply is added. The
+accumulation of the winter is usually applied to the land for the corn
+crop, except the finer portion, which is used to top-dress meadow land.
+A new supply is then drawn in for the swine to work up. This is added to
+from time to time, and as the swine are fed on whey, they will convert a
+large quantity into valuable manure for top-dressing mowing land."</p>
+
+<p>A difference of opinion exists as to the treatment of the compost. Some
+hold it indifferent whether the peat and manure are mixed, or put in
+layers when the composting begins. Others assert, that the fermentation
+proceeds better when the ingredients are stratified. Some direct, that
+the compost should not be stirred. The general testimony is, that
+mixture, at the outset, is as effectual <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>as putting up in layers; but,
+if the manure be strawy, it is, of course, difficult or impracticable to
+mix at first. Opinion also preponderates in favor of stirring, during or
+after the fermentation.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hoyt remarks:&mdash;"We are convinced, that the oftener a compost pile of
+yard manure and muck is worked over after fermenting, the better. We
+work it over and add to it a little more muck and other material, and
+the air being thus allowed to penetrate it, a new fermentation or
+heating takes place, rendering it more decomposable and valuable."</p>
+
+<p>Rev. Wm. Clift, writes:&mdash;"Three or four loads of muck to one of stable
+manure, put together in the fall or winter in alternate layers, forked
+over twice before spreading and plowing in, may represent the method of
+composting."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Adams White, of Brooklyn, Conn., proceeds in a different manner. He
+says:&mdash;"In composting, 20 loads are drawn on to upland in September, and
+thrown up in a long pile. Early in the spring 20 loads of stable manure
+are laid along side, and covered with the muck. As soon as it has heated
+moderately, the whole is forked over and well mixed."</p>
+
+<p>Those who have practiced making peat composts with their yard, stable,
+and pen manure, almost invariably find them highly satisfactory in use,
+especially upon light soils.</p>
+
+<p>A number of years ago, I saw a large pile of compost in the farm-yard of
+Mr. Pond, of Milford, Conn., and witnessed its effect as applied by that
+gentleman to a field of sixteen acres of fine gravelly or coarse sandy
+soil. The soil, from having a light color and excessive porosity, had
+become dark, unctuous, and retentive of moisture, so that during the
+drouth of 1856, the crops on this field were good and continued to
+flourish, while on the contiguous land they were dried up and nearly
+ruined. This <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>compost was made from a light muck, that contained but
+three <i>per cent.</i> of ash (more than half of which was sand), and but 1.2
+<i>per cent.</i> of nitrogen, in the air-dry state&mdash;(twenty <i>per cent.</i> of
+water). Three loads of this muck were used to one of stable manure.</p>
+
+<p>Here follow some estimates of the value of this compost by practical
+men. They are given to show that older statements, to the same effect,
+cannot be regarded as exaggerated.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. J. H. Stanwood, of Colebrook, Conn., says:&mdash;"Experiments made by
+myself, have confirmed me in the opinion that a compost of equal parts
+of muck and stable manure is equal to the same quantity of stable
+manure."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Daniel Buck, Jr., of Poquonock, Conn., remarks:&mdash;"8 loads of muck
+and 4 of manure in compost, when properly forked over, are equal to 12
+loads of barn-yard manure on sandy soil."</p>
+
+<p>Rev. Wm. Clift, of Stonington, Conn., writes:&mdash;"I consider a compost
+made of one load of stable manure and three of muck, equal in value to
+four loads of yard manure."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. N. Hart, Jr., of West Cornwall, Conn., observes of a peat sent by
+him for analysis:&mdash;"We formerly composted it in the yard with stable
+manure, but have remodeled our stables, and now use it as an absorbent
+and to increase the bulk of manure to double its original quantity. We
+consider the mixture more valuable than the same quantity of stable
+manure." Again, "so successful has been the use of it, that we could
+hardly carry on our farming operations without it."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Adams White, of Brooklyn, Conn., states:&mdash;"The compost of equal
+bulks of muck and stable manure, has been used for corn (with plaster in
+the hill,) on dry sandy soil to great advantage. I consider the compost
+worth more per cord than the barn-yard manure."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span><i>Night Soil</i> is a substance which possesses, when fresh, the most
+valuable fertilizing qualities, in a very concentrated form. It is also
+one which is liable to rapid and almost complete deterioration, as I
+have demonstrated by analyses. The only methods of getting the full
+effect of this material are, either to use it fresh, as is done by the
+Chinese and Japanese on a most extensive and offensive scale; or to
+compost it before it can decompose. The former method, will, it is to be
+hoped, never find acceptance among us. The latter plan has nearly all
+the advantages of the former, without its unpleasant features.</p>
+
+<p>When the night soil falls into a vault, it may be composted, by simply
+sprinkling fine peat over its surface, once or twice weekly, as the case
+may require, <i>i. e.</i> as often as a bad odor prevails. The quantity thus
+added, may be from twice to ten times the bulk of the night soil,&mdash;the
+more within these limits, the better. When the vault is full, the mass
+should be removed, worked well over and after a few days standing, will
+be ready to use to manure corn, tobacco, etc., in the hill, or for any
+purpose to which guano or poudrette is applied. If it cannot be shortly
+used, it should be made into a compact heap, and covered with a thick
+stratum of peat. When signs of heating appear, it should be watched
+closely; and if the process attains too much violence, additional peat
+should be worked into it. Drenching with water is one of the readiest
+means of checking too much heating, but acts only temporarily. Dilution
+with peat to a proper point, which experience alone can teach, is the
+surest way of preventing loss. It should not be forgotten to put a thick
+layer of peat at the bottom of the vault to begin with.</p>
+
+<p>Another excellent plan, when circumstances admit, is, to have the
+earth-floor where the night soil drops, level with the surface of the
+ground, or but slightly excavated, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>and a shed attached to the rear of
+the privy to shelter a good supply of peat as well as the compost
+itself. Operations are begun by putting down a layer of peat to receive
+the droppings; enough should be used to absorb all the urine. When this
+is nearly saturated, more should be sprinkled on, and the process is
+repeated until the accumulations must be removed to make room for more.
+Then, once a week or so, the whole is hauled out into the shed, well
+mixed, and formed into a compact heap, or placed as a layer upon a
+stratum of peat, some inches thick, and covered with the same. The
+quantity of first-class compost that may be made yearly upon any farm,
+if due care be taken, would astonish those who have not tried it. James
+Smith, of Deanston, Scotland, who originated our present system of
+Thorough Drainage, asserted, that the excrements of one man for a year,
+are sufficient to manure half an acre of land. In Belgium the manure
+from such a source has a commercial value of $9.00 gold.</p>
+
+<p>It is certain, that the skillful farmer may make considerably more than
+that sum from it in New England, <i>per annum</i>. Mr. Hoyt, of New Canaan,
+Conn., says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Our privies are deodorized by the use of muck, which is sprinkled over
+the surface of the pit once a week, and from them alone we thus prepare
+annually, enough "poudrette" to manure our corn in the hill."</p>
+
+<p><i>Peruvian Guano</i>, so serviceable in its first applications to light
+soils, may be composted with muck to the greatest advantage. Guano is an
+excellent material for bringing muck into good condition, and on the
+other hand the muck most effectually prevents any waste of the costly
+guano, and at the same time, by furnishing the soil with its own
+ingredients, to a greater or less degree prevents the exhaustion that
+often follows the use of guano alone. The quantity of muck should be
+pretty large compared <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>to that of the guano,&mdash;a bushel of guano will
+compost six, eight, or ten of muck. Both should be quite fine, and
+should be well mixed, the mixture should be moist and kept covered with
+a layer of muck of several inches of thickness. This sort of compost
+would probably be sufficiently fermented in a week or two of warm
+weather, and should be made and kept under cover.</p>
+
+<p>If no more than five or six parts of muck to one of guano are employed,
+the compost, according to the experience of Simon Brown, Esq., of the
+Boston <i>Cultivator</i>, (Patent Office Report for 1856), will prove
+injurious, if placed in the hill in contact with seed, but may be
+applied broadcast without danger.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Menhaden</i> or "<i>White fish</i>", so abundantly caught along our Sound
+coast during the summer months, or any variety of fish may be composted
+with muck, so as to make a powerful manure, with avoidance of the
+excessively disagreeable stench which is produced when these fish are
+put directly on the land. Messrs. Stephen Hoyt &amp; Sons, of New Canaan,
+Conn., make this compost on a large scale. I cannot do better than to
+give entire Mr. Edwin Hoyt's account of their operations, communicated
+to me several years ago.</p>
+
+<p>"During the present season, (1858,) we have composted about 200,000
+white fish with about 700 loads (17,500 bushels) of muck. We vary the
+proportions somewhat according to the crop the compost is intended for.
+For rye we apply 20 to 25 loads per acre of a compost made with 4,500
+fish, (one load) and with this manuring, no matter how poor the soil,
+the rye will be as large as a man can cradle. Much of ours we have to
+reap. For oats we use less fish, as this crop is apt to lodge. For corn,
+one part fish to ten or twelve muck is about right, while for grass or
+any top-dressing, the proportion of fish may be increased."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>"We find it is best to mix the fish in the summer and not use the
+compost until the next spring and summer. Yet we are obliged to use in
+September for our winter rye a great deal of the compost made in July.
+We usually compost the first arrivals of fish in June for our winter
+grain; after this pile has stood three or four weeks, it is worked over
+thoroughly. In this space of time the fish become pretty well
+decomposed, though they still preserve their form and smell
+outrageously. As the pile is worked over, a sprinkling of muck or
+plaster is given to retain any escaping ammonia. At the time of use in
+September the fish have completely disappeared, bones and fins
+excepted."</p>
+
+<p>"The effect on the muck is to blacken it and make it more loose and
+crumbly. As to the results of the use of this compost, we find them in
+the highest degree satisfactory. We have raised 30 to 35 bushels of rye
+per acre on land that without it could have yielded 6 or 8 bushels at
+the utmost. This year we have corn that will give 60 to 70 bushels per
+acre, that otherwise would yield but 20 to 25 bushels. It makes large
+potatoes, excellent turnips and carrots."</p>
+
+<p>Fish compost thus prepared, is a uniform mass of fishy but not
+putrefactive odor, not disagreeable to handle. It retains perfectly all
+the fertilizing power of the fish. Lands, manured with this compost,
+will keep in heart and improve: while, as is well known to our coast
+farmers, the use of fish alone is ruinous in the end, on light soils.</p>
+
+<p>It is obvious that <i>any other easily decomposing animal matters, as
+slaughter-house offal, soap boiler's scraps, glue waste, horn shavings,
+shoddy, castor pummace, cotton seed-meal, etc., etc.</i>, may be composted
+in a similar manner, and that several or all these substances may be
+made together into one compost.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>In case of the composts with yard manure, guano and other animal
+matters, the alkali, <i>ammonia</i>, formed in the fermentation, greatly
+promotes chemical change, and it would appear that this substance, on
+some accounts, excels all others in its efficacy. The other alkaline
+bodies, <i>potash</i>, <i>soda</i> and <i>lime</i>, are however scarcely less active in
+this respect, and being at the same time, of themselves, useful
+fertilizers, they also may be employed in preparing muck composts.</p>
+
+<p><i>Potash-lye</i> and <i>soda-ash</i> have been recommended for composting with
+muck; but, although they are no doubt highly efficacious, they are too
+costly for extended use.</p>
+
+<p>The other alkaline materials that may be cheaply employed, and are
+recommended, are <i>wood-ashes</i>, leached and unleached, <i>ashes of peat</i>,
+<i>shell marl</i>, (consisting of carbonate of lime,) <i>quick lime</i>, <i>gas
+lime</i>, and what is called "<i>salt and lime mixture</i>."</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the proportions to be used, no very definite rules can be
+laid down; but we may safely follow those who have had experience in the
+matter. Thus, to a cord of muck, which is about 100 bushels, may be
+added, of unleached wood ashes twelve bushels, or of leached wood ashes
+twenty bushels, or of peat ashes twenty bushels, or of marl, or of gas
+lime twenty bushels. Ten bushels of quick lime, slaked with water or
+salt-brine previous to use, is enough for a cord of muck.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of using the above mentioned substances singly, any or all of
+them may be employed together.</p>
+
+<p>The muck should be as fine and free from lumps as possible, and must be
+intimately mixed with the other ingredients by shoveling over. The mass
+is then thrown up into a compact heap, which may be four feet high. When
+the heap is formed, it is well to pour on as much water as the mass will
+absorb, (this may be omitted if the muck <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>is already quite moist,) and
+finally the whole is covered over with a few inches of pure muck, so as
+to retain moisture and heat. If the heap is put up in the Spring, it may
+stand undisturbed for one or two months, when it is well to shovel it
+over and mix it thoroughly. It should then be built up again, covered
+with fresh muck, and allowed to stand as before until thoroughly
+decomposed. The time required for this purpose varies with the kind of
+muck, and the quality of the other material used. The weather and
+thoroughness of intermixture of the ingredients also materially affect
+the rapidity of decomposition. In all cases five or six months of summer
+weather is a sufficient time to fit these composts for application to
+the soil.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Stanwood of Colebrook, Conn., says: "I have found a compost made of
+two bushels of unleached ashes to twenty-five of muck, superior to
+stable manure as a top-dressing for grass, on a warm, dry soil."</p>
+
+<p>N. Hart, Jr., of West Cornwall, Conn., states: "I have mixed 25 bushels
+of ashes with the same number of loads of muck, and applied it to &frac34; of
+an acre. The result was far beyond that obtained by applying 300 lbs.
+best guano to the same piece."</p>
+
+<p>The use of "<i>salt and lime mixture</i>" is so strongly recommended, that a
+few words may be devoted to its consideration.</p>
+
+<p>When quick-lime is slaked with a brine of common salt (chloride of
+sodium), there are formed by double decomposition, small portions of
+caustic soda and chloride of calcium, which dissolve in the liquid. If
+the solution stand awhile, carbonic acid is absorbed from the air,
+forming carbonate of soda: but carbonate of soda and chloride of calcium
+instantly exchange their ingredients, forming insoluble carbonate of
+lime and reproducing common salt.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>When the fresh mixture of quick-lime and salt is incorporated with <i>any
+porous body</i>, as soil or peat, then, as Graham has shown, <i>unequal
+diffusion</i> of the caustic soda and chloride of calcium occurs from the
+point where they are formed, through the moist porous mass, and the
+result is, that the small portion of caustic soda which diffuses most
+rapidly, or the carbonate of soda formed by its speedy union with
+carbonic acid, is removed from contact with the chloride of calcium.</p>
+
+<p>Soda and carbonate of soda are more soluble in water and more strongly
+alkaline than lime. They, therefore, act on peat more energetically than
+the latter. It is on account of the formation of soda and carbonate of
+soda from the lime and salt mixture, that this mixture exerts a more
+powerful decomposing action than lime alone. Where salt is cheap and
+wood ashes scarce, the mixture may be employed accordingly to advantage.
+Of its usefulness we have the testimony of practical men.</p>
+
+<p>Says Mr. F. Holbrook of Vermont, (Patent Office Report for 1856, page
+193.) "I had a heap of seventy-five half cords of muck mixed with lime
+in the proportion of a half cord of muck to a bushel of lime. The muck
+was drawn to the field when wanted in August. A bushel of salt to six
+bushels of lime was dissolved in water enough to slake the lime down to
+a fine dry powder, the lime being slaked no faster than wanted, and
+spread immediately while warm, over the layers of muck, which were about
+six inches thick; then a coating of lime and so on, until the heap
+reached the height of five feet, a convenient width, and length enough
+to embrace the whole quantity of the muck. In about three weeks a
+powerful decomposition was apparent, and the heap was nicely overhauled,
+nothing more being done to it till it was loaded the next Spring for
+spreading. The compost was spread on the plowed surface of a dry sandy
+loam at the rate of about <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>fifteen cords to the acre, and harrowed in.
+The land was planted with corn and the crop was more than sixty bushels
+to the acre."</p>
+
+<p>Other writers assert that they "have decomposed with this mixture, spent
+tan, saw dust, corn stalks, swamp muck, leaves from the woods, indeed
+every variety of inert substance, and in <i>much shorter time than it
+could be done by any other means</i>." (Working Farmer, Vol. III. p. 280.)</p>
+
+<p>Some experiments that have a bearing on the efficacy of this compost
+will be detailed presently.</p>
+
+<p>There is no doubt that the soluble and more active (caustic) forms of
+alkaline bodies exert a powerful decomposing and solvent action on peat.
+It is asserted too that the <i>nearly insoluble and less active matters of
+this kind</i>, also have an effect, though a less complete and rapid one.
+Thus, <i>carbonate of lime</i> in the various forms of chalk, shell marl,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>
+old mortar, leached ashes and peat ashes, (for in all these it is the
+chief and most "alkaline" <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>ingredient,) is recommended to compost with
+peat. Let us inquire whether carbonate of lime can really exert any
+noticeable influence in improving the fertilizing quality of peat.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of vitriol peats, carbonate of lime is the cheapest and most
+appropriate means of destroying the noxious sulphate of protoxide of
+iron, and correcting their deleterious quality. When carbonate of lime
+is brought in contact with sulphate of protoxide of iron, the two bodies
+mutually decompose, with formation of sulphate of lime (gypsum) and
+carbonate of protoxide of iron. The latter substance absorbs oxygen from
+the air with the utmost avidity, and passes into the peroxide of iron,
+which is entirely inert.</p>
+
+<p>The admixture of any earthy matter with peat, will facilitate its
+decomposition, and make it more active chemically, in so far as it
+promotes the separation of the particles of the peat from each other,
+and the consequent access of air. This benefit may well amount to
+something when we add to peat one-fifth of its bulk of marl or leached
+ashes, but the question comes up: Do these insoluble mild alkalies exert
+any direct action? Would not as much soil of any kind be equally
+efficacious, by promoting to an equal degree the contact of oxygen from
+the atmosphere?</p>
+
+<p>There are two ways in which carbonate of lime may exert a chemical
+action on the organic matters of peat. Carbonate of lime, itself, in the
+forms we have mentioned, is commonly called insoluble in water. It is,
+however, soluble to a very slight extent; it dissolves, namely, in about
+30,000 times its weight of pure water. It is nearly thirty times more
+soluble in water saturated with carbonic acid; and this solution has
+distinct alkaline characters. Since the water contained in a heap of
+peat must be considerably impregnated with carbonic acid, it follows
+that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>when carbonate of lime is present, the latter must form a
+solution, very dilute indeed, but still capable of some direct effect on
+the organic matters of the peat, when it acts through a long space of
+time. Again, it is possible that the solution of carbonate of lime in
+carbonic acid, may act to liberate some ammonia from the soluble
+portions of the peat, and this ammonia may react on the remainder of the
+peat to produce the same effects as it does in the case of a compost
+made with animal matters.</p>
+
+<p>Whether the effects thus theoretically possible, amount to anything
+practically important, is a question of great interest. It often happens
+that opinions entertained by practical men, not only by farmers, but by
+mechanics and artisans as well, are founded on so untrustworthy a basis,
+are supported by trials so destitute of precision, that their accuracy
+may well be doubted, and from all the accounts I have met with, it does
+not seem to have been well established, practically, that composts made
+with carbonate of lime, are better than the peat and carbonate used
+separately.</p>
+
+<p>Carbonate of lime (leached ashes, shell marl, etc.), is very well to use
+<i>in conjunction with</i> peat, to furnish a substance or substances needful
+to the growth of plants, and supply the deficiencies of peat as regards
+composition. Although in the agricultural papers, numerous accounts of
+the efficacy of such mixtures are given, we do not learn from them
+whether these bodies exert any such good effect upon the peat itself, as
+to warrant the trouble of making a <i>compost</i>.</p>
+
+<p>4.&mdash;<i>Experiments by the author on the effect of alkaline bodies in
+developing the fertilizing power of Peat.</i></p>
+
+<p>During the summer of 1862, the author undertook a series of experiments
+with a view of ascertaining the effect of various composting materials
+upon peat.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>Two bushels of peat were obtained from a heap that had been weathering
+for some time on the "Beaver Meadow," near New Haven. This was
+thoroughly air-dried, then crushed by the hand, and finally rubbed
+through a moderately fine sieve. In this way, the peat was brought to a
+perfectly homogeneous condition.</p>
+
+<p>Twelve-quart flower-pots, new from the warehouse, were filled as
+described below; the trials being made in duplicate:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Pots 1 and 2 contained each 270 grammes of peat.</p>
+
+<p>Pots 3 and 4 contained each 270 grammes of peat, mixed-with 10 grammes
+of ashes of young grass.</p>
+
+<p>Pots 5 and 6 contained each 270 grammes of peat, 10 grammes of ashes,
+and 10 grammes of carbonate of lime.</p>
+
+<p>Pots 7 and 8 contained each 270 grammes of peat, 10 grammes of ashes,
+and 10 grammes of slaked (hydrate of) lime.</p>
+
+<p>Pots 9 and 10 contained each 270 grammes of peat, 10 grammes of ashes,
+and 5 grammes of lime, slaked with strong solution of common salt.</p>
+
+<p>Pots 11 and 12 contained each 270 grammes of peat, 10 grammes of ashes,
+and 3 grammes of Peruvian guano.</p>
+
+<p>In each case the materials were thoroughly mixed together, and so much
+water was cautiously added as served to wet them thoroughly. Five
+kernels of dwarf (pop) corn were planted in each pot, the weight of each
+planting being carefully ascertained.</p>
+
+<p>The pots were disposed in a glazed case within a cold grapery,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> and
+were watered when needful with pure water. The seeds sprouted duly, and
+developed into healthy plants. The plants served thus as tests of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>chemical effect of carbonate of lime, of slaked lime, and of salt and
+lime mixture, on the peat. The guano pots enabled making a comparison
+with a well-known fertilizer. The plants were allowed to grow until
+those best developed, enlarged above, not at the expense of the peat,
+etc., but of their own lower leaves, as shown by the withering of the
+latter. They were then cut, and, after drying in the air, were weighed
+with the subjoined results.</p>
+<br />
+
+<p class="cen">VEGETATION EXPERIMENTS IN PEAT COMPOSTS.</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="80%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png079">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" width="59%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="11%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="10%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="10%">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="5">KEY</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><i>A</i> -</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="5"><i>Weight of crops in grammes.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><i>B</i> -</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="5"><i>Comparative weight of crops, the sum of 1. and 2. taken as unity.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><i>C</i> -</td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="5"><i>Ratio of weight of crops to weight of seeds, the latter
+    assumed as unity.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlb">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcb">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb"><i>Nos.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcb"><i>Medium of Growth.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcbl" colspan="2"><i>A</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcbl"><i>B</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcbl"><i>C</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1 }</td>
+  <td class="tdl" rowspan="2">Peat alone.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.61 }</td>
+  <td class="tdc" rowspan="2">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.20</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" rowspan="2">&nbsp;&nbsp;1</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" rowspan="2">&nbsp;&nbsp;2-&frac12;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2 }</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.59 }</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3 }</td>
+  <td class="tdl" rowspan="2">Peat, and ashes of grass,</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">14.19 }</td>
+  <td class="tdc" rowspan="2">32.44</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" rowspan="2">&nbsp;&nbsp;8</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" rowspan="2">20-&frac12;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4 }</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">18.25 }</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5 }</td>
+  <td class="tdl" rowspan="2">Peat, ashes, and carbonate of lime,</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">18.19 }</td>
+  <td class="tdc" rowspan="2">38.44</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" rowspan="2">&nbsp;&nbsp;9</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" rowspan="2">25-&frac12;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;6 }</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">20.25 }</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7 }</td>
+  <td class="tdl" rowspan="2">Peat, ashes, and carbonate of lime,</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">21.49 }</td>
+  <td class="tdc" rowspan="2">42.22</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" rowspan="2">10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" rowspan="2">28-&frac12;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8 }</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">20.73 }</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;9 }</td>
+  <td class="tdl" rowspan="2">Peat, ashes, slaked lime, and salt,</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">23.08 }</td>
+  <td class="tdc" rowspan="2">46.42</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" rowspan="2">11</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" rowspan="2">30-&frac12;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">10 }</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">23.34 }</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">11 }</td>
+  <td class="tdlb" rowspan="2">Peat, ashes, and Peruvian Guano,</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">26.79 }</td>
+  <td class="tdcb" rowspan="2">53.78</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl" rowspan="2">13</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl" rowspan="2">35-&frac12;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb">12 }</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">26.99 }</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p>Let us now examine the above results. The experiments 1 and 2,
+demonstrate that the peat itself is deficient in something needful to
+the plant. In both pots, but 4.2 grammes of crop were produced, a
+quantity two and a half times greater than that of the seeds, which
+weighed 1.59 grammes. The plants were pale in color, slender, and
+reached a height of but about six inches.</p>
+
+<p>Nos. 3 and 4 make evident what are some of the deficiencies of the peat.
+A supply of mineral matters, such as are contained in all plants, being
+made by the addition of <i>ashes</i>, consisting chiefly of phosphates,
+carbonates and sulphates of lime, magnesia and potash, a crop is
+realized nearly eight times greater than in the previous cases; the
+yield being 32.44 grammes, or 20-&frac12; times the weight of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>the seed. The
+quantity of ashes added, viz.:&mdash;10 grammes, was capable of supplying
+every mineral element, greatly in excess of the wants of any crop that
+could be grown in a quart of soil. The plants in pots 3 and 4 were much
+stouter than those in 1 and 2, and had a healthy color.</p>
+
+<p>The experiments 5 and 6 appear to demonstrate that <i>carbonate of lime</i>
+considerably aided in converting the peat itself into plant-food. The
+ashes alone contained enough carbonate of lime to supply the wants of
+the plant in respect to that substance. More carbonate of lime could
+only operate by acting on the organic matters of the peat. The amount of
+the crop is raised by the effect of carbonate of lime from 32.44 to
+38.44 grammes, or from 20-&frac12; to 25-&frac12; times that of the seed.</p>
+
+<p>Experiments 7 and 8 show, that <i>slaked lime</i> has more effect than the
+carbonate, as we should anticipate. Its influence does not, however,
+exceed that of the carbonate very greatly, the yield rising from 38.44
+to 42.22 grammes, or from 25-&frac12; to 28-&frac12; times the weight of the seed.
+In fact, quick-lime can only act as such for a very short space of time,
+since it rapidly combines with the carbonic acid, which is supplied
+abundantly by the peat. In experiments 7 and 8, a good share of the
+influence exerted must therefore be actually ascribed to the carbonate,
+rather than to the quick-lime itself.</p>
+
+<p>In experiments 9 and 10, we have proof that the "<i>lime and salt
+mixture</i>" has a greater efficacy than lime alone, the crop being
+increased thereby from 42.22, to 46.42 grammes, or from 28-&frac12; to 30-&frac12;
+times that of the seed.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, we see from experiments 11 and 12 that in all the foregoing
+cases it was a limited supply of <i>nitrogen</i> that limited the crop; for,
+on adding Peruvian guano, which could only act by this element (its
+other ingredients, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>phosphates of lime and potash, being abundantly
+supplied in the ashes), the yield was carried up to 53.78 grammes, or
+35-&frac12; times the weight of the seed, and 13 times the weight of the crop
+obtained from the unmixed peat.</p>
+
+
+<p>5.&mdash;<i>The Examination of Peat (muck and marsh-mud) with reference to its
+Agricultural Value.</i></p>
+
+<p>Since, as we are forced to conclude, the variations in the composition
+of peat stand in no recognizable relations to differences of appearance,
+it is only possible to ascertain the value of any given specimen by
+actual trial or by chemical investigation.</p>
+
+<p>The method <i>by practical trial</i> is usually the cheaper and more
+satisfactory of the two, though a half year or more is needful to gain
+the desired information.</p>
+
+<p>It is sufficient to apply to small measured plots of ground, each say
+two rods square, known quantities of the fresh, the weathered, and the
+composted peat in order, by comparison of the growth and <i>weight</i> of the
+crop, to decide the question of their value.</p>
+
+<p>Peat and its composts are usually applied at rates ranging from 20 to 40
+wagon or cart loads per acre. There being 160 square rods in the acre,
+the quantity proper to a plot of two rods square (= four square rods,)
+would be one half to one load.</p>
+
+<p>The composts with stable manure and lime, or salt and lime mixture, are
+those which, in general, it would be best to experiment with. From the
+effects of the stable manure compost, could be inferred with safety the
+value of any compost, of which animal manure is an essential ingredient.</p>
+
+<p>One great advantage of the practical trial on the small scale is, that
+the adaptation of the peat or of the compost to the <i>peculiarities of
+the soil</i>, is decided beyond a question.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>It must be borne in mind, however, that the results of experiments can
+only be relied upon, when the plots are accurately measured, when the
+peat, etc., are applied in known quantities, and when the crops are
+separately harvested and carefully weighed.</p>
+
+<p>If experiments are made upon grass or clover, the gravest errors may
+arise by drawing conclusions from the appearance of the standing crop.
+Experience has shown that two clover crops, gathered from contiguous
+plots differently manured, may strikingly differ in appearance, but
+yield the same amounts of hay.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>chemical examination</i> of a peat may serve to inform us, without
+loss of time, upon a number of important points.</p>
+
+<p>To test a peat for <i>soluble iron salts</i> which might render it
+deleterious, we soak and agitate a handful for some hours, with four or
+five times its bulk of warm soft water. From a <i>good fresh-water peat</i>
+we obtain, by this treatment, a yellow liquid, more or less deep in
+tint, the taste of which is very slight and scarcely definable.</p>
+
+<p>From a <i>vitriol peat</i> we get a dark-brown or black solution, which has a
+bitter, astringent, metallic or inky taste, like that of copperas.</p>
+
+<p><i>Salt peat</i> will yield a solution having the taste of salt-brine, unless
+it contains iron, when the taste of the latter will prevail.</p>
+
+<p>On evaporating the water-solution to dryness and heating strongly in a
+China cup, a <i>vitriol peat</i> gives off white choking fumes of sulphuric
+acid, and there remains, after burning, brown-red oxide of iron in the
+dish.</p>
+
+<p>The above testings are easily conducted by any one, with the ordinary
+conveniences of the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>Those that follow, require, for the most part, the chemical laboratory,
+and the skill of the practised chemist, for satisfactory execution.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>Besides testing for soluble iron compounds, as already indicated, the
+points to be regarded in the chemical examination, are:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>1st. <i>Water or moisture.</i>&mdash;This must be estimated, because it is so
+variable, and a knowledge of its quantity is needful, if we will compare
+together different samples. A weighed amount of the peat is dried for
+this purpose at 212&deg; F., as long as it suffers loss.</p>
+
+<p>2d. The <i>proportions of organic matter and ash</i> are ascertained by
+carefully burning a weighed sample of the peat. By this trial we
+distinguish between peat with 2 to 10 <i>per cent.</i> of ash and peaty soil,
+or mud, containing but a few <i>per cent.</i> of organic matter.</p>
+
+<p>This experiment may be made in a rough way, but with sufficient accuracy
+for common purposes, by burning a few lbs. or ozs. of peat upon a piece
+of sheet iron, or in a sauce pan, and noting the loss, which includes
+both <i>water</i> and <i>organic matter</i>.</p>
+
+<p>3d. As further regards the organic matters, we ascertain <i>the extent to
+which the peaty decomposition has taken place</i> by boiling with dilute
+solution of carbonate of soda. This solvent separates the humic and
+ulmic acids from the undecomposed vegetable fibers.</p>
+
+<p>For practical purposes this treatment with carbonate of soda may be
+dispensed with, since the amount of undecomposed fiber is gathered with
+sufficient accuracy from careful inspection of the peat.</p>
+
+<p>Special examination of the organic acids is of no consequence in the
+present state of our knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>4th. The <i>proportion of nitrogen</i> is of the first importance to be
+ascertained. In examinations of 30 samples of peat, I have found the
+content of nitrogen to range from 0.4 to 2.9 <i>per cent.</i>, the richest
+containing seven times as much as the poorest. It is practically a
+matter of great <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>moment whether, for example, a Peruvian guano contains
+16 <i>per cent.</i> of nitrogen as it should, or but one-seventh that amount,
+as it may when grossly adulterated. In the same sense, it is important
+before making a heavy outlay in excavating and composting peat, to know
+whether (as regards nitrogen) it belongs to the poorer or richer sorts.
+This can only be done by the complicated methods known to the chemist.</p>
+
+<p>5th. The estimation of <i>ammonia</i> (actual or ready-formed,) is a matter
+of scientific interest, but subordinate in a practical point of view.</p>
+
+<p>6th. <i>Nitric acid</i> and <i>nitrates</i> can scarcely exist in peat except
+where it is well exposed to the air, in a merely moist but not wet
+state. Their estimation in composts is of great interest, though
+troublesome to execute.</p>
+
+<p>7th. As regards the ash, its red color indicates <i>iron</i>. Pouring
+hydrochloric acid upon it, causes effervescence in the presence of
+<i>carbonate of lime</i>. This compound, in most cases, has been formed in
+the burning, from humate and other organic salts of lime. <i>Sand</i>, or
+<i>clay</i>, being insoluble in the acid, remains, and may be readily
+estimated.</p>
+
+<p><i>Phosphoric acid</i> and alkalies, especially <i>potash</i>, are, next to lime,
+the important ingredients of the ash. <i>Magnesia</i> and <i>sulphuric acid</i>,
+rank next in value. Their estimation requires a number of tedious
+operations, and can scarcely be required for practical purposes, until
+more ready methods of analyses shall have been discovered.</p>
+
+<p>8th. The quantity of <i>matters soluble in water</i> has considerable
+interest, but is not ordinarily requisite to be ascertained.</p>
+
+<p>6.&mdash;<i>Composition of Connecticut Peats</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In the years 1857 and 1858, the author was charged by the Connecticut
+State Agricultural Society<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> with the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>chemical investigation of 33
+samples of peat and swamp muck, sent to him in compliance with official
+request.</p>
+
+<p>In the foregoing pages, the facts revealed by the laborious analyses
+executed on these samples, have been for the most part communicated,
+together with many valuable practical results derived from the
+experience of the gentlemen who sent in the specimens. The analytical
+data themselves appear to me to be worthy of printing again, for the
+information of those who may hereafter make investigations in the same
+direction.&mdash;See Tables I, II, and III, p.p. 89, 90, and 91.</p>
+
+<p>The specimens came in all stages of dryness. Some were freshly dug and
+wet, others had suffered long exposure, so that they were air-dry; some
+that were sent in the moist state, became dry before being subjected to
+examination; others were prepared for analysis while still moist.</p>
+
+<p>A sufficient quantity of each specimen was carefully pulverized,
+intermixed, and put into a stoppered bottle and thus preserved for
+experiment.</p>
+
+<p>The analyses were begun in the winter of 1857 by my assistant, Edward H.
+Twining, Esq. The samples 1 to 17 of the subjoined tables were then
+analyzed. In the following year the work was continued on the remaining
+specimens 18&mdash;33 by Dr. Robert A. Fisher. The method of analysis was the
+same in both cases, except in two particulars.</p>
+
+<p>In the earlier analyses, 1 to 17 inclusive, the treatment with carbonate
+of soda was not carried far enough to dissolve the whole of the soluble
+organic acids. It was merely attempted to make <i>comparative</i>
+determinations by treating all alike for the same time, and with the
+same quantity of alkali. I have little doubt that in some cases not more
+than one-half of the portion really soluble in carbonate of soda is
+given as such. In the later analyses, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>18 to 33, however, the treatment
+was continued until complete separation of the soluble organic acids was
+effected.</p>
+
+<p>By acting on a peat for a long time with a hot solution of carbonate of
+soda, there is taken up not merely a quantity of organic matter, but
+inorganic matters likewise enter solution. Silica, oxyd of iron and
+alumina are thus dissolved. In this process too, sulphate of lime is
+converted into carbonate of lime.</p>
+
+<p>The total amount of these soluble inorganic matters has been determined
+with approximate accuracy in analyses 18 to 33.</p>
+
+<p>In the analyses 1 to 17 the collective amount of matters soluble in
+water was determined. In the later analyses the proportions of organic
+and inorganic matters in the water-solution were separately estimated.</p>
+
+<p>The process of analysis as elaborated and employed by Dr. Fisher and the
+author, is as follows:</p>
+
+<p>I. To prepare a sample for analysis, half a pound, more or less, of the
+substance is pulverized and passed through a wire sieve of 24 meshes to
+the inch. It is then thoroughly mixed and bottled.</p>
+
+<p>II. 2 grammes of the above are dried (in tared watch-glasses) at the
+temperature of 212 degrees, until they no longer decrease in weight. The
+loss sustained represents the <i>amount of water</i>, (according to
+<span class="smcap">Marsilly</span>, Annales des Mines, 1857, XII., 404, peat loses carbon
+if dried at a temperature higher than 212 degrees.)</p>
+
+<p>III. The capsule containing the residue from I. is slowly heated to
+incipient redness, and maintained at that temperature until the organic
+matter is entirely consumed. The loss gives the total amount of
+<i>organic</i>, the residue the total amount of <i>inorganic</i> matter.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Note.</span>&mdash;In peats containing sulphate of the protoxide of iron,
+the loss that occurs during ignition is partly due <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>to the escape of
+sulphuric acid, which is set free by the decomposition of the above
+mentioned salt of iron. But the quantity is usually so small in
+comparison with the organic matter, that it may be disregarded. The same
+may be said of the combined water in the clay that is mixed with some
+mucks, which is only expelled at a high temperature.</p>
+
+<p>IV. 3 grammes of the sample are digested for half an hour, with 200
+cubic centimeters (66.6 times their weight,) of boiling water, then
+removed from the sand bath, and at the end of twenty-four hours, the
+clear liquid is decanted. This operation is twice repeated upon the
+residue; the three solutions are mixed, filtered, concentrated, and
+finally evaporated to dryness (in a tared platinum capsule,) over a
+water bath. The residue, which must be dried at 212 degrees, until it
+ceases to lose weight, gives the <i>total amount soluble in water</i>. The
+dried residue is then heated to low redness, and maintained at that
+temperature until the organic matter is burned off. The loss represents
+the amount of <i>organic matter soluble in water</i>, the ash gives the
+quantity of <i>soluble inorganic matter</i>.</p>
+
+<p>V. 1 gramme is digested for two hours, at a temperature just below the
+boiling point, with 100 cubic centimeters of a solution containing 5
+<i>per cent.</i> of crystallized carbonate of soda. It is then removed from
+the sand bath and allowed to settle. When the supernatant liquid has
+become perfectly transparent, it is carefully decanted. This operation
+is repeated until all the organic matter soluble in this menstruum is
+removed; which is accomplished as soon as the carbonate of soda solution
+comes off colorless. The residue, which is to be washed with boiling
+water until the washings no longer affect test papers, is thrown upon a
+tared filter, and dried at 212 degrees. It is the <i>total amount of
+organic and inorganic <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>matter insoluble in carbonate of soda</i>. The loss
+that it suffers upon ignition, indicates the amount of <i>organic matter</i>,
+the ash gives the <i>inorganic</i> matter.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Note.</span>&mdash;The time required to insure perfect settling after
+digesting with carbonate of soda solution, varies, with different peats,
+from 24 hours to several days. With proper care, the results obtained
+are very satisfactory. Two analyses of No. 6, executed at different
+times, gave <i>total insoluble in carbonate of soda</i>&mdash;1st analysis 23.20
+<i>per cent.</i>; 2d analysis 23.45 <i>per cent.</i> These residues yielded
+respectively 14.30 and 14.15 <i>per cent.</i> of ash.</p>
+
+<p>VI. The quantity of <i>organic matter insoluble in water but soluble in
+solution of carbonate of soda</i>, is ascertained by deducting the joint
+weight of the amounts soluble in water, and insoluble in carbonate of
+soda, from the total amount of organic matter present. The <i>inorganic
+matter insoluble in water, but soluble in carbonate of soda</i>, is
+determined by deducting the joint weight of the amounts of inorganic
+matter soluble in water, and insoluble in carbonate of soda, from the
+total inorganic matter.</p>
+
+<p>VII. The amount of nitrogen is estimated by the combustion of 1 gramme
+with soda-lime in an iron tube, collection of the ammonia in a standard
+solution of sulphuric acid, and determination of the residual free acid
+by an equivalent solution of caustic potash and a few drops of tincture
+of cochineal as an indicator.</p>
+
+<p>The results of the analyses are given in the following Tables. Table I.
+gives the direct results of analysis. In Table II. the analyses are
+calculated on dry matter, and the nitrogen upon the organic matters.
+Table III. gives a condensed statement of the external characters and
+agricultural value<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> of the samples in their different localities, and
+the names of the parties supplying them.</p>
+<br />
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span><p class="cen">TABLE I.&mdash;COMPOSITION OF CONNECTICUT PEATS AND MUCKS.</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="100%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png089">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="45%">KEY</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="12">A - <i>Soluble in water.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="12">B - <i>Insol. in water, but soluble in carbonate of soda.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="12">C - <i>Insol. in water and carbonate of soda.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="12">D - <i>Total.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="12">E - <i>Water.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="12">F - <i>Nitrogen.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb" colspan="12">G - <i>Total matters soluble in water.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdcb" rowspan="2"><i>From Whom and Whence Received.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdcbl" colspan="4">ORGANIC MATTER.</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl" colspan="4">INORGANIC MATTER.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdcbl">A</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">B</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">C</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">D</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">A</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">B</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">C</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">D</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">E</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">F</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">G</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1. Lewis M. Norton</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">17.63</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">34.79</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">52.42</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">35.21</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">12.37</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.28</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.54</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Goshen, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2. Lewis M. Norton</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">60.02</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">11.65</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">71.67</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8.00</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">20.33</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.85</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Goshen, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3. Lewis M. Norton</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">50.60</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">29.75</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">80.35</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.52</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">15.13</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.90</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.51</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Goshen, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4. Messrs. Pond &amp; Miles</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">65.15</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">11.95</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">77.10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.23</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">19.67</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.20</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.63</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Milford, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5. Messrs. Pond &amp; Miles</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">67.75</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">16.65</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">84.40</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.00</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">13.60</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.95</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.42</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Milford, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" style="border-bottom: 1px black dashed">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" style="border-bottom: 1px black dashed">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;6. Samuel Camp</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">43.20</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8.90</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">52.10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">14.90</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">14.30</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">29.20</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">18.70</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.50</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Plainville, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7. Russell U. Peck</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">38.49</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">30.51</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">69.00</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">13.59</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">17.41</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.62</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.61</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Berlin, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8. Rev. B. F. Northrop</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">42.30</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">10.15</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">52.45</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">34.70</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">12.85</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.31</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.64</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Griswold, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;9. J. H. Stanwood</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">49.65</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7.40</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">57.05</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.57</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">38.38</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.23</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.83</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Colebrook, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">10. N. Hart, Jr.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">55.11</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">10.29</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">65.40</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">14.89</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">19.71</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;6.20</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;West Cornwall, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">11. A. L. Loveland</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">38.27</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.89</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">41.16</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">47.24</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">11.60</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.00</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.75</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;North Granby, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">12. Daniel Buck, Jr.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">27.19</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">48.84</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">76.03</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.92</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">18.05</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.40</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.94</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Poquonock, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">13. Daniel Buck, Jr.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">33.66</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">40.51</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">74.17</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8.63</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">17.20</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.40</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.80</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Poquonock, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">14. Philip Scarborough</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">51.45</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">25.00</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">76.45</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7.67</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">15.88</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.20</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.43</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Brooklyn, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">15. Adams White</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">54.38</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">23.14</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">77.52</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;9.03</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">13.45</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.89</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.90</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Brooklyn, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">16. Paris Dyer</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">18.86</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.02</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">23.88</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">67.77</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8.35</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.03</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.63</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Brooklyn, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">17. Perrin Scarborough</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">43.27</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">16.83</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">60.10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">25.78</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">14.12</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.86</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">15.13</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Brooklyn, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">18. Geo. K. Virgin</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.21</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">20.57</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8.25</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">31.03</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.32</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;9.41</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">48.05</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">57.78</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">11.19</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.64</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.53</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Collinsville, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">19. Geo. K. Virgin</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.12</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;9.19</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">15.41</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.28</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.08</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">48.65</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">50.01</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">34.58</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.34</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.40</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Collinsville, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">20. Geo. K. Virgin</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.72</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;9.31</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.65</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">13.68</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.25</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.76</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">28.20</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">29.21</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">57.11</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.28</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.97</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Collinsville, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">21. S. Mead</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.30</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">40.52</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8.20</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">52.02</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.60</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">10.02</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">23.90</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">36.52</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">11.46</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.51</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.90</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;New Haven, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">22. Edwin Hoyt</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.84</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">13.42</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7.55</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">23.81</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.72</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">19.88</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">46.30</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">68.90</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7.29</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.45</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.56</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;New Canaan, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">23. Edwin Hoyt</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.34</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">13.49</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8.05</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">23.88</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.54</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">12.42</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">56.20</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">70.16</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.96</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.90</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.88</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;New Canaan, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">24. Edwin Hoyt</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.15</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">17.29</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8.00</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">26.44</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.67</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">14.13</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">51.10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">66.90</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;6.66</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.01</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.82</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;New Canaan, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">25. A. M. Haling</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.43</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">52.15</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8.65</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">64.23</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.35</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.16</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.90</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.41</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">30.36</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.62</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.78</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Rockville, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">26. A. M. Haling</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.87</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">71.57</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8.44</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">83.88</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.23</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.98</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.21</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">13.91</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.32</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.10</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Rockville, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">27. A. M. Haling</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.87</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">44.04</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.25</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">52.16</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.51</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.07</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.05</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;9.63</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">38.21</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.88</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.38</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Rockville, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">28. Albert Day</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.45</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">46.25</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;6.35</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">55.05</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.32</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.65</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.40</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;6.37</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">38.58</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.84</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.77</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Brooklyn, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">29. C. Goodyear</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.80</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">45.42</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">10.35</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">57.57</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.35</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7.98</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">18.80</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">27.13</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">15.30</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.68</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.15</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;New Haven, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">30. Rev. Wm. Clift</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.33</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">51.68</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;9.80</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">64.81</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.82</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.86</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8.68</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">26.51</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.95</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;6.15</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stonington, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">31. Henry Keeler</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.13</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">45.12</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">12.05</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">59.30</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;0.78</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.79</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">16.70</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">21.27</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">19.43</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.57</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.91</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;South Salem, N. Y.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">32. John Adams</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.71</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">42.87</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">10.65</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">55.23</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.02</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.33</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">14.35</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">16.70</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">28.07</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.76</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.73</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Salisbury, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">33. Rev. Wm. Clift</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.40</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">16.72</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7.25</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">29.37</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7.40</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;6.40</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">48.05</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">61.85</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">8.78</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.32</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.80</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stonington, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" style="border-bottom: .5pt black solid;">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" style="border-bottom: .5pt black solid;">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" style="border-bottom: .5pt black solid;">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" style="border-bottom: .5pt black solid;">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Average</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.06</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.44</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.37</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.72</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span><p class="cen">TABLE II.&mdash;COMPOSITION OF CONNECTICUT PEATS AND MUCKS.</p>
+<p class="cen"><i>Calculated in the dry state: the percentage of nitrogen calculated also on organic
+matters.</i></p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="90%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png090">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="45%">KEY</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="12">A - <i>In this table the matters soluble in water and
+    the nitrogen are calculated to two places of decimals; the other ingredients are
+    expressed in round numbers.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="12">B - <i>Soluble in water.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="12">C - <i>Insol. in water, but soluble in carbonate of soda.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="12">D - <i>Insol. in water and carbonate of soda.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="12">E - <i>Total.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="12">F - <i>Total matters soluble in water.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="12">G - <i>Nitrogen.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb" colspan="12">H - <i>Nitrogen in per cent. of the organic matter.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl" colspan="4">ORGANIC MATTER.</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl" colspan="4">INORGANIC MATTER.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdcb">A</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" style="border-bottom: .5pt black dashed;">B</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" style="border-bottom: .5pt black dashed;">C</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">D</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">E</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" style="border-bottom: .5pt black dashed;">B</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" style="border-bottom: .5pt black dashed;">C</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">D</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">E</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">F</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">G</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">H</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1. Lewis M. Norton</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">20</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">40</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">60</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">40</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.75</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.46</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.25</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Goshen, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2. Lewis M. Norton</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">75</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">15</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">90</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.32</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.58</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Goshen, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3. Lewis M. Norton</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">60</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">35</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">95</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.95</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.23</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.36</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Goshen, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4. Messrs. Pond &amp; Miles</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">81</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">15</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">96</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.03</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.49</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.55</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Milford, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5. Messrs. Pond &amp; Miles</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">79</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">19</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">98</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.97</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.09</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.12</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Milford, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" style="border-bottom: .5pt black dashed;">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" style="border-bottom: .5pt black dashed;">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;6. Samuel Camp</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">53</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">11</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">64</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">18</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">18</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">36</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.08</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.58</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">4.03</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Plainville, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7. Russell U. Peck</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">46</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">37</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">83</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">17</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.27</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.96</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.34</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Berlin, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8. Rev. B. F. Northrop</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">48</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">11</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">59</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">41</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.88</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.50</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.49</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Griswold, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;9. J. H. Stanwood</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">75</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">11</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">86</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">14</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.77</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.99</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.15</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Colebrook, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">10. N. Hart, Jr.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">69</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">13</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">82</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">18</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7.75</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.61</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">3.21</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;West Cornwall, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">11. A. L. Loveland</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">43</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">47</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">53</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.85</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.13</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.43</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;North Granby, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">12. Daniel Buck, Jr.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">33</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">60</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">93</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.58</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.92</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">3.15</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Poquonock, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">13. Daniel Buck, Jr.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">41</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">49</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">90</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.16</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.89</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.23</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Poquonock, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">14. Philip Scarborough</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">61</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">30</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">91</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;9</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1.70</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.42</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.57</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Brooklyn, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">15. Adams White</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">63</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">27</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">90</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;6.78</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">3.33</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">3.72</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Brooklyn, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">16. Paris Dyer</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">21</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">26</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">74</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.85</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.12</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">4.31</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Brooklyn, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">17. Perrin Scarborough</td>
+  <td class="tdcl" colspan="2">62</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">70</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">30</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">17.59</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.00</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.43</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Brooklyn, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">18. Geo. K. Virgin</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.48</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">23</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;9</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">35</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.35</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">11</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">54</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">65</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.83</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.72</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.06</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Collinsville, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">19. Geo K. Virgin</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.72</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">14</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">23</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;.43</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">75</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">77</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.15</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.51</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.20</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Collinsville, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">20. Geo. K. Virgin</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.67</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">22</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">32</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;.58</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">66</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">68</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.25</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.65</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.04</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Collinsville, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">21. Solomon Mead</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">3.70</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">48</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;9</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">60</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.92</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">11</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">27</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">40</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;6.62</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.70</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.90</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;New Haven, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">22. Edwin Hoyt</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">3.05</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">14</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">26</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.92</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">21</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">50</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">74</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;6.07</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.48</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.88</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;New Canaan, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">23. Edwin Hoyt</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.47</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">14</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">25</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.63</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">13</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">60</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">75</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">0.95</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">3.76</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;New Canaan, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">24. Edwin Hoyt</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.23</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">18</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;9</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">28</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.79</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">15</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">55</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">72</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;3.02</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.08</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">3.82</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;New Canaan, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">25. A. M. Haling</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">4.90</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">75</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">12</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">92</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;.50</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5.40</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.32</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.52</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Rockville, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">26. A. M. Haling</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">4.50</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">83</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">97</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;.27</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.77</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.53</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.57</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Rockville, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">27. A. M. Haling</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">6.24</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">71</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">84</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;.82</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">16</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7.06</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">3.04</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">3.64</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Rockville, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">28. Albert Day</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">4.01</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">76</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">90</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;.52</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;1</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">10</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;4.53</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.36</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.52</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Brooklyn, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">29. C. Goodyear</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.11</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">54</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">12</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">68</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;.40</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;9</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">22</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">32</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.51</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.98</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.91</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;New Haven, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">30. Rev. Wm. Clift</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">4.56</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">71</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">13</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">88</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">3.86</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">12</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8.42</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.29</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.46</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stonington, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">31. Henry Keeler</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.66</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">56</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">15</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">73</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;.97</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;5</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">21</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">27</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.63</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.98</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.64</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;South Salem, N. Y.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">32. John Adams</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.37</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">59</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">15</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">76</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.40</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;2</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">20</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">24</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;3.77</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">2.44</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">3.18</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Salisbury, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">33. Rev. Wm. Clift</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">5.93</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">18</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;8</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">32</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">8.13</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">&nbsp;&nbsp;7</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">53</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">68</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">14.06</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">1.44</td>
+  <td class="tdcl">4.49</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stonington, Conn.</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdcbl">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span><p class="cen">TABLE III.&mdash;DESCRIPTION, ETC., OF PEATS AND MUCKS.</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="100%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png091">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdc" width="30%"><i>No.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="20%"><i>Color.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="50%"><i>Condition at Time of Analysis, Reputed Value, etc.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">&nbsp;&nbsp;1. Lewis M. Norton</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">chocolate-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, tough, compact, heavy; from bottom; 3 to 4 feet deep; very
+    good in compost.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">&nbsp;&nbsp;2. Lewis M. Norton</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">chocolate-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, tough, compact, heavier than 1, from near surface; very
+    good in compost.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">&nbsp;&nbsp;3. Lewis M. Norton</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">light-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, coherent but light, from between 1 and 2, very good in
+    compost.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">&nbsp;&nbsp;4. Messrs. Pond &amp; Miles</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">chocolate-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, coherent but light, surface peat, considered better than No.
+    5; good in compost.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">&nbsp;&nbsp;5. Messrs. Pond &amp; Miles</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">brownish-red,</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">air-dry, very light and loose in texture, from depth of 3 feet,
+    good in compost.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">&nbsp;&nbsp;6. Samuel Camp</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">black,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, hard lumps, half as good as yard manure, in compost equal
+    to yard manure.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">&nbsp;&nbsp;7. Russell U. Peck</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">chocolate-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, is good fresh, long exposed, half as good as barn-yard\
+    manure.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">&nbsp;&nbsp;8. Rev. B. F. Northrop</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">grayish-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, light, easily crushed masses containing sand, has not been
+    used alone, good in compost.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">&nbsp;&nbsp;9. J. H. Stanwood</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">chocolate-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">moist, hard lumps, used fresh good after first year; excellent in
+    compost.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">10. N. Hart, Jr.</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">brownish-black,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, hard lumps, excellent in compost.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">11. A. L. Loveland</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">black,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, hard lumps, contains grains of coarse sand.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">12. Daniel Buck, Jr.</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">chocolate-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, coherent cakes, good as top dressing on grass when fresh;
+    excellent in compost.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">13. Daniel Buck, Jr.</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">chocolate-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, light surface layers of No. 12.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">14. Philip Scarborough</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, after exposure over winter, has one-third value of
+    yard-manure.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">15. Adams White</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">chocolate-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, hard lumps, good in compost, causes great growth of straw.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">16. Paris Dyer</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">grayish-black,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, easily crushed lumps, largely admixed with soil.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">17. Perrin Scarborough</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">chocolate-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry,well-characterized "vitriol peat;" in compost, after 1
+    year's exposure, gives indifferent results.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">18. Geo. K. Virgin</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">light brownish-gray</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry light, coherent, surface peat; sample long exposed;
+    astonishing results on sandy soil.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">19. Geo. K. Virgin</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">chocolate-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">moist, crumbly, contains much sand, four feet from surface.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">20. Geo. K. Virgin</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">black,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">wet.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">21. Solomon Mead</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">grayish-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, light, porous, coherent from grass roots; long weathered,
+    good; fresh, better in compost.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">22. Edwin Hoyt</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">brownish-gray,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, loose, light, much mixed with soil, good in compost.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">23. Edwin Hoyt</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">brownish-gray,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, No. 22 saturated with horse urine, darker than No. 22.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">24. Edwin Hoyt</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">brownish-gray,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry,  No. 22 composted with white fish, darker than No. 23;
+    fish-bones evident.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">25. A. M. Haling</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">chocolate-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">moist, fresh dug.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">26. A. M. Haling</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">chocolate-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, No. 25 after two year's weathering.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">27. A. M. Haling</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">chocolate-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">moist, fresh dug, good substitute for yard manure as top-dressing on
+    grass.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">28. Albert Day</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">dark-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">moist, coherent and hard; fresh dug, but from surface where
+    weathered; injurious to crops; vitriol peat. (?)</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">29. C. Goodyear</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">black,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, very hard tough cakes; when fresh dug, "as good as cow
+    dung."</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">30. Rev. Wm. Clift</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">chocolate-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">moist, from an originally fresh water bog, broken into 100 years ago
+    by tide, now salt marsh; good after weathering.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">31. Henry Keeler</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">light-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, leaf-muck, friable; when fresh, appears equal to good yard
+    manure.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">32. John Adams</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">light-brown,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">moist, overlies shell marl, fresh or weathered does not compare with
+    ordinary manure.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlt">33. Rev. Wm. Clift</td>
+  <td class="tdlt">dark ash-gray,</td>
+  <td class="tdl">air-dry, from bottom of salt ditch, where tide flows daily; contains
+    sulphate of iron.</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The oxygen thus absorbed by water, serves for the
+respiration of fish and aquatic animals.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> This sample contained also fish-bones, hence the larger
+content of nitrogen was not entirely due to absorbed ammonia.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Reichardt's analyses are probably inaccurate, and give too
+much ammonia and nitric acid.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> These analyses were executed&mdash;A by Professor G. F. Barker;
+B by Mr. O. C. Sparrow; C by Mr. Peter Collier.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Shell marl</i>, consisting of fragments and powder of
+fresh-water shells, is frequently met with, underlying peat beds. Such a
+deposit occurs on the farm of Mr. John Adams, in Salisbury, Conn. It is
+eight to ten feet thick. An air-dry sample, analyzed under the writer's
+direction, gave results as follows:
+</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png075a">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="15%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" width="65%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="10%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="10%">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Water</td>
+  <td class="tdr">30.62</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" rowspan="2">Organic matter</td>
+  <td class="tdl">{soluble in water</td>
+  <td class="tdc">0.70 }</td>
+  <td class="tdr" rowspan="2">&nbsp;&nbsp;6.52</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">{insoluble in water</td>
+  <td class="tdc">5.82 }</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Carbonate of lime</td>
+  <td class="tdr">57.09</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Sand</td>
+  <td class="tdr">1.86</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Oxide of iron and alumina, with traces of potash,
+    magnesia, sulphuric and phosphoric acid</td>
+  <td class="tdrb" style="border-bottom: .5pt black solid;">3.91</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">100.00</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p>
+Another specimen from near Milwaukee, Wis., said to occur there in
+immense quantities underlying peat, contained, by the author's
+analysis&mdash;
+</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png075b">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="90%">Water</td>
+  <td class="tdr" width="10%">1.14</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Carbonate of lime</td>
+  <td class="tdr">92.41</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Carbonate of magnesia</td>
+  <td class="tdr">3.43</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Peroxide of iron with a trace of phosphoric acid</td>
+  <td class="tdr">0.92</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Sand</td>
+  <td class="tdr" style="border-bottom: .5pt black solid;">1.60</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr">99.50</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> To the kindness of Joseph Sheffield, Esq., of New Haven,
+the author is indebted for facilities in carrying on these experiments.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> At the instigation of Henry A. Dyer, Esq., at that time the
+Society's Corresponding Secretary.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Derived from the communications published in the author's
+Report. Trans. Conn. State Ag. Soc. 1858 p.p. 101-153.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%;" /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2><a name="PART_III" id="PART_III">PART III</a>.</h2>
+<h2>ON PEAT AS FUEL.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>1.&mdash;<i>Kinds of peat that make the best fuel.</i></p>
+
+<p>The value of peat for fuel varies greatly, like its other qualities.
+Only those kinds which can be cut out in the shape of coherent blocks,
+or which admit of being artificially formed into firm masses, are of use
+in ordinary stoves and furnaces. The powdery or friable surface peat,
+which has been disintegrated by frost and exposure, is ordinarily
+useless as fuel, unless it be rendered coherent by some mode of
+preparation. Unripe peat which contains much undecomposed moss or grass
+roots, which is therefore very light and porous, is in general too bulky
+to make an effective heating material before subjection to mechanical
+treatment.</p>
+
+<p>The best peat for burning, is that which is most free from visible fiber
+or undecomposed vegetable matters, which has therefore a homogeneous
+brown or black aspect, and which is likewise free from admixture of
+earthy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>substances in the form of sand or clay. Such peat is unctuous
+when moist, shrinks greatly on drying, and forms hard and heavy masses
+when dry. It is usually found at a considerable depth, where it has been
+subjected to pressure, and then has such consistence as to admit of
+cutting out in blocks; or it may exist as a black mud or paste at the
+bottom of bogs and sluices.</p>
+
+<p>The value of peat as fuel stands in direct ratio to its content of
+carbon. We have seen that this ranges from 51 to 63 <i>per cent. of the
+organic matter</i>, and the increase of carbon is related to its ripeness
+and density. The poorest, youngest peat, has the same proportion of
+carbon as exists in wood. It does not, however, follow that its heating
+power is the same. The various kinds of wood have essentially the same
+proportion of carbon, but their heating power is very different. The
+close textured woods&mdash;those which weigh the most per cord&mdash;make the best
+fuel for most purposes. We know, that a cord of hickory will produce
+twice as much heat as a cord of bass-wood. Peat, though having the same
+or a greater proportion of carbon, is generally inferior to wood on
+account of its occupying a greater bulk for a given weight, a necessary
+result of its porosity. The best qualities of peat, or poor kinds
+artificially condensed, may, on the other hand, equal or exceed wood in
+heating power, bulk for bulk. One reason that peat is, in general,
+inferior to wood in heating effect, lies in its greater content of
+incombustible ash. Wood has but 0.5 to 1.5 <i>per cent.</i> of mineral
+matters, while peat contains usually 5 to 10 <i>per cent.</i>, and often
+more. The oldest, ripest peats are those which contain the most carbon,
+and have at the same time the greatest compactness. From these two
+circumstances they make the best fuel.</p>
+
+<p>It thus appears that peat which is light, loose in structure, and much
+mixed with clay or sand, is a poor or very <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>poor article for producing
+heat: while a dense pure peat is very good.</p>
+
+<p>A great drawback to the usefulness of most kinds of peat-fuel, lies in
+their great friability. This property renders them unable to endure
+transportation. The blocks of peat which are commonly used in most parts
+of Germany as fuel, break and crumble in handling, so that they cannot
+be carried far without great waste. Besides, when put into a stove,
+there can only go on a slow smouldering combustion as would happen in
+cut tobacco or saw-dust. A free-burning fuel must exist in compact lumps
+or blocks, which so retain their form and solidity, as to admit of a
+rapid draught of air through the burning mass.</p>
+
+<p>The bulkiness of ordinary peat fuel, as compared with hard wood, and
+especially with coal, likewise renders transportation costly, especially
+by water, where freights are charged by bulk and not by weight, and
+renders storage an item of great expense.</p>
+
+<p>The chief value of that peat fuel, which is simply cut from the bog, and
+dried without artificial condensation, must be for the domestic use of
+the farmer or villager who owns a supply of it not far from his
+dwelling, and can employ his own time in getting it out. Though worth
+perhaps much less cord for cord when dry than hard wood, it may be
+cheaper for home consumption than fuel brought from a distance.</p>
+
+<p>Various processes have been devised for preparing peat, with a view to
+bringing it into a condition of density and toughness, sufficient to
+obviate its usual faults, and make it compare with wood or even with
+coal in heating power.</p>
+
+<p>The efforts in this direction have met with abundant success as regards
+producing a good fuel. In many cases, however, the cost of preparation
+has been too great to warrant the general adoption of these processes.
+We <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>shall recur to this subject on a subsequent page, and give an
+account of the methods that have been proposed or employed for the
+manufacture of condensed peat fuel.</p>
+
+<p>2.&mdash;<i>Density of Peat.</i></p>
+
+<p>The apparent<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> specific gravity of peat in the air-dry state, ranges
+from 0.11 to 1.03. In other words, a full cubic foot weighs from
+one-tenth as much as, to slightly more than a cubic foot of water, =
+62-1/3 lbs. Peat, which has a specific gravity of but 0.25, may be and
+is employed as fuel. A full cubic foot of it will weigh about 16 lbs. In
+Germany, the cubic foot of "good ordinary peat" in blocks,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> ranges
+from 15 to 25 lbs. in weight, and is employed for domestic purposes. The
+heavier peat, weighing 30 or more lbs. per cubic foot in blocks, is used
+for manufacturing and metallurgical purposes, and for firing
+locomotives.</p>
+
+<p>Karmarsch has carefully investigated more than 100 peats belonging to
+the kingdom of Hanover, with reference to their heating effect. He
+classifies them as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>A. <i>Turfy peat</i>, (<i>Rasentorf</i>,) consisting of slightly decomposed mosses
+and other peat-producing plants, having a yellow or yellowish-brown
+color, very soft, spongy and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>elastic, sp. gr. 0.11 to 0.26, the full
+English cubic foot weighing from 7 to 16 lbs.</p>
+
+<p>B. <i>Fibrous peat</i>, unripe peat, which is brown or black in color, less
+elastic than turfy peat, the fibres either of moss, grass, roots,
+leaves, or wood, distinguishable by the eye, but brittle, and easily
+broken; sp. gr. 0.24 to 0.67, the weight of a full cubic foot being from
+15 to 42 lbs.</p>
+
+<p>C. <i>Earthy peat.</i>&mdash;Nearly or altogether destitute of fibrous structure,
+drying to earth-like masses which break with more or less difficulty,
+giving lustreless surfaces of fracture; sp. gr. 0.41 to 0.90, the full
+cubic foot weighing, accordingly, from 25 to 56 lbs.</p>
+
+<p>D. <i>Pitchy peat</i>, (<i>Pechtorf</i>,) dense; when dry, hard; often resisting
+the blows of a hammer, breaking with a smooth, sometimes lustrous
+fracture, into sharp-angled pieces. Sp. gr. 0.62 to 1.03, the full cubic
+foot weighing from 38 to 55 lbs.</p>
+
+<p>In Kane and Sullivan's examination of 27 kinds of Irish peat, the
+specific gravities ranged from 0.274 to 1.058.</p>
+
+<p>3.&mdash;<i>Heating power of peat as compared with wood and anthracite.</i></p>
+
+<p>Karmarsch found that in absolute heating effect</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="72%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png096a">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="100%">100 lbs. of turfy, air-dry peat, on the average =
+    95 lbs. of pine wood.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">100 lbs. of fibrous, air-dry peat, on the average = 108 lbs. of
+    pine wood.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">100 lbs. of earthy, air-dry peat, on the average = 104 lbs. of
+    pine wood.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">100 lbs. of pitchy, air-dry peat, on the average = 111 lbs. of
+    pine wood.</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>The comparison of heating power by bulk, instead of weight, is as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="82%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png096b">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="100%">100 cubic ft. of turfy peat, on the average<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> =  33 cubic ft. of pine
+                                                      wood, in sticks.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">100 cubic ft. of fibrous peat, on the average   =  90 cubic ft. of pine
+                                                      wood, in sticks.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">100 cubic ft. of earthy peat, on the average    = 145 cubic ft. of pine
+                                                      wood, in sticks.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">100 cubic ft. of pitchy peat, on the average    = 184 cubic ft. of pine
+                                                      wood, in sticks.</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>According to Brix, the weight per English cord and relative heating
+effect of several air-dry peats&mdash;the heating power of an equal bulk of
+oak wood being taken at 100 as a standard&mdash;are as follows, <i>bulk for
+bulk</i>:<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="85%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png097a">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="77%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="13%"><i>Weight per cord.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="10%"><i>Heating effect.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Oak wood</td>
+  <td class="tdc">4150 lbs.</td>
+  <td class="tdc">100</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Peat from Linum, 1st quality, dense and pitchy</td>
+  <td class="tdc">3400 lbs.</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;70</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Peat from Linum, 2d quality, fibrous</td>
+  <td class="tdc">2900 lbs.</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;55</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Peat from Linum, 3d quality, turfy</td>
+  <td class="tdc">2270 lbs.</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;53</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Peat from Buechsenfeld, 1st quality, pitchy, very hard and heavy</td>
+  <td class="tdc">3400 lbs.</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;74</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Peat from Buechsenfeld, 2d quality</td>
+  <td class="tdc">2730 lbs.</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;64</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p>These statements agree in showing, that, while weight for weight, the
+ordinary qualities of peat do not differ much from wood in heating
+power; the heating effect of <i>equal bulks</i> of this fuel, as found in
+commerce, may vary extremely, ranging from one-half to three quarters
+that of oak wood.</p>
+
+<p>Condensed peat may be prepared by machinery, which will weigh more than
+hard wood, bulk for bulk, and whose heating power will therefore exceed
+that of wood.</p>
+
+<p>Gysser gives the following comparisons of a good peat with various
+German woods and charcoals, equal weights being employed, and split
+beech wood, air-dry, assumed as the standard.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png097b">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="83%">Beech wood, split, air dry</td>
+  <td class="tdr" width="7%">1.00</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Peat, condensed by Weber's &amp; Gysser's method,<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> air-dried,
+     with 25 <i>per cent.</i> moisture.</td>
+  <td class="tdr" style="vertical-align: top;">1.00</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Peat, condensed by Weber's &amp; Gysser's method, hot-dried,
+     with 10 <i>per cent.</i> moisture.</td>
+  <td class="tdr" style="vertical-align: top;">1.48</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Peat-charcoal, from condensed peat.</td>
+  <td class="tdr">1.73</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">The same peat, simply cut and air-dried.</td>
+  <td class="tdr">0.80</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Beech-charcoal.</td>
+  <td class="tdr">1.90</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Summer-oak wood.</td>
+  <td class="tdr">1.18</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Birch wood.</td>
+  <td class="tdr">0.95</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">White pine wood.</td>
+  <td class="tdr">0.72</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Alder.</td>
+  <td class="tdr">0.65</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Linden.</td>
+  <td class="tdr">0.65</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Red pine.</td>
+  <td class="tdr">0.61</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Poplar.</td>
+  <td class="tdr">0.50</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>Some experiments have been made in this country on the value of peat as
+fuel. One was tried on the N. Y. Central Railroad, Jan. 3, 1866. A
+locomotive with 25 empty freight cars attached, was propelled from
+Syracuse westward&mdash;the day being cold and the wind ahead&mdash;at the rate of
+16 miles the hour. The engineer reported that "the peat gave us as much
+steam as wood, and burnt a beautiful fire." The peat, we infer, was cut
+and prepared near Syracuse, N. Y.</p>
+
+<p>In one of the pumping houses of the Nassau Water Department of the City
+of Brooklyn, an experiment has been made for the purpose of comparing
+peat with anthracite, for the results of which I am indebted to the
+courtesy of Moses Lane, Esq., Chief Engineer of the Department.</p>
+
+<p>Fire was started under a steam boiler with wood. When steam was up, the
+peat was burned&mdash;its quantity being 1743 lbs., or 18 barrels&mdash;and after
+it was consumed, the firing was continued with coal. The pressure of
+steam was kept as nearly uniform as possible throughout the trial, and
+it was found that with 1743 lbs. of peat the engine made 2735
+revolutions, while with 1100 lbs. of coal it made 3866 revolutions. In
+other words, 100 lbs. of coal produced 351-45/100 revolutions, and 100
+lbs. of peat produced 156-91/100 revolutions. One pound of coal
+therefore equalled 2-24/100 lbs. of peat in heating effect. The peat
+burned well and generated steam freely.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lane could not designate the quality of the peat, not having been
+able to witness the experiment.</p>
+
+<p>These trials have not, indeed, all the precision needful to fix with
+accuracy the comparative heating effect of the fuels employed; for a
+furnace, that is adapted for wood, is not necessarily suited to peat,
+and a coal grate must have a construction unlike that which is proper
+for a peat fire; nevertheless they exhibit the relative merits of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>wood,
+peat, and anthracite, with sufficient closeness for most practical
+purposes.</p>
+
+<p>Two considerations would prevent the use of ordinary cut peat in large
+works, even could two and one-fourth tons of it be afforded at the same
+price as one ton of coal. The Nassau Water Department consumes 20,000
+tons of coal yearly, the handling of which is a large expense, six
+firemen being employed to feed the furnaces. To generate the same amount
+of steam with peat of the quality experimented with, would require the
+force of firemen to be considerably increased. Again, it would be
+necessary to lay in, under cover, a large stock of fuel during the
+summer, for use in winter, when peat cannot be raised. Since a barrel of
+this peat weighed less than 100 lbs., the short ton would occupy the
+volume of 20 barrels; as is well known, a ton of anthracite can be put
+into 8 barrels. A given weight of peat therefore requires 2-&frac12; times as
+much storage room, as the same weight of coal. As 2-&frac14; tons of peat, in
+the case we are considering, are equivalent to but one ton of coal in
+heating effect, the winter's supply of peat fuel would occupy 5-5/8
+times the bulk of the same supply in coal, admitting that the unoccupied
+or air-space in a pile of peat is the same as in a heap of coal. In
+fact, the calculation would really turn out still more to the
+disadvantage of peat, because the air-space in a bin of peat is greater
+than in one of coal, and coal can be excavated for at least two months
+more of the year than peat.</p>
+
+<p>It is asserted by some, that, because peat can be condensed so as to
+approach anthracite in specific gravity, it must, in the same ratio,
+approach the latter in heating power. Its effective heating power is,
+indeed, considerably augmented by condensation, but no mechanical
+treatment can increase its percentage of carbon or otherwise <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>alter its
+chemical composition; hence it must forever remain inferior to
+anthracite.</p>
+
+<p>The composition and density of the best condensed peat is compared with
+that of hard wood and anthracite in the following statement:&mdash;</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="90%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png100">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdc" width="20%"><i>In 100 parts.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="14%"><i>Carbon.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="16%"><i>Hydrogen.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="16%"><i>Oxygen and Nitrogen.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="8%"><i>Ash.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="12%"><i>Water.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="14%"><i>Specific Gravity.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Wood</td>
+  <td class="tdc">39.6</td>
+  <td class="tdc">4.8</td>
+  <td class="tdc">34.8</td>
+  <td class="tdc">0.8</td>
+  <td class="tdc">20.0</td>
+  <td class="tdc">0.75</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Condensed peat</td>
+  <td class="tdc">47.2</td>
+  <td class="tdc">4.9</td>
+  <td class="tdc">22.9</td>
+  <td class="tdc">5.0</td>
+  <td class="tdc">20.0</td>
+  <td class="tdc">1.20</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Anthracite</td>
+  <td class="tdc">91.3</td>
+  <td class="tdc">2.9</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;&nbsp;2.8</td>
+  <td class="tdc">3.0</td>
+  <td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc">1.40</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p>In combustion in ordinary fires, the <i>water</i> of the fuel is a source of
+waste, since it consumes heat in acquiring the state of vapor. This is
+well seen in the comparison of the same kind of peat in different states
+of dryness. Thus, in the table of Gysser, (page 97) Weber's condensed
+peat, containing 10 <i>per cent.</i> of moisture, surpasses in heating effect
+that containing 25 <i>per cent.</i> of moisture, by nearly one-half.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>oxygen</i> is a source of waste, for heat as developed from fuel, is
+chiefly a result of the chemical union of atmospheric or free oxygen,
+with the carbon and hydrogen of the combustible. The oxygen of the fuel,
+being already combined with carbon and hydrogen, not only cannot itself
+contribute to the generation of heat, but neutralizes the heating effect
+of those portions of the carbon and hydrogen of the fuel with which it
+remains in combination. The quantity of heating effect thus destroyed,
+cannot, however, be calculated with certainty, because physical changes,
+viz: the conversion of solids into gases, not to speak of secondary
+chemical transformations, whose influence cannot be estimated, enter
+into the computation.</p>
+
+<p><i>Nitrogen</i> and ash are practically indifferent in the burning process,
+and simply impair the heating value of fuel in as far as they occupy
+space in it and make a portion of its weight, to the exclusion of
+combustible matter.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>Again, as regards density, peat is, in general, considerably inferior to
+anthracite. The best uncondensed peat has a specific gravity of 0.90.
+Condensed peat usually does not exceed 1.1. Sometimes it is made of sp.
+gr. 1.3. Assertions to the effect of its acquiring a density of 1.8, can
+hardly be credited of pure peat, though a considerable admixture of sand
+or clay might give such a result.</p>
+
+<p>The comparative heating power of fuels is ascertained by burning them in
+an apparatus, so constructed, that the heat generated shall expend
+itself in evaporating or raising the temperature of a known quantity of
+water.</p>
+
+<p><i>The amount of heat that will raise the temperature of one gramme of
+water, one degree of the centigrade thermometer, is agreed upon as the
+unit of heat.</i><a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p>In the complete combustion of carbon in the form of charcoal or
+gas-coal, there are developed 8060 units of heat. In the combustion of
+one gramme of hydrogen gas, 34,210 units of heat are generated. The
+heating effect of hydrogen is therefore 4.2 times greater than that of
+carbon. It was long supposed that the heating effect of compound
+combustibles could be calculated from their elementary composition. This
+view is proved to be erroneous, and direct experiment is the only
+satisfactory means of getting at the truth in this respect.</p>
+
+<p>The data of Karmarsch, Brix, and Gysser, already given, were obtained by
+the experimental method. They were, however, made mostly on a small
+scale, and, in some cases, without due regard to the peculiar
+requirements of the different kinds of fuel, as regards fire space,
+draught, etc. They can only be regarded as approximations to the truth,
+and have simply a comparative value, which is, however, sufficient for
+ordinary purposes.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>The general results of the investigations hitherto made on all the
+common kinds of fuel, are given in the subjoined statement. The
+comparison is made in units of heat, and refers to equal weights of the
+materials experimented with.</p>
+<br />
+
+<p class="cen">HEATING POWER OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF FUEL.</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="60%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png102">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="80%">Air-dry Wood</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="20%">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2800</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="80%">Air-dry Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdl" width="10%">2500</td>
+  <td class="tdr" width="10%">3000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Perfectly dry Wood</td>
+  <td class="tdc" colspan="2">3600</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Perfectly dry Peat</td>
+  <td class="tdl">3000</td>
+  <td class="tdr">4000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Air-dry Lignite or Brown Coal</td>
+  <td class="tdl">3300</td>
+  <td class="tdr">4200</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Perfectly dry Lignite or Brown Coal</td>
+  <td class="tdl">4000</td>
+  <td class="tdr">5000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Bituminous Coal</td>
+  <td class="tdl">3800</td>
+  <td class="tdr">7000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Anthracite</td>
+  <td class="tdc" colspan="2">7500</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Wood Charcoal</td>
+  <td class="tdl">6300</td>
+  <td class="tdr">7500</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Coke</td>
+  <td class="tdl">6500</td>
+  <td class="tdr">7600</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<p>4.&mdash;<i>Modes of Burning Peat.</i></p>
+
+<p>In the employment of peat fuel, regard must be had to its shape and
+bulk. Commonly, peat is cut or moulded into blocks or sods like bricks,
+which have a length of 8 to 18 inches; a breadth of 4 to 6 inches, and a
+thickness of 1-&frac12; to 3 inches. Machine peat is sometimes formed into
+circular disks of 2 to 3 inches diameter, and 1 to 2 inches thickness
+and thereabouts. It is made also in the shape of balls of 2 to 3 inches
+diameter. Another form is that of thick-walled pipes, 2 to 3 inches in
+diameter, a foot or more long, and with a bore of one-half inch.</p>
+
+<p>Flat blocks are apt to lie closely together in the fire, and obstruct
+the draft. A fire-place, constructed properly for burning them, should
+be shallow, not admitting of more than two or three layers being
+superposed. According to the bulkiness of the peat, the fire-place
+should be roomy, as regards length and breadth.</p>
+
+<p>Fibrous and easily crumbling peat is usually burned upon a hearth, <i>i.
+e.</i> without a grate, either in stoves or open fire-places. Dense peat
+burns best upon a grate, the bars of which should be thin and near
+together, so that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>air have access to every part of the fuel. The
+denser and tougher the peat, and the more its shape corresponds with
+that usual to coal, the better is it adapted for use in our ordinary
+coal stoves and furnaces.</p>
+
+<p>5.&mdash;<i>Burning of broken peat.</i></p>
+
+<div class="img">
+<a href="images/imagep103.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep103.jpg" width="55%" alt="Stair Grate." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 1.&mdash;<span class="smcap">STAIR GRATE.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Broken peat&mdash;the fragments and waste of the cut or moulded blocks, and
+peat as obtained by plowing and harrowing the surface of drained
+peat-beds&mdash;may be used to advantage in the <i>stair grate</i>, fig. 1, which
+was introduced some years ago in Austria, and is adapted exclusively for
+burning finely divided fuel. It consists of a series of thin iron bars 3
+to 4 inches wide, <i>a</i>, <i>a</i>, <i>a</i>, ... which are arranged above each other
+like steps, as shown in the figure. They are usually half as long as the
+grate is wide, and are supported at each end by two side pieces or
+walls, <i>l.</i> Below, the grate is closed by a heavy iron plate. The fuel
+is placed in the hopper <i>A</i>, which is kept filled, and from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>which it
+falls down the incline as rapidly as it is consumed. The air enters from
+the space <i>G</i>, and is regulated by doors, not shown in the cut, which
+open into it. The masonry is supported at <i>u</i>, by a hollow iron beam.
+Below, a lateral opening serves for clearing out the ashes. The effect
+of the fire depends upon the width of the throat of the hopper at <i>u</i>,
+which regulates the supply of fuel to the grate, and upon the
+inclination of the latter. The throat is usually from 6 to 8 inches
+wide, according to the nature of the fuel. The inclination of the grate
+is 40 to 45&deg; and, in general, should be that which is assumed by the
+sides of a pile of the fuel to be burned, when it is thrown up into a
+heap. This grate ensures complete combustion of fuel that would fall
+through ordinary grates, and that would merely smoulder upon a hearth.
+The fire admits of easy regulation, the ashes may be removed and the
+fuel may be supplied without <i>checking the fire</i>. Not only broken peat,
+but coal dust, saw dust, wood turnings and the like may be burned on
+this grate. The figure represents it as adapted to a steam boiler.</p>
+
+<p>6.&mdash;<i>Hygroscopic water of peat fuel.</i></p>
+
+<p>The quantity of water retained by air-dried peat appears to be the same
+as exists in air-dried wood, viz., about 20 <i>per cent.</i> The proportion
+will vary however according to the time of seasoning. In thoroughly
+seasoned wood or peat, it may be but 15 <i>per cent.</i>; while in the poorly
+dried material it may amount to 25 or more <i>per cent.</i> When <i>hot-dried</i>,
+the proportion of water may be reduced to 10 <i>per cent.</i>, or less.</p>
+
+<p>When peat is still moist, it gathers water rapidly from damp air, and in
+this condition has been known to burst the sheds in which it was stored,
+but after becoming dry to the eye and feel, it is but little affected by
+dampness, no more so, it appears, than seasoned wood.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>7.&mdash;<i>Shrinkage.</i></p>
+
+<p>In estimating the value and cost of peat fuel, it must be remembered
+that peat shrinks greatly in drying, so that three to five cords of
+fresh peat yield but one cord of dry peat. When the fiber of the peat is
+broken by the hand, or by machinery, the shrinkage is often much
+greater, and may sometimes amount to seven-eighths of the original
+volume.&mdash;<i>Dingler's Journal, Oct. 1864</i>, <i>S.</i> 68.</p>
+
+<p>The difference in weight between fresh and dry peat is even greater.
+Fibrous peat, fresh from the bog, may contain ninety <i>per cent.</i> of
+water, of which seventy <i>per cent.</i> must evaporate before it can be
+called dry. The proportion of water in earthy or pitchy peat is indeed
+less; but the quantity is always large, so that from five to nine
+hundred weight of fresh peat must be lifted in order to make one hundred
+weight of dry fuel.</p>
+
+<p>8.&mdash;<i>Time of excavation, and drying.</i></p>
+
+<p>Peat which is intended to be used after simply drying, must be excavated
+so early in the season that it shall become dry before frosty weather
+arrives: because, if frozen when wet, its coherence is destroyed, and on
+thawing it falls to a powder useless for fuel.</p>
+
+<p>Peat must be dried with certain precautions. If a block of fresh peat be
+exposed to hot sunshine, it dries and shrinks on the surface much more
+rapidly than within: as a consequence it cracks, loses its coherence,
+and the block is easily broken, or of itself falls to pieces. In Europe,
+it is indeed customary to dry peat without shelter, the loss by too
+rapid drying not being greater than the expense of building and
+maintaining drying sheds. There however the sun is not as intense, nor
+the air nearly so dry, as it is here. Even there, the occurrence of an
+unusually hot summer, causes great loss. In our climate, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>some shelter
+would be commonly essential unless the peat be dug early in the spring,
+so as to lose the larger share of its water before the hot weather; or,
+as would be best of all, in the autumn late enough to escape the heat,
+but early enough to ensure such dryness as would prevent damage by
+frost. The peculiarities of climate must decide the time of excavating
+and the question of shelter.</p>
+
+<p>The point in drying peat is to make it lose its water gradually and
+regularly, so that the inside of each block shall dry nearly as fast as
+the outside.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the methods of hot-drying peat, will be subsequently noticed.</p>
+
+<p>Summer or fall digging would be always advantageous on account of the
+swamps being then most free from water. In Bavaria, peat is dug mostly
+in July and the first half of August.</p>
+
+<p>9.&mdash;<i>Drainage.</i></p>
+
+<p>When it is intended to raise peat fuel <i>in the form of blocks</i>, the bog
+should be drained no more rapidly than it is excavated. Peat, which is
+to be worth cutting in the spring, must be covered with water during the
+winter, else it is pulverized by the frost. So, too, it must be
+protected against drying away and losing its coherency in summer, by
+being kept sufficiently impregnated with water.</p>
+
+<p>In case an extensive bog is to be drained to facilitate the cutting out
+of the peat for use as fuel, the canals that carry off the water from
+the parts which are excavating, should be so constructed, that on the
+approach of cold weather, the remaining peat may be flooded again to the
+usual height.</p>
+
+<p>In most of the smaller swamps, systematic draining is unnecessary, the
+water drying away in summer enough to admit of easy working.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>In some methods of preparing or condensing peat by machinery, it is best
+or even needful to drain and air-dry the peat, preliminary to working.
+By draining, the peat settles, especially on the borders of the ditches,
+several inches, or even feet, according to its nature and depth. It thus
+becomes capable of bearing teams and machinery, and its density is very
+considerably augmented.</p>
+
+<p>10.&mdash;<i>The Cutting of Peat.</i>&mdash;a. <i>Preparations.</i></p>
+
+<p>In preparing to raise peat fuel from the bog, the surface material,
+which from the action of frost and sun has been pulverized to "muck," or
+which otherwise is full of roots and undecomposed matters, must be
+removed usually to the depth of 12 to 18 inches. It is only those
+portions of the peat which have never frozen nor become dry, and are
+free from coarse fibers of recent vegetation, that can be cut for fuel.</p>
+
+<p>Peat fuel must be brought into the form of blocks or masses of such size
+and shape as to adapt them to use in our common stoves and furnaces.
+Commonly, the peat is of such consistence in its native bed, that it may
+be cut out with a spade or appropriate tool into blocks having more or
+less coherence. Sometimes it is needful to take away the surplus water
+from the bog, and allow the peat to settle and drain a while before it
+can be cut to advantage.</p>
+
+<p>When a bog is to be opened, a deep ditch is run from an outlet or lowest
+point a short distance into the peat bed, and the working goes on from
+the banks of this ditch. It is important that system be followed in
+raising the peat, or there will be great waste of fuel and of labor.</p>
+
+<p>If, as often happens, the peat is so soft in the wet season as to break
+on the vertical walls of a ditch and fill it, at the same time
+dislocating the mass and spoiling it for cutting, it is best to carry
+down the ditch in terraces, making it wide above and narrow at the
+bottom.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>b. <i>Cutting by hand.</i></p>
+
+<div class="imgl" style="width: 20%;">
+<a href="images/imagep108.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep108.jpg" width="85%" alt="Fig. 2." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 2.&mdash;<span class="smcap">GERMAN PEAT-KNIFE.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The simplest mode of procedure, consists in laying off a "field" or plot
+of, say 20 feet square, and making vertical cuts with a sharp spade
+three or four inches deep from end to end in parallel lines, as far
+apart as it is proposed to make the breadth of the peats or sods,
+usually four to five inches. Then, the field is cut in a similar manner
+in lines at right angles to the first, and at a distance that shall be
+the length of the peats, say 18 to 20 inches. Finally, the workman lifts
+the peats by horizontal thrusts of his spade, made at a depth of three
+inches. The sods as lifted, are placed on a light barrow or upon a board
+or rack, and are carried off to a drying ground, near at hand, where
+they are laid down flatwise to drain and dry. In Ireland, it is the
+custom, after the peats have lain thus for a fortnight or so, to "foot"
+them, i. e. to place them on end close together; after further drying
+the "footing" is succeeded by "clamping," which is building the sods up
+into stacks of about twelve to fifteen feet long, four feet wide at
+bottom, narrowing to one foot at top, with a height of four to five
+feet. The outer turfs are inclined so as to shed the rain. The peat
+often remains in these clamps on the bog until wanted for use, though in
+rainy seasons the loss by crumbling is considerable.</p>
+
+<p>Other modes of lifting peat, require tools of particular
+construction.... In Germany it is common to excavate by <i>vertical</i>
+thrusts of the tool, the cutting part of which is represented above,
+fig. 2. This tool is pressed down into the peat to a depth corresponding
+to the thickness of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>the required block: its three edges cut as many
+sides of the block, and the bottom is then broken or torn out by a
+prying motion.</p>
+
+<p>In other cases, this or a similar tool is forced down by help of the
+foot as deeply into the peat as possible by a workman standing above,
+while a second man in the ditch cuts out the blocks of proper thickness
+by means of a sharp spade thrust horizontally. When the peats are taken
+out to the depth of the first vertical cutting, the knife is used again
+from above, and the process is thus continued as before, until the
+bottom of the peat or the desired depth is reached.</p>
+
+<p>In Ireland, is employed the "slane," a common form of which is shown in
+fig. 3, it being a long, narrow and sharp spade, 20 inches by six, with
+a wing at right angles to the blade.</p>
+
+<p>The peats are cut by one thrust of this instrument which is worked by
+the arms alone. After a vertical cut is made by a spade, in a line at
+right angles to a bank of peat, the slane cuts the bottom and other side
+of the block; while at the end the latter is simply lifted or broken
+away.</p>
+
+<p>Peat is most easily cut in a vertical direction, but when, as often
+happens, it is made up of layers, the sods are likely to break apart
+where these join. Horizontal cutting is therefore best for stratified
+peat.</p>
+
+<div class="img" style="clear: both;">
+<a href="images/imagep109.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep109.jpg" width="75%" alt="Fig. 3." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 3.&mdash;<span class="smcap">IRISH SLANE.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><i>System employed in East Friesland.</i>&mdash;In raising peat, great waste both
+of labor and of fuel may easily occur as the result of random and
+unsystematic methods of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>working. For this reason, the mode of cutting
+peat, followed in the extensive moors of East Friesland, is worthy of
+particular description. There, the business is pursued systematically on
+a plan, which, it is claimed, long experience<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> has developed to such
+perfection that the utmost economy of time and labor is attained. The
+cost of producing marketable peat in East Friesland in 1860, was one
+silver groschen=about 2-&frac12; cents, per hundred weight; while at that
+time, in Bavaria, the hundred weight cost three times as much when fit
+for market; and this, notwithstanding living and labor are much cheaper
+in the latter country.</p>
+
+<p>The method to be described, presupposes that the workmen are not
+hindered by water, which, in most cases, can be easily removed from the
+high-moors of the region. The peat is worked in long stretches of 10
+feet in width, and 100 to 1000 paces in length: each stretch or plot is
+excavated at once to a considerable depth and to its full width. Each
+successive year the excavation is widened by 10 feet, its length
+remaining the same. Sometimes, unusual demand leads to more rapid
+working; but the width of 10 feet is adhered to for each cutting, and,
+on account of the labor of carrying the peats, it is preferred to extend
+the length rather than the width.</p>
+
+<p>Assuming that the peat bed has been opened by a previous cutting, to the
+depth of 5-&frac12; feet, and the surface muck and light peat, 1-&frac12; feet
+thick, have been thrown into the excavation of the year before&mdash;a new
+plot is worked by five men as follows.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>One man, the "Bunker," removes from the surface, about two inches of
+peat, disintegrated by the winter's frost, throwing it into last year's
+ditch.</p>
+
+<p>Following him, come two "Diggers," of whom one stands on the surface of
+the peat, and with a heavy, long handled tool, cuts out the sides and
+end of the blocks, which are about seventeen by five inches; while the
+other stands in the ditch, and by horizontal thrusts of a light, sharp
+spade, removes the sods, each of five and a half inches thickness, and
+places them on a small board near by. Each block of peat has the
+dimensions of one fourth of a cubic foot, and weighs about 13 pounds.
+Two good workmen will raise 25 such peats, or 6-&frac14; cubic feet, per
+minute.</p>
+
+<p>A fourth man, the "Loader," puts the sods upon a wheel-barrow, always
+two rows of six each, one upon the other, and&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>A fifth, the "Wheeler," removes the load to the drying ground, and with
+some help from the Bunker, disposes them flatwise in rows of 16 sods
+wide, which run at right angles to the ditch, and, beginning at a little
+more than 10 feet from the latter, extend 50 feet.</p>
+
+<p>The space of 10 feet between the plot that is excavating, and the drying
+ground, is, at the same time, cleared of the useless surface muck by the
+Bunker, in preparation for the next year's work.</p>
+
+<p>With moderate activity, the five men will lift and lay out 12,000 sods
+(3000 cubic feet,) daily, and it is not uncommon that five first-rate
+hands get out 16,800 peats (4200 cubic feet,) in this time.</p>
+
+<p>A gang of five men, working as described, suffices for cutting out a bed
+of four feet of solid peat. When the excavation is to be made deeper, a
+sixth man, the "Hanker," is needful for economical work; and with his
+help the cutting may be extended down to nine and a half feet; i. e.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>through eight feet of solid peat. The cutting is carried down at first,
+four feet as before, but the peats are carried 50 feet further, in order
+to leave room for those to be subsequently lifted. The "Hanker" aids
+here, with a second wheel-barrow. In taking out the lower peat, the
+"Hanker" stands on the bottom of the first excavation, receives the
+blocks from the Diggers, on a broad wooden shovel, and hands them up to
+the Loader; while the Wheeler, having only the usual distance to carry
+them, lays them out in the drying rows without difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>After a little drying in the rows, the peats are gradually built up into
+narrow piles, like a brick wall of one and a half bricks thickness.
+These piles are usually raised by women. They are made in the spaces
+between the rows, and are laid up one course at a time, so that each
+block may dry considerably, before it is covered by another. A woman can
+lay up 12,000 peats daily&mdash;the number lifted by 5 men&mdash;and as it
+requires about a month of good weather to give each course time (two
+days) to dry, she is able to pile for 30 gangs of workmen. If the
+weather be very favorable, the peats may be stacked or put into sheds,
+in a few days after the piling is finished. Stacking is usually
+practised. The stacks are carefully laid up in cylindrical form, and
+contain 200 to 500 cubic feet. When the stacks are properly built, the
+peat suffers but little from the weather.</p>
+
+<p>According to Schr&oelig;der, from whose account (Dingler's Polytechnisches
+Journal, Bd. 156, S. 128) the above statements are derived, the peats
+excavated under his direction, in drying thoroughly, shrank to about
+one-fourth of their original bulk (became 12 inches x 3 inches x 3
+inches,) and to one-seventh or one-eighth of their original weight.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>c. <i>Machines for Cutting Peat.</i></p>
+
+<p>In North Prussia, the Peat Cutting Machine of Brosowsky, see fig. 4, is
+extensively employed. It consists of a cutter, made like the four sides
+of a box, but with oblique edges, <i>a</i>, which by its own weight, and by
+means of a crank and rack-work, operated by men, is forced down into the
+peat to a depth that may reach 20 feet. It can cut only at the edge of a
+ditch or excavation, and when it has penetrated sufficiently, a spade
+like blade, <i>d</i>, is driven under the cutter by means of levers <i>c</i>, and
+thus a mass is loosened, having a vertical length of 10 feet or more,
+and whose other dimensions are about 24 &times; 28 inches. This is lifted by
+reversing the crank motion, and is then cut up by the spade into blocks
+of 14 inches &times; 6 inches &times; 5 inches. Each parallelopipedon of peat, cut
+to a depth of 10 feet, makes 144 sods, and this number can be cut in
+less than 10 minutes. Four hands will cut and lay out to dry, 12,000 to
+14,000 peats daily, or 3100 cubic feet. One great advantage of this
+machine consists in the circumstance that it can be used to raise peat
+from below the surface of water, rendering drainage in many cases
+unnecessary. Independently of this, it appears to be highly labor
+saving, since 1300 machines were put to use in Mecklenburg and Pomerania
+in about 5 years from its introduction. The Mecklenburg moors are now
+traversed by canals, cut by this machine, which are used for the
+transportation of the peat to market.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<div class="img"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>
+<a href="images/imagep114.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep114.jpg" width="37%" alt="Fig. 4." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 4.&mdash;<span class="smcap">BROSOWSKY'S PEAT CUTTER.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Lepreux in Paris, has invented a similar but more complicated machine,
+which is said to be very effective in its operation. According to Herv&eacute;
+Mangon, this machine, when worked by two men, raises and cuts 40,000
+peats daily, of which seven make one cubic foot, equal to 5600
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>eet. The saving in expense by using this machine<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> is said to
+be 70 <i>per cent.</i>, when the peat to be raised is under water.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>11.&mdash;<i>The Dredging of Peat.</i></p>
+
+<p>When peat exists, not as a coherent more or less fibrous mass, but as a
+paste or mud, saturated with water, it cannot be raised and formed by
+the methods above described.</p>
+
+<p>In such cases the peat is dredged from the bottom of the bog by means of
+an iron scoop, like a pail with sharp upper edges, which is fastened to
+a long handle. The bottom is made of coarse sacking, so that the water
+may run off. Sometimes, a stout ring of iron with a bag attached, is
+employed in the same way. The fine peat is emptied from the dredge upon
+the ground, where it remains, until the water has been absorbed or has
+evaporated, so far as to leave the mass somewhat firm and plastic. In
+the mean time, a drying bed is prepared by smoothing, and, if needful,
+stamping a sufficient space of ground, and enclosing it in boards 14
+inches wide, set on edge. Into this bed the partially dried peat is
+thrown, and, as it cracks on the surface by drying, it is compressed by
+blows with a heavy mallet or flail, or by treading it with flat boards,
+attached to the feet, somewhat like snow shoes. By this treatment the
+mass is reduced to a continuous sheet of less than one-half its first
+thickness, and becomes so firm, that a man's step gives little
+impression in it. The boards are now removed, and it is cut into blocks
+by means of a very thin, sharp spade. Every other block being lifted out
+and placed crosswise upon those remaining, air is admitted to the whole
+and the drying goes on rapidly. This kind of peat is usually of
+excellent quality. In North Germany it is called "Baggertorf," i. e.
+mud-peat.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
+
+<p>Peat is sometimes dredged by machinery, as will be noticed hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>12.&mdash;<i>The Moulding of Peat.</i></p>
+
+<p>When black, earthy or pitchy peat cannot be cut, and is not so saturated
+with water as to make a mud; it is, after raking or picking out roots,
+etc., often worked into a paste by the hands or feet, with addition of
+water, until it can be formed into blocks which, by slow drying, acquire
+great firmness. In Ireland this product is termed "hand-peat." In
+Germany it is called "Formtorf," <i>i. e.</i> moulded peat, or "Backtorf,"
+<i>i. e.</i> baked peat.</p>
+
+<p>The shaping is sometimes accomplished by plastering the soft mass into
+wooden moulds, as in making bricks.</p>
+
+<p>13.&mdash;<i>Preparation of Peat Fuel by Machinery, etc.</i></p>
+
+<p>Within the last 15 years, numerous inventions have been made with a view
+to improving the quality of peat fuel, as well as to expedite its
+production. These inventions are directed to the following points, viz.:
+1. <i>Condensation</i> of the peat, so as bring more fuel into a given space,
+thus making it capable of giving out an intenser heat; at the same time
+increasing its hardness and toughness, and rendering it easier and more
+economical of transportation. 2. <i>Drying</i> by artificial heat or reducing
+the amount of water from 20 or 25 <i>per cent.</i> to half that quantity or
+less. This exalts the heating power in no inconsiderable degree. 3.
+<i>Charring.</i> Peat-charcoal is as much better than peat, for use where
+intense heat is required, as wood charcoal is better than wood. 4.
+<i>Purifying from useless matters.</i> Separation of earthy admixtures which
+are incombustible and hinder draught.</p>
+
+<p>A.&mdash;<i>Condensation by Pressure.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Pressing Wet Peat.</i>&mdash;The condensation of peat was first attempted by
+subjecting the fresh, wet material, to severe pressure. As long ago as
+the year 1821, Pernitzsch, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>in Saxony, prepared peat by this method, and
+shortly afterwards Lord Willoughby d'Eresby, in Scotland, and others,
+adopted the same principle. Simple pressure will, indeed, bring fresh
+peat at once into much smaller bulk; but, if the peat be fibrous and
+light, and for this reason require condensation, it is also elastic,
+and, when the pressure is relieved, it acquires again much of its
+original volume.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, although pressure will squeeze out much water from a
+saturated well-ripened peat, the complete drying of the pressed blocks
+usually requires as much or more time than that of the unpressed
+material, on account of the closeness of texture of the surface produced
+by the pressure.</p>
+
+<p>The advantages of subjecting fresh peat to pressure in the ordinary
+presses, it is found, are more than offset by the expense of the
+operation, and it is therefore unnecessary to give the subject further
+attention.</p>
+
+<p>Fresh peat appears however to have been advantageously pressed by other
+mechanical means. Two methods require notice.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mannhardt's Method</i>, invented about the year 1858, has been practically
+applied on the large scale at <i>Schleissheim</i>, Bavaria. Mannhardt's
+machine consists of two colossal iron rolls, each of 15 feet diameter,
+and 6-&frac12; feet length, geared into each other so as to revolve
+horizontally in opposite directions and with equal velocity. These rolls
+are hollow, their circumference consists of stout iron plate perforated
+with numerous small holes, and is supported by iron bars which connect
+the ends of the roll, having intervals between them of about one inch.
+Each roll is covered by an endless band of hair cloth, stretched over
+and kept in place by rollers. The rolls are operated by a steam engine
+of 12 horse power. The fresh peat is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>thrown into a hopper, and passing
+between the rolls, loses a considerable share of its water, issuing as a
+broad continuous sheet, which is divided into blocks by an arrangement
+presently to be described. The cloth, covering the rolls, must have
+great strength, sufficient porosity to allow water to pass it freely,
+and such closeness of texture as to retain the fine particles of peat.
+Many trials have led to the use of a fabric, specially made for the
+purpose, of goat's hair. The cloth for each pair of rolls, costs $160.</p>
+
+<p>The peat at Schleissheim is about 5 feet in depth, and consists of a
+dark-brown mud or paste, free from stones and sticks, and penetrated
+only by fine fibers. The peat is thrown up on the edge of a ditch, and
+after draining, is moved on a tram-way to the machine. It is there
+thrown upon a chain of buckets, which deliver it at the hopper above the
+rolls. The rolls revolve once in 7-1/3 minutes and at each revolution
+turn out a sheet of peat, which cuts into 528 blocks. Each block has,
+when moist, a length of about 12 inches, by 5 inches of width and 1-&frac14;
+inches of thickness, and weighs on the average 1-&frac12; lbs. The water that
+is pressed out of the peat, falls within the rolls and is conducted
+away; it is but slightly turbid from suspended particles. The band of
+pressed peat is divided in one direction as it is formed, by narrow
+slats which are secured horizontally to the press-cloth, at about 5
+inches distance from each other. The further division of the peat is
+accomplished by a series of six circular saws, under which the peat is
+carried as it is released from the rolls, by a system of endless cords
+strung over rollers. These cords run parallel until the peat passes the
+saws; thenceforth they radiate, so that the peat-blocks are separated
+somewhat from each other. They are carried on until they reach a roll,
+over which they are delivered upon drying lattices. The latter move
+regularly under the roll; the peats arrange themselves upon them
+edgewise, one leaning against <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>the other, so as to admit of free
+circulation of air. The lattices are loaded upon cars, and moved on a
+tram-way to the drying ground, where they are set up in frames.</p>
+
+<p>The peat-cake separates well from the press-cloths; but the pores of the
+latter become somewhat choked by fine particles that penetrate them.
+They are therefore washed at each revolution by passing before a pipe
+from which issue, against them, a number of jets of water under high
+pressure. The blocks, after leaving the machine, are soft, and require 5
+or 6 days to become air-dry. When dry they are dense and of good
+quality, but not better than the same raw material yields by simple
+moulding. The capacity of the rolls, which easily turn out 100,000 peats
+in 24 hours, greatly exceeds at present that of the drying arrangements,
+and for this reason the works are not, as yet, remunerative. The rolls
+are, in reality, a simple forming machine. The pressure they exert on
+the peat, is but inconsiderable, owing to its soft pasty character; and
+since the pair of rolls costs $8000 and can only be worked 3 to 4
+months, this method must be regarded rather as an ingenious and
+instructive essay in the art of making peat-fuel, than as a practical
+success. The persevering efforts of the inventor may yet overcome all
+difficulties and prove the complete efficacy of the method. It is
+especially important, that blocks of greater thickness should be
+produced, since those now made, pack together too closely in the fire.</p>
+
+<p><i>Neustadt Method.</i>&mdash;At Neustadt, in Hanover, a loose-textured fibrous
+peat was prepared for metallurgical use in 1860, by passing through iron
+rolls of ordinary construction. The peat was thereby reduced two-thirds
+in bulk, burned more regularly, gave a coherent coal, and withstood
+carriage better. The peat was, however, first cut into sods of regular
+size, and these were fed into the rollers by boys.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>b. <i>Pressing Air-dried Peat.</i></p>
+
+<p>Some kinds of peat, when in the air-dry and pulverized state, yield by
+great pressure very firm, excellent, and economical fuel.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lithuanian Process.</i>&mdash;In Lithuania, according to Leo,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> the following
+method is extensively adopted. The bog is drained, the surface moss or
+grass-turf and roots are removed, and then the peat is broken up by a
+simple spade-plow, in furrows 2 inches wide and 8 or 10 inches deep. The
+broken peat is repeatedly traversed with wooden harrows, and is thus
+pulverized and dried. When suitably dry, it is carried to a magazine,
+where it is rammed into moulds by a simple stamp of two hundred pounds
+weight. The broken peat is reduced to two-fifths its first bulk, and the
+blocks thus formed are so hard, as to admit of cutting with a saw or ax
+without fracture. They require no further drying, are of a deep-brown
+color, with lustrous surfaces, and their preparation may go on in winter
+with the stock of broken peat, which is accumulated in the favorable
+weather of summer. In this manufacture there is no waste of material.</p>
+
+<p>The peat is dry enough for pressing when, after forming in the hands to
+a ball, it will not firmly retain this shape, but on being let fall to
+the ground, breaks to powder. The entire cost of preparing 1000 peats
+for use, or market, was 2 Thalers, or $1.40. Thirty peats, or "stones"
+as they are called from their hardness, have the bulk of two cubic feet,
+and weigh 160 lbs. The cost of preparing a hundred weight, was
+therefore, (in 1859,) four Silver-groschen, or about 10 cents.</p>
+
+<p>The stamp is of simple construction, somewhat like a pile driver, the
+mould and face of the ram being made of cast iron. The above process is
+not applicable to <i>fibrous peat</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>c. <i>Pressing Hot-dried Peat.</i></p>
+
+<p>The two methods to be next described, are similar to the last mentioned,
+save that the peat is <i>hot-pressed</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>Gwynne's Method.</i>&mdash;In 1853, Gwynne of London, patented machinery and a
+method for condensing peat for fuel. His process consisted, first, in
+rapidly drying and pulverizing the fresh peat by a centrifugal machine,
+or by passing between rollers, and subsequent exposure to heat in
+revolving cylinders; and, second, in compressing the dry peat-powder in
+a powerful press at a high temperature, about 180&deg; F. By this heat it is
+claimed, that the peat is not only thoroughly dried, but is likewise
+partially decomposed; <i>bituminous matters being developed, which cement
+the particles to a hard dense mass</i>. Gwynne's machinery was expensive
+and complicated, and although an excellent fuel was produced, the
+process appears not to have been carried put on the large scale with
+pecuniary success.</p>
+
+<p>A specimen of so-called "Peat coal" in the author's possession, made in
+Massachusetts some years ago, under Gwynne's patent, appears to consist
+of pulverized peat, prepared as above described; but contains an
+admixture of rosin. It must have been an excellent fuel, but could not
+at that time compete with coal in this country.</p>
+
+<p><i>Exter's Method.</i><a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p>
+
+<div class="imgl" style="width: 40%;">
+<a href="images/imagep122a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep122a.jpg" width="75%" alt="Fig. 5." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 5.&mdash;<span class="smcap">EXTER'S DRYING OVEN.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In 1856, Exter, of Bavaria, carried into operation on an extensive
+scale, a plan of preparing peat-fuel in some respects not unlike the
+last mentioned method. Exter's works, belonging to the Bavarian
+Government, are on the Haspelmoor, situated between Augsburg and Munich.
+According to Ruehlmann, who examined them at the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>command of the
+Hanoverian Government in 1857, the method is as follows:&mdash;1. The bog is
+laid dry by drains and the surface is cleared of bushes, roots, and
+grass-turf, down to good peat. 2. The peat is broken up superficially to
+the depth of about one inch, by a gang of three plows, propelled by a
+portable steam engine. 3. The peat is further pulverized by a harrow,
+drawn by a yoke of oxen. 4. In two or three days after harrowing, the
+peat is turned by an implement like our cultivator, this process being
+repeated at suitable intervals. 5. The fine and air-dry peat is gathered
+together by scrapers, and loaded into wagons; then drawn by rope
+connected with the engine, to the press or magazine. 6. If needful, the
+peat, thus collected, is further pulverized by passing it through
+toothed rollers. 7. The fine peat is now introduced into a complicated
+drying oven, see figures 5 and 6. It falls through the opening <i>T</i>, and
+is moved by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>means of the spirals along the horizontal floors <i>O</i>, <i>O</i>,
+falling from one to another until it emerges at <i>Q</i>. The floors, <i>O</i>,
+<i>O</i>, are made by wide and thin iron chambers, through which passes waste
+steam from an engine. The oven is heated further by hot air, which
+circulates through the canals <i>K</i>, <i>K</i>. The peat occupies about one hour
+in its passage through the oven and falls from <i>Q</i>, into the press,
+having a temperature of from 120&deg; to 140&deg;Fahrenheit. The press employed
+at Staltach is essentially the same as that now used at the Kolbermoor,
+and figured on p. 125. It is a powerful eccentric of simple
+construction, and turns out continuously 40 finished peats per minute.
+These occupy about one-fourth the space of the peat before pressing, the
+cubic foot weighing about 72 lbs. The peats are 7 inches long, 3 inches
+wide, and one half to three quarters of an inch thick, each weighing
+three quarters of a pound. Three presses furnish annually 180,000 cwt.
+of condensed peat, which is used exclusively for firing locomotives. Its
+specific gravity is 1.14, and its quality as fuel is excellent.
+Ruehlmann estimated its cost, at Haspelmoor in 1857, at 8-&frac12; Kreuzers,
+or a little more than 6 cents per cwt., and calculated that by adopting
+certain obvious improvements, and substituting steam power for the labor
+of men and cattle, the cost might be reduced to 6-&frac12; Kreuzers, or a
+little more than 4 cents per cwt.</p>
+
+<div class="imgr" style="width: 40%;">
+<a href="images/imagep122b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep122b.jpg" width="75%" alt="Fig. 6." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 6.&mdash;<span class="smcap">EXTER'S DRYING OVEN.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Exter's method has been adopted with some modifications at Kolbermoor,
+near Munich, in Bavaria, at Miskolz, in Hungary, and also at the
+Neustadt Smelting Works, in Hanover. At the latter place, however, it
+appears to have been abandoned for the reasons that it could be applied
+only to the better kinds of peat; and the expense was there so great,
+that the finished article could not compete with other fuel in the
+Hanoverian markets.</p>
+
+<p>Details of the mechanical arrangements at present employed on the
+Kolbermoor, are as follows: After the bog <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>is drained, and the surface
+cleared of dwarf pines, etc., and suitably leveled, the peat is plowed
+by steam. This is accomplished in a way which the annexed cut serves to
+illustrate. The plot to be plowed, is traversed through the middle by
+the railway <i>x</i>, <i>y</i>. A locomotive <i>a</i>, sets in motion an endless
+wire-rope, which moves upon large horizontal pulleys <i>o</i>, <i>o</i>, stationed
+at either border of the land. Four gang plows <i>b</i>, <i>b</i>, are attached to
+the rope, and as the latter is set in motion, they break up the strip of
+peat they pass over, completely. The locomotive and the pulleys are then
+moved back, and the process is repeated until the whole field has been
+plowed. The plows are square frames, carrying six to eight shares and as
+many coulters.</p>
+
+<div class="img" style="clear: both;">
+<a href="images/imagep124.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep124.jpg" width="55%" alt="Fig. 7" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 7</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The press employed at Kolbermoor, is shown in figs. 8 and 9. The hot
+peat falls into the hopper, <i>b</i>, <i>c</i>. The plunger <i>d</i>, worked in the
+cavity <i>e</i>, by an eccentric, allows the latter to fill with peat as it
+is withdrawn, and by its advance compresses it into a block. The blocks
+<i>m</i>, once formed, by their friction in the channel <i>e</i>, oppose enough
+resistance to the peat to effect its compression. In order to regulate
+this resistance according to the varying quality of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>peat, the piece
+of metal <i>g</i>, which hangs on a pivot at <i>o</i>, is depressed or raised, by
+the screw <i>i</i>, so as to contract or enlarge the channel. At each stroke
+of the plunger a block is formed, and when the channel <i>e</i> is once
+filled, the peats fall continuously from its extremity. Their dimensions
+are 7 inches long, 3-&frac12; wide, and 1-&frac12; thick.</p>
+
+<div class="img">
+<a href="images/imagep125a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep125a.jpg" width="55%" alt="Fig. 8." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 8.&mdash;<span class="smcap">EXTER'S PEAT PRESS.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Several presses are worked by the same engine at the Kolbermoor, each of
+which turns out daily 200 to 300 cwt. of peats, which, in 1863, were
+sold at 24 Kreuzers (16 cents), per cwt.</p>
+
+<div class="imgr" style="width: 30%;">
+<a href="images/imagep125b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep125b.jpg" width="95%" alt="Fig. 9." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 9.&mdash;<span class="smcap">EXTER'S PEAT PRESS.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>C. Hodgson has patented in Great Britain a compressing-ram similar to
+Exter's, and works were put up at Derrylea, in Ireland, some years ago,
+in which Exter's process of manufacturing peat fuel appears to have been
+adopted.</p>
+
+<p><i>Elsberg's Process.</i></p>
+
+<p>Dr. Louis Elsberg, of New York City, has invented a modification of
+Exter's method, which appears to be of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>great importance. His
+experimental machine, which is in operation near Belleville, N. J.,
+consists of a cylindrical pug-mill, in which the peat, air-dried as in
+Exter's method, is further broken, and at the same time is subjected to
+a current of steam admitted through a pipe and jacket surrounding the
+cylinder. The steamed peat is then condensed by a pair of presses
+similar to that just described, which are fed directly from the mill. In
+this way the complicated drying oven of Exter is dispensed with. Elsberg
+&amp; Co. are still engaged in perfecting their arrangements. Some samples
+of their making are of very excellent quality, having a density of 1.2
+to 1.3.</p>
+
+<p>The pressing of air-dry peat only succeeds when it is made warm, and is,
+at the same time, moist. In Exter's original process the peat is
+considerably dried in the ovens, but on leaving them, is so moist as to
+bedew the hand that is immersed in it. It is, in fact, steamed by the
+vaporization of its own water. In Elsberg's process, the air-dry peat is
+not further desiccated, but is made moist and warm by the admission of
+hot steam. The latter method is the more ready and doubtless the more
+economical of the two. Whether the former gives a dryer product or not,
+the author cannot decide. Elsberg's peat occurs in cylindrical cakes 2
+inches broad, and one inch in thickness. The cakes are somewhat cracked
+upon the edges, as if by contraction, in drying. When wet, the surface
+of the cakes swells up, and exfoliates as far as the water has
+penetrated. In the fire, a similar breaking away of the surface takes
+place, and when coked, the coal is but moderately coherent.</p>
+
+<p>The reasons why steamed peat admits of solidification by pressure, are
+simply that the air, ordinarily adhering to the fibres and particles, is
+removed, and the fibres themselves become softened and more plastic, so
+that pressure brings them into intimate contact. The idea that the heat
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>develops bituminous matters, or fuses the resins which exist in peat,
+and that these cement the particles, does not harmonize with the fact
+that the peat, thus condensed, flakes to pieces by a short immersion in
+water.</p>
+
+<p>The great advantage of Exter's and Elsberg's method consists in avoiding
+what most of the others require, viz.: the expensive transportation and
+handling of fresh peat, which contains 80 to 90 <i>per cent.</i> of water,
+and the rapid removal of this excess of water before the manufacture. In
+the other methods the surplus water must be slowly removed during or
+after condensation.</p>
+
+<p>Again, enough peat may be air-dried and stored during summer weather, to
+supply a machine with work during the whole year.</p>
+
+<p>Its disadvantages are, that it requires a large outlay of capital and
+great expenditure of mechanical force. Its product is, moreover, not
+adapted for coking.</p>
+
+
+<p>B.&mdash;<i>Condensation without Pressure.</i></p>
+
+<p>The methods of condensing peat, that remain to be described, are based
+upon radically different principles from those already noticed. In
+these, little or no pressure is employed in the operations; but
+advantage is taken of the important fact that when wet or moist peat is
+ground, cut or in any way reduced to a pulpy or pasty consistence, with
+destruction of the elastic fibres, it will, on drying, shrink together
+to a coherent mass, that may acquire a density and toughness much
+greater than it is possible to obtain by any amount of mere pressure.</p>
+
+<p>The various processes that remain to notice are essentially reducible to
+two types, of which the French method, invented by Challeton, and the
+German, invented it appears by Weber, are the original representatives.
+The former method is only applicable to earthy, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>well-decomposed peat,
+containing little fibre. The latter was originally applied to fibrous
+moss-peat, but has since been adapted to all kinds. Other inventors,
+English, German, and American, have modified these methods in their
+details, or in the construction of the requisite machinery, rendering
+them more perfect in their execution and perhaps more profitable in
+their results; but, as regards the essential principles of production,
+or the quality of product, no advance appears to have been made beyond
+the original inventors.</p>
+
+<p>a. <i>Condensation of Earthy Peat.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Challeton's Method</i> consists essentially in destroying the fibres, and
+reducing the peat by cutting and grinding with water to a pulp; then
+slowly removing the liquid, until the peat dries away to a hard coherent
+mass. It provides also for the purification of the peat from earthy
+matters. It is, in many respects, an imitation of the old Dutch and
+Irish mode of making "hand peat" (<i>Baggertorf</i>), and is very like the
+paper manufacture in its operations. Challeton's Works, situated near
+Paris, at Mennecy, near Montanges, were visited in 1856 by a Commission
+of the Agricultural Society of Holstein, consisting of Drs. Meyn and
+Luetkens, and also by Dr. Ruehlmann, in the interest of the Hanoverian
+Government. From their account<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> the following statements are derived.</p>
+
+<p>The peat at Mennecy comes from the decay of grasses, is black, well
+decomposed, and occasionally intermingled with shells and sand. The moor
+is traversed by canals, which serve for the transport of the excavated
+peat in boats. The peat, when brought to the manufactory, is emptied
+into a cistern, which, by communicating with the adjacent canal,
+maintains a constant level of water. From <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>this cistern the peat is
+carried up by a chain of buckets and emptied into a hopper, where it is
+caught by toothed cylinders in rapid revolution, and cut or torn to
+pieces. Thence it passes into a chamber where the fine parts are
+separated from unbroken roots and fibres by revolving brushes, which
+force the former through small holes in the walls of the chamber, while
+the latter are swept out through a larger passage. The pulverized peat
+finally falls into a cistern, in which it is agitated by revolving arms.
+A stream of water constantly enters this vessel from beneath, while a
+chain of buckets as rapidly carries off the peat pulp. All sand, shells,
+and other heavy matters, remain at the bottom of this cistern.</p>
+
+<p>The peat pulp, thus purified, flows through wooden troughs into a series
+of basins, in which the peat is formed and dried. These basins are made
+upon the ground by putting up a square frame (of boards on edge,) about
+one foot deep, and placing at the bottom old matting or a layer of flags
+or reeds. Each basin is about a rod square, and 800 of them are
+employed. They are filled with the peat pulp to the top. In a few days
+the water either filters away into the ground, or evaporates, so that a
+soft stratum of peat, about 3 inches in thickness, remains. Before it
+begins to crack from drying, it is divided into blocks, by pressing into
+it a light trellis-like framework, having thin partitions that serve to
+indent the peat in lines corresponding to the intended divisions. On
+further drying, the mass separates into blocks at the lines thus
+impressed, and in a few days, they are ready to remove and arrange for
+further desiccation.</p>
+
+<p>The finished peats from Challeton's works, as well as those made by the
+same method near Neuchatel, Switzerland, by the Messrs. Roy, were of
+excellent quality, and in the opinion of the Commission from Holstein,
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>method is admirably adapted for the purification and concentration
+of the heavy kinds of peat.</p>
+
+<p>In Holstein, a French company constructed, and in 1857 worked
+successfully a portable machine for preparing peat on this plan, but
+were shortly restrained by legal proceedings. Of their later operations
+we have no information.</p>
+
+<p>No data are at hand regarding the cost of producing fuel by Challeton's
+machinery. It is believed, however, that his own works were
+unremunerative, and several manufactories on his pattern, erected in
+Germany, have likewise proved unprofitable. The principle is, however, a
+good one, though his machinery is only applicable to earthy or pitchy,
+and not to very fibrous peat. It has been elsewhere applied with
+satisfactory results.</p>
+
+<p><i>Simplified machinery</i> for applying Challeton's method is in operation
+at Langenberg, near Stettin, in Prussia.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> The moss-meadows along the
+river Oder, near which Langenberg is situated, are but a foot or so
+higher at the surface than the medium level of this river, and are
+subject to frequent and sudden inundations, so that draining and partial
+drying of the peat are out of the question. The character of the peat is
+unadapted to cutting by hand, since portions of it are pitchy and
+crumble too easily to form good sods; and others, usually the lower
+layers, at a depth of seven feet or more, are made up to a considerable
+extent of quite firm reeds and flags, having the consistence of half
+decayed straw. The earthy peat is manufactured after Challeton's method.
+It is raised with a steam dredger of 20 horse power, and emptied into
+flat boats, seven in number, which are drawn to the works by an endless
+rope operated by horse power. The works themselves are situated on a
+small sand hill in the middle of the moor, and communicate by canal with
+the dredger and with the drying <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>ground. A chain of buckets, working in
+a frame 45 feet long, attached by a horizontal hinge to the top of the
+machine house, reaches over the dock where the boats haul up, into the
+rear end of the latter; and, as the buckets begin to raise the peat, the
+boat itself is moved under the frame towards the house, until, with a
+man's assistance, its entire load is taken up. The contents of one boat
+are six square yards, with a depth of one foot, and a boat is emptied in
+20 minutes time. Forty to forty-four boatloads are thus passed into the
+pulverizing machine daily, by two chains of buckets.</p>
+
+<p>The peat-mud falls from the buckets into a large wooden trough, which
+branches into two channels, conducting to two large tubs standing side
+by side. These tubs are 10 feet in diameter and 2 feet deep, and are
+made of 2-inch plank. Within each tub is placed concentrically a
+cylindrical sieve, or colander, 8 feet in diameter and 2 feet high, made
+of 3/8 round iron, and it is within this that the peat is emptied. The
+peat is stirred and forced through the meshes of the sieve by four arms
+of a shaft that revolves 20 times per minute, the arms carrying at their
+extremities stiff vertical brooms, which rub the inside of the sieve.</p>
+
+<p>In these four tubs the peat is pulverized under addition of water; the
+fine parts pass the sieves, while the latter retain the coarse fibres,
+roots, etc. The peat-mud flows from the tubs into mills, made like a
+flour mill, but the "stones" constructed of hard wood. The "stones" have
+a diameter of 8 feet 6 inches; the lower is 8 inches; the upper 21
+inches thick. The pressure of the upper "stone" is regulated by
+adjusting the level of the discharging channel, so that the "stone" may
+be more or less buoyed, or even fully floated by the water with which it
+is surrounded.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>The peat-substance, which is thus finely ground, gathers from the four
+mills into a common reservoir whence it is lifted by a centrifugal pump
+into a trough, which distributes it over the drying ground.</p>
+
+<p>The drying ground consists of the surface formed by grading the sand
+hill, on which the works are built, and includes about 30 English acres.
+This is divided into small plots, each of which is enclosed on three
+sides with a wall of earth, and on the fourth side by boards set on
+edge. Each plot is surrounded by a ditch to carry off water, and by
+means of portable troughs, the peat is let on from the main channel. The
+peat-slime is run into these beds to the depth of 20 to 22 inches, an
+acre being covered daily. After 4 to 8 days, according to the weather,
+the peat has lost so much water, which, rapidly soaks off through the
+sand, that its surface begins to crack. It is then thoroughly trodden by
+men, shod with boards 5 inches by 10 inches, and after 6 to 8 days more,
+it is cut with sharp spades into sods. The peats are dried in the usual
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>The works at Langenberg yielded, in 1863, as the result of the
+operations of 60 days of 12 hours each, 125,000 cwt. of marketable peat.
+It is chiefly employed for metallurgical purposes, and sells at 3-1/3
+Silver-groschen, or nearly 8 cents per cwt. The specific gravity of the
+peat ranges from 0.73 to 0.90.</p>
+
+
+<p><i>Roberts' Process.</i></p>
+
+<p>In this country attempts have been made to apply Challeton's method. In
+1865, Mr. S. Roberts, of Pekin, N. Y., erected machinery at that place,
+which was described in the "Buffalo Express," of Nov. 17, 1865, as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"In outward form, the machine was like a small frame house on wheels,
+supposing the smoke-stack to be a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>chimney. The engine and boiler are of
+locomotive style; the engine being of thirteen horse power. The
+principal features of the machine are a revolving elevator and a
+conveyer. The elevator is seventy-five feet long, and runs from the top
+of the machine to the ground, where the peat is dug up, placed on the
+elevator, carried to the top of the machine, and dropped into a
+revolving wheel that cuts it up; separates from it all the coarse
+particles, bits of sticks, stones, etc.; and throws them to one side.
+The peat is next dropped into a box below, where water is passed in,
+sufficient to bring it to the consistency of mortar. By means of a slide
+under the control of the engineer, it is next sent to the rear of the
+machine, where the conveyer, one hundred feet long, takes it, and
+carries it within two rods of the end; at which point the peat begins to
+drop through to the ground to the depth of about four or five inches.
+When sufficient has passed through to cover the ground to the end of the
+conveyer,&mdash;two rods,&mdash;the conveyer is swung around about two feet, and
+the same process gone through, as fast as the ground under the elevator,
+for the distance of two rods in length and two feet in width gets
+covered, the elevator being moved. At each swing of the elevator, the
+peat just spread is cut into blocks (soft ones, however) by knives
+attached to the elevator. It generally takes from three to four weeks
+before it is ready for use. It has to lie a week before it is touched,
+after the knives pass through it; when it is turned over, and allowed to
+lie another week. It has then to be taken up, and put in a shed, and
+within a week or ten days can be used, although it is better to let it
+remain a little longer time. The machine can spread the peat over
+eighteen square rods of ground&mdash;taking out one square rod of
+peat&mdash;without being moved. After the eighteen rods are covered, the
+machine is moved two rods ahead, enabling it to again spread a
+semicircular <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>space of some thirty-two feet in width by eighteen rods in
+length. The same power, which drives the engine, moves the machine. It
+is estimated by Mr. Roberts, that, by the use of this machine, from
+twenty to thirty tons of peat can be turned out in a day."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Roberts informs us that he is making (April 1866,) some
+modifications of his machinery. He employs a revolving digger to take up
+the peat from the bed, and carry it to the machine. At the time of going
+to press, we do not learn whether he regards his experiments as leading
+to a satisfactory conclusion, or otherwise.</p>
+
+
+<p><i>Siemens' method.</i></p>
+
+<p>Siemens, Professor of Technology, in the Agricultural Academy, at
+Hohenheim, successfully applied the following mode of preparing peat for
+the Beet Sugar Manufactory at B&oelig;blingen, near Hohenheim, in the year
+1857. Much of the peat there is simply cut and dried in the usual
+manner. There is great waste, however, in this process, owing to the
+frequent occurrence of shells and clay, which destroy the coherence of
+the peat. Besides, a large quantity of material accumulates in the
+colder months, from the ditches which are then dug, that cannot be
+worked in the usual manner at that time of the year. It was to economize
+this otherwise useless material that the following process was devised,
+after a failure to employ Challeton's method with profit.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, the peat was dumped into a boarded cistern, where it
+was soaked and worked with water, until it could be raised by a chain of
+buckets into the pulverizer.</p>
+
+<p>The pulverization of the peat was next effected by passing it through a
+machine invented by Siemens, for pulping potatoes and beets. This
+machine, (the same we suppose <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>as that described and figured in Otto's
+Landwirthschaftliche Gewerbe), perfectly breaks up and grates the peat
+to a fine pulp, delivers it in the consistency of mortar into the
+moulds, made of wooden frames, with divisions to form the peats. The
+peat-paste is plastered by hand into these moulds, which are immediately
+emptied to fill again, while the blocks are carried away to the drying
+ground where they are cured in the ordinary style without cover.</p>
+
+<p>In this simple manner 8 men were able to make 10,000 peats daily, which,
+on drying, were considerably denser and harder than the cut peat.</p>
+
+<p>The peat thus prepared, cost about one-third more than the cut peat.
+Siemens reckoned, this greater cost would be covered by its better
+heating effect, and its ability to withstand transportation without
+waste by crumbling.</p>
+
+<p>b. <i>Condensation of fibrous peat.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Weber's method.</i></p>
+
+<p>At Staltach, in Southern Bavaria, Weber has established an extensive
+peat works, of which Vogel has given a circumstantial account.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> The
+peat at Staltach is very light and fibrous, but remarkably free from
+mineral matters, containing less than 2 <i>per cent.</i> of ash in the
+perfectly dry substance. The moor is large, (475 acres), and the peat is
+from 12 to 20 feet in depth. The preparation consists in converting the
+fresh peat into pulp or paste, forming it into moulds and drying it; at
+first by exposure to the air at ordinary temperature, and finally, by
+artificial heat, in a drying house constructed for the purpose.</p>
+
+<p>The peat is cut out by a gang of men, in large masses, cleared of coarse
+roots and sticks, and pushed on tram <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>wagons to the works, which, are
+situated lower than the surface of the bog. Arrived at the works, the
+peat is carried upon an inclined endless apron, up to a platform 10 feet
+high, where a workman pushes it into the pulverizing mill, the
+construction of which is seen from the accompanying cut. The vertical
+shaft <i>b</i> is armed with sickle-shaped knives, <i>d</i>, which revolve between
+and cut contrary to similar knives <i>c</i>, fixed to the interior of the
+vessel. The latter is made of iron, is 3-&frac12; feet high, 2 feet across at
+top and 1-&frac12; feet wide at the bottom. From the base of the machine at
+<i>g</i>, the perfectly pulverized or minced peat issues as a stiff paste. If
+the peat is dry, a little water is added. Vogel found the fresh peat to
+contain 90 <i>per cent.</i>, of water, the pulp 92 <i>per cent.</i> Weber's
+machine, operated by an engine of 10 horse power, working usually to
+half its capacity only, reduced 400 cubic feet of peat per hour, to the
+proper consistency for moulding.</p>
+
+<div class="img">
+<a href="images/imagep136.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep136.jpg" width="55%" alt="Fig. 10." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 10.&mdash;<span class="smcap">WEBER'S PEAT MILL.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Three modes of forming the paste into blocks have been practiced. One
+was in imitation of that employed with mud-peat. The paste was carried
+by railway to sheds, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>where it was filled by hand into moulds 17 inches
+by 7-&frac14; by 5-&frac14; inches, and put upon frames to dry. These sheds
+occupied together 52,000 square feet, and contained at once 200,000
+peats. The peats remained here 8 to 14 days or more, according to the
+weather, when they were either removed to the drying house, or piled in
+large stacks to dry slowly out-of-doors. The sheds could be filled and
+emptied at least 12 times each season, and since they protected from
+light frosts, the season began in April and lasted until November.</p>
+
+<p>The second mode of forming the peat was to run off the pulp into large
+and deep pits, excavated in the ground, and provided with drains for
+carrying off water. The water soaked away into the soil, and in a few
+weeks of good weather, the peat was stiff enough to cut out into blocks
+by the spade, having lost 20 to 25 <i>per cent.</i> of its water, and 15 <i>per
+cent.</i> of its bulk. The blocks were removed to the drying sheds, and set
+upon edge in the spaces left by the shrinking of the peats made by the
+other method. The working of the peat for the pits could go on, except
+in the coldest weather, as a slight covering usually sufficed to protect
+them from frost.</p>
+
+<p>Both of these methods have been given up as too expensive, and are
+replaced, at present, by the following:</p>
+
+<p>In the third method the peat-mass falls from the mill into a hopper,
+which directs it between the rolls <i>A B</i> of fig. 11, (see next page).
+The roll <i>A</i> has a series of boxes on its periphery <i>m m</i>, with movable
+bottoms which serve as moulds. The peat is carried into these boxes by
+the rolls <i>c c</i>. The iron projections <i>n n</i> of the large roll <i>B</i>, which
+work cog-like into the boxes, compress the peat gently and, at last, the
+eccentric p acting upon the pin <i>z</i>, forces up the movable bottom of the
+box and throws out the peat-block upon an endless band of cloth, which
+carries it to the drying place.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>The peats which are dried at first under cover and therefore slowly,
+shrink more evenly and to a greater extent than those which are allowed
+to dry rapidly. The latter become cracked upon the surface and have
+cavities internally, which the former do not. This fact is of great
+importance for the density of the peat, for its usefulness in producing
+intense heat, and its power to withstand carriage.</p>
+
+<div class="img">
+<a href="images/imagep138.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep138.jpg" width="40%" alt="Fig. 11" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 11&mdash;<span class="smcap">WEBER'S PEAT MOULDING MACHINE.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The <i>complete drying</i> is, on the other hand, by this method, a much
+slower process, since the dense, fissureless exterior of the peats
+hinders the escape of water from within. It requires, in fact, several
+months of ordinary drying for the removal of the greater share of the
+water, and at the expiration of this time they are still often moist in
+the interior.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>Artificial drying is therefore employed to produce the most compact,
+driest, and best fuel.</p>
+
+<p>Weber's <i>Drying house</i> is 120 feet long and 46 feet wide. Four large
+flues traverse the whole length of it, and are heated with the pine
+roots and stumps which abound in the moor. These flues are enclosed in
+brick-work, leaving a narrow space for the passage of air from without,
+which is heated by the flues, and is discharged at various openings in
+the brick-work into the house itself, where the peat is arranged on
+frames. The warm air being light, ascends through the peat, charges
+itself with moisture, thereby becomes heavier and falls to the floor,
+whence it is drawn off by flues of sheet zinc that pass up through the
+roof. This house holds at once 300,000 peats, which are heated to 130&deg;
+to 145&deg; F., and require 10 to 14 days for drying.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of the hot air upon the peat is, in the first place, to
+soften and cause it to swell; it, however, shortly begins to shrink
+again and dries away to masses of great solidity. It becomes almost
+horny in its character, can be broken only by a heavy blow, and endures
+the roughest handling without detriment. Its quality as fuel is
+correspondingly excellent.</p>
+
+<p>The effects of the mechanical treatment and drying on the Staltach peat,
+are seen from the subjoined figures:</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="80%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png139">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="53%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="15%"><i>Specific Gravity.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="15%"><i>Lbs. per Cubic Foot.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="17%"><i>Per cent. of Water.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Peat, raised and dried in usual way,</td>
+  <td class="tdc">0.24</td>
+  <td class="tdc">15</td>
+  <td class="tdc">18 to 20</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Machine-worked and hot-dried</td>
+  <td class="tdc">0.65</td>
+  <td class="tdc">35</td>
+  <td class="tdc">12</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>Vogel estimates the cost of peat made by Weber's method at 5 Kreuzers
+per (Bavarian) hundred weight, while that of ordinary peat is 13-&frac12;
+Kreuzers. Schr&oelig;der, in his comparison of machine-wrought and ordinary
+peat, demonstrates that the latter can be produced much cheaper than was
+customary in Bavaria, in 1859, by a better system of labor.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>Weber's method was adopted with some improvements in an extensive works
+built in 1860, by the Government of Baden, at Willaringen, for the
+purpose of raising as much fuel as possible, during the course of a
+lease that expired with the year 1865.</p>
+
+<div class="img">
+<a href="images/imagep140.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep140.jpg" width="50%" alt="Fig. 12." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 12.&mdash;<span class="smcap">GEYSSER'S PEAT MACHINE.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><i>Gysser's method.</i><a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a>&mdash;Rudolph Gysser, of Freiburg, who was charged
+with the erection of the works at Willaringen just alluded to, invented
+a portable hand-machine on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>the general plan of Weber, but with
+important improvements; and likewise omitted and varied some details of
+the manufacture, bringing it within the reach of parties of small means.</p>
+
+<p>In the accompanying cuts, (figs. 12, 13, and 14), are given an elevation
+of Gysser's machine, together with a bird's-eye view and vertical
+section of the interior mechanism.</p>
+
+<div class="img">
+<a href="images/imagep141.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep141.jpg" width="55%" alt="Fig. 13." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 13. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Fig. 14.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="imgl" style="width: 25%;">
+<a href="images/imagep142a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep142a.jpg" width="95%" alt="Fig. 15." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 15.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It consists of a cast iron funnel <i>c d i</i> of the elevation, (fig. 12),
+having above a sheet iron hopper <i>a b</i> to receive the peat, and within a
+series of six knives fastened in a spiral, and curving outwards and
+downwards, (figs. 13 and 14); another series of three similar knives is
+affixed to a vertical shaft, which is geared to a crank and turned by a
+man standing on the platform <i>j k</i>; these revolving knives curve upwards
+and cut between and in a direction contrary to the fixed knives; below
+the knives, and affixed to the shaft a spiral plate of iron and a
+scraper <i>m</i>, (fig. 13), serve to force the peat, which has been at once
+minced and carried downwards by the knives, as a somewhat compressed
+mass through the lateral opening at the bottom of the funnel, whence it
+issues as a continuous hollow <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>cylinder like drain-tile, having a
+diameter of four inches. The iron cone <i>i</i>, held in the axis of the
+opening by the thin and sharp-edged support <i>g h</i>, forms the bore of the
+tube of peat as it issues. Two men operate the machine; one turning the
+crank, which, by suitable gearing, works the shaft, and the other
+digging and throwing in the peat. The mass, as it issues from the
+machine, is received by two boys alternately, who hold below the opening
+a semi-cylindrical tin-plate shovel, (fig. 15), of the width and length
+of the required peats, and break or rather wipe them off, when they
+reach the length of 14 inches.</p>
+
+<div class="imgr" style="width: 35%;">
+<a href="images/imagep142b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep142b.jpg" width="95%" alt="Fig. 16." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 16.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The formed peats are dried in light, cheap and portable houses, Fig. 17,
+each of which consists of six rectangular frames supported one above
+another, and covered by a light roof. The frames, Fig. 16, have square
+posts at each corner like a bedstead, and are made by nailing light
+strips to these posts. The tops of these posts are obtusely beveled to
+an edge, and at the bottom they are notched to correspond. The direction
+of the edges and of the notches in two diagonally opposite posts, is at
+right angles to that of the other two. By this construction the frames,
+being of the same size, when placed above each other, fit together by
+the edges and notches of their posts into a structure that cannot be
+readily overturned. The upper frame has a light shingled roof, which
+completes the house. Each frame has transverse slats, cast in plaster of
+Paris, 20 in number, which support the peats. The latter being tubular,
+dry more readily, uniformly, and to a denser consistence than they could
+otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>The machine being readily set up where the peat is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>excavated, the labor
+of transporting the fresh and water-soaked material is greatly reduced.
+The drying-frames are built up into houses as fast as they are filled
+from the machine. They can be set up anywhere without difficulty,
+require no leveling of the ground, and, once filled, no labor in turning
+or stacking the peats is necessary; while the latter are insured against
+damage from rain. These advantages, Gysser claims, more than cover their
+cost.</p>
+
+<div class="img" style="clear: both;">
+<a href="images/imagep143.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep143.jpg" width="45%" alt="Fig. 17." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 17.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The daily production of a machine operated by two men with the
+assistance of one or two boys, is 2500 to 3000 peats, which, on drying,
+have 9-&frac12; to 10 inches of length, and 2-&frac12; in diameter, and weigh, on
+the average, one pound each.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>c.&mdash;<i>Condensation of peat of all kinds.</i>&mdash;<i>Weber's method with modified
+machinery.</i></p>
+
+<div class="img">
+<a href="images/imagep144.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep144.jpg" width="75%" alt="Fig. 18." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 18.&mdash;<span class="smcap">SCHLICKEYSEN'S PEAT MILL.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><i>Schlickeysen's Machine.</i><a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a>&mdash;This machine has been in use in Germany
+since 1860, in the preparation of peat. It appears to have been
+originally constructed for the working and moulding of clay for making
+bricks. The principle of its operation is identical with that of Weber's
+process. The peat is finely pulverized, worked into a homogenous mass,
+and moulded into suitable forms. Like Gysser's machine, it forces the
+peat under some pressure through a nozzle, or, in the larger kinds
+through several nozzles, whence it issues in a continuous block or pipe
+that is cut off in proper lengths, either by hand or by mechanism It
+consists of a vertical cylinder, through the axis of which revolves a
+shaft, whereon are fastened the blades, whose edges cut and whose
+winding figure forces down the peat. The blades are arranged nearly, but
+not exactly, in a true spiral; the effect is therefore that they act
+unequally <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>upon the mass, and thus mix and divide it more perfectly. No
+blades or projections are affixed to the interior of the cylinder.
+Above, where the peat enters into a flaring hopper, is a scraper, that
+prevents adhesion to the sides and gives downward propulsion to the
+peat. The blades are, by this construction, very strong, and not liable
+to injury from small stones or roots, and effectually reduce the
+toughest and most compact peat.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, addition of water is not only unnecessary in any case, but
+the peat may be advantageously air-dried to a considerable extent before
+it enters the machine. Wet peat is, indeed, worked with less expenditure
+of power; but the moulded peats are then so soft as to require much care
+in the handling, and must be spread out in single courses, as they will
+not bear to be placed one upon another. Peat, that is somewhat dry,
+though requiring more power to work, leaves the machine in blocks that
+can be piled up on edge and upon each other, six or eight high, without
+difficulty, and require, of course, less time for curing.</p>
+
+<p>The cut, (fig. 18), represents one of Schlickeysen's portable
+peat-mills, with elevator for feeding, from which an idea of the
+pulverizing arrangements may be gathered.</p>
+
+<p>In Livonia, near Pernan, according to Leo, two of Schlickeysen's
+machines, No. 6, were put in operation upon a purely fibrous peat. They
+were driven by an engine of 12 horse-power. The peat was plowed, once
+harrowed, then carted directly to the hopper of the machine. These two
+machines, with 26 men and 4 horses, produced daily 60,000 peats = 7500
+cubic feet. 100 cubic feet of these peats were equal in heating effect
+to 130 cubic feet of fir-wood, and cost but two-thirds as much. The
+peats were extremely hard, and dried in a few days sufficiently for use.
+In 1864, five large Schlickeysen machines were in operation at one
+establishment at St. Miskolz, in Hungary.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>The smaller sizes of Schlickeysen's machine are easily-portable, and
+adapted for horse or hand-power.</p>
+
+<p><i>Leavitt's Peat-condensing and Moulding Mill.</i><a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a>&mdash;In this country, Mr.
+T. H. Leavitt, of Boston, has patented machinery, which is in operation
+at East Lexington, Mass., at the works of the Boston Peat Company. The
+process is essentially identical with that of Weber, the hot-drying
+omitted. The fresh peat is pulverized or cut fine, moulded into blocks,
+and dried on light frames in the open air. The results claimed by Mr.
+Leavitt, indicate, that his machine is very efficacious.</p>
+
+<p>It consists, principally, of a strong box or cistern, three feet in
+diameter, and six feet high, the exterior of which, with its gearing, is
+shown in figure 19. The mill is adapted to be driven by a four
+horse-power engine.</p>
+
+<p>"The upper portion of the box is divided by a series of horizontal
+partitions, the upper ones being open latticework, and the lower ones
+perforated with numerous holes. The upright shaft, which rotates in the
+centre of the box, carries a series of arms or blades, extending
+alternately on opposite sides, and as these revolve, they cut the peat,
+and force it through the openings in the diaphragms. The lower portion
+of the box, in place of complete partitions, has a series of corrugated
+shelves extending alternately from opposite sides, and the peat is
+pressed and scraped from these by a series of arms adapted to the work.
+By this series of severe operations the air-bubbles are expelled from
+the peat, and it is reduced to a homogeneous paste. When it arrives at
+the bottom of the box, it is still further compressed by the converging
+sides of the hopper, and it is received in light moulds which are
+carried on an endless belt." Mr. Leavitt has patented the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>use of
+powdered peat for the purpose of preventing the prepared peat from
+adhering to the moulds.</p>
+
+<div class="img">
+<a href="images/imagep147.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep147.jpg" width="55%" alt="Fig. 19." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 19.&mdash;<span class="smcap">LEAVITT'S PEAT MILL.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This mill, it is asserted, will condense 40 tons of crude peat daily,
+which, at Lexington, is estimated to yield 10 to 14 tons of dry
+merchantable fuel. The cost of producing the latter is asserted to be
+less than $2.00 per ton; while its present value, in Boston, is $10 per
+ton. It requires seven men, three boys, and two horses to dig, cart,
+mill, and spread the peat. The machine costs $600, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>the needful
+buildings, engine, etc., from $2000 to $3000. The samples of peat,
+manufactured by this machine, are of excellent quality. The drying in
+the open air is said to proceed with great rapidity, eight or ten days
+being ordinarily sufficient in the summer season. The dry peat, at
+Lexington, occupies one-fourth the bulk, and has one-fourth to one-third
+the weight of the raw material; the latter, as we gather, being by no
+means saturated with water, but well drained, and considerably dry,
+before milling.</p>
+
+
+<p><i>Ashcroft &amp; Betteley's Machinery.</i></p>
+
+<p>The American Peat Company, of Boston, are the owners of five patents,
+taken out by Messrs. Ashcroft &amp; Betteley, for peat machinery. They claim
+to "make fuel equal to the best English Cannel coal," and really do make
+a very good peat, though with a rather complicated apparatus. The
+following statement is derived from the circular issued by the company.
+The machinery consists of the following parts:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>First.</i>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Triturating Machine</span>&mdash;36 inches diameter, 4 feet 6
+inches high, with arms both on the inside of this cylinder and on the
+upright revolving shaft. In the bottom of the cylinder or tub a large
+slide gate is fitted to work with a lever, so that the peat may be
+discharged, at pleasure, into the Combing Machine, which is placed
+directly under this Triturator.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second.</i>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Combing Machine</span>&mdash;Semi-circular vessel 6 feet long
+and 3 feet 6 inches in diameter. Inside, a shaft is placed, which is
+provided with fingers, placed one inch apart; the fingers to be 20
+inches long, so as to reach within 2 inches of the bottom and sides of
+this vessel. Another shaft, of the same size and dimensions, is placed
+at an angle of 45&deg;, 26 inches from the first shaft, with arms of the
+same dimensions placed upon this shaft, with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>the same spaces, and so
+placed that this set of arms pass between the first set, both shafts
+revolving in the same direction; the second shaft mentioned being driven
+at double the speed of the first. At the bottom of this Combing Machine
+is to be fixed a gate, to be operated by a lever, to deliver, at
+pleasure, the cleansed peat into the Manipulator or Kneading Machine.</p>
+
+<p><i>Third.</i>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Manipulator</span>.&mdash;A Tube of iron 7 feet long and 16
+inches diameter, fitted with a shaft, with flanges upon it, to gain 6
+inches in each revolution.</p>
+
+<p><i>Fourth.</i>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Conveyor</span>.&mdash;This Conveyor, to be made with two
+endless chains and buckets of iron, with a driving shaft. The hopper, to
+receive the peat when first taken from the bog, to be placed below the
+surface of the ground, so that the top edge of the hopper may be level
+with the surface, that the peat may be dumped from the car by which it
+is taken from the bog, and carried to the hopper without hand labor; and
+this conveyor to be so arranged that the peat will be delivered into the
+Triturator without hand labor.</p>
+
+<p><i>Fifth.</i>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Conveyor</span>.&mdash;Another conveyor, precisely like the one
+above described, is to be placed so as to convey the peat from the
+Manipulator into the Tank without hand labor.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sixth.</i>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tank</span>.&mdash;A tank 35 feet high and 15 feet in diameter;
+the bottom of this tank is made sloping towards the sides, at an angle
+of 65&deg;, and is covered with sole tile or drain tile, and the entire
+inside of this tank is also ribbed with these tile; the ends of these
+pipes of tile being left open, so that the water which percolates
+through the pores of the tile, by the pressure of the column of peat,
+will pass out at the bottom, through the false floor of the tank into
+the drain, and the solid peat is retained in the tank. A worm is fixed
+in the bottom of this tank, which is driven by machinery, which forces
+out the peat <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>in the form of brick, which are cut to any length, and
+stacked up in sheds, for fuel, after it is fully dried by the air.</p>
+
+<div class="img">
+<a href="images/imagep150.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep150.jpg" width="55%" alt="Fig. 20." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 20.&mdash;<span class="smcap">VERSMANN'S PEAT PULVERIZER.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><i>Versmann's Machine</i><a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a>&mdash;This machine, see Fig. 20, was invented by a
+German engineer, in London, and was patented there in Sept., 1861. It
+consists of a funnel or hollow cone <i>b</i>, of boiler-plate, from one to
+two feet in diameter at top, and perforated with 200 to 300 small holes
+per square foot of surface, within which rapidly revolves an iron cone
+<i>a</i>, carrying on its circumference two spiral knives. The peat thrown in
+at the top of the funnel is carried down by the knives, and at once cut
+or broken and forced in a state of fine division through the holes of
+the funnel, as through a colander. The fine peat collects on the
+inclined bottom of the chamber <i>d</i>, whence it is carried by means of
+Archimedean screws to a moulding machine. The coarse stuff that escapes
+pulverization falls through <i>e</i> into the cavity <i>c</i>. It may be employed
+as fuel for the engine, or again put through the machine.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>This machine effects a more perfect pulverization of the peat, than any
+other hitherto described. This extreme division is, however, unnecessary
+to the perfection of the product, and is secured at great expense of
+power. Through the opening at the bottom of the funnel, much
+unpulverized peat finds its way, which must be continually returned to
+the machine. Again, stones, entering the funnel, are likely to break or
+damage the spiral knives, which bear close to the walls of the funnel.</p>
+
+<p>The pulverized peat must be moulded by hand, or by a separate
+instrument.</p>
+
+<p><i>Buckland's Machine</i><a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> is identical in principle with Versmann's, and
+in construction differs simply in the fact of the interior cone having
+spiral grooves instead of spiral knives. This gives greater simplicity
+and durability to the machine. It appears, however, to require too much
+power to work it, and can hardly equal other machines in the quantity of
+product it will deliver for a given expenditure. The ground peat yielded
+by it, must be moulded by hand, or by other machinery. This machine, we
+understand, has been tried near Boston, and abandoned as uneconomical.</p>
+
+<p>The machines we have described are by no means all that have been
+proposed and patented. They include, however, so the author believes,
+all that have been put into actual operation, at the date of this
+writing, or that present important peculiarities of construction.</p>
+
+<p>The account that has been given of them will serve to illustrate what
+mechanism has accomplished hitherto in the manufacture of peat-fuel, and
+may save the talent of the American inventor from wasting itself on what
+is already in use, or having been tried, has been found wanting. At
+present, very considerable attention is devoted to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>the subject.
+Scarcely a week passes without placing one or more Peat-mill patents on
+record. In this treatise our business is with what has been before the
+public in a more or less practical way, and it would, therefore, be
+useless to copy the specifications of new, and for the most part untried
+patents, which can be found in the files of our mechanical Journals.</p>
+
+<p>14. <i>Artificial Drying of Peat.</i></p>
+
+<p>As we have seen, air-dry peat contains 20 to 30 and may easily contain
+50 <i>per cent.</i> of water, and the best hot-made machine peat contains 15
+<i>per cent.</i> When peat is used as fuel in ordinary furnaces, this water
+must be evaporated, and in this process a large amount of heat is
+consumed, as is well understood. It is calculated, that the temperature
+which can be produced in perfectly burning full-dried peat, compares
+with that developed in the combustion of peat containing water, as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png152">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="85%">Pyrometric effect of perfectly dry peat</td>
+  <td class="tdr" width="15%">4000&deg; F.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Pyrometric effect of peat with 30 <i>per cent.</i> of water</td>
+  <td class="tdr">3240&deg; F.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Pyrometric effect of peat with 50 <i>per cent.</i> of water</td>
+  <td class="tdr">2848&deg; F.</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>But, furthermore, moist or air-dried peat does not burn in ordinary
+furnaces, except with considerable waste, as is evident from the
+smokiness of its flame. When air-dried peat is distilled in a retort, a
+heavy yellow vapor escapes for some time after the distillation begins,
+which, obviously, contains much inflammable matter, but which is so
+mixed and diluted with steam that it will not burn at all, or but
+imperfectly. It is obvious then, that when a high temperature is to be
+attained, anhydrous or full-dried peat is vastly superior to that which
+has simply been cured in the open air.</p>
+
+<p>Notice has already been made of Weber's drying-house, the use of which
+is an essential part of his system of producing peat-fuel. Various other
+arrangements have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>been proposed from time to time, for accomplishing
+the same object. It appears, however, that in most cases the
+anticipations regarding their economy have not been fully realized. It
+is hardly probable, that artificially dried peat can be employed to
+advantage except where waste heat is utilized in the operation.</p>
+
+<p>A point of the utmost importance in reference to the question of drying
+peat by artificial warmth is this, viz.: Although the drying may be
+carried so far as to remove the whole of the water, and produce an
+absolutely dry fuel, the peat absorbs moisture from the air again on
+exposure; so that drying to less than 15 <i>per cent.</i> of water is of no
+advantage, unless the peat is to be used immediately, or within a few
+days. The employment of highly dried peat is consequently practicable
+only for smelting-works, locomotives, and manufacturing establishments,
+where it may be consumed as fast as it is produced.</p>
+
+<p>A fact likewise to be regarded is, that artificial drying is usually
+inapplicable to fresh peat. The precautions needful in curing peat have
+already been detailed. Above all, slow drying is necessary, in order
+that the blocks shrink uniformly, without cracking and warping in such a
+way as to seriously injure their solidity and usefulness. In general,
+peat must be air-dried to a considerable extent before it can be
+kiln-dried to advantage. If exposed to dry artificial heat, when
+comparatively moist, a hard crust is formed externally, which greatly
+hinders subsequent desiccation. At the same time this crust, contracting
+around the moist interior, becomes so rifted and broken, that the
+ultimate shrinkage and condensation of the mass is considerably less
+than it would have been had the drying proceeded more slowly.</p>
+
+<p>Besides Weber's drying oven, the fuel for firing which is derived
+without cost from the stumps and roots of trees that are abundant on the
+moor, at Staltach, and which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>are thus conveniently disposed of, we have
+briefly to notice several other drying kilns with regard to all of
+which, however, it must be remarked, that they can only be employed with
+profit, by the use of waste heat, or, as at Staltach, of fuel that is
+comparatively worthless for other purposes.</p>
+
+<div class="img">
+<a href="images/imagep154.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep154.jpg" width="55%" alt="Fig. 21." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 21.&mdash;<span class="smcap">CARINTHIAN PEAT DRYING-KILN.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The <i>Peat Kilns</i> employed at Lippitzbach, in Carinthia, and at Neustadt,
+in Hanover, are of the kind shown in fig. 21. The peat with which the
+main chamber is filled, is heated directly by the hot gases that arise
+from a fire made in the fire-place at the left. These gases first enter
+a vault, where they intermingle and cool down somewhat; thence they
+ascend through the openings of the brick grating, and through the mass
+of peat to the top <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>of the chamber. On their way they become charged
+with vapor, and falling, pass off through the chimney, as is indicated
+by the arrows. The draught is regulated by the damper on the top of the
+chimney. To manage the fire, so that on the one hand the chimney is
+sufficiently heated to create a draught, and on the other waste of fuel,
+or even ignition of the peat itself is prevented, requires some care.</p>
+
+<p>In <i>Welkner's Peat Kiln</i><a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> (fig. 22) the peat, previously air-dried,
+is exposed to a stream of hot air, until it is completely desiccated,
+and the arrangement is such, that air-dried peat may be thrown in at the
+top, and the hot-dried fuel be removed at the bottom, continuously.</p>
+
+<p>In the cut, <i>A</i> represents the section of a wooden cylinder about 10
+feet wide and 6-&frac12; feet deep, which surmounts a funnel of iron plate
+<i>A'</i>. The mouth of the funnel is closed by a door <i>n</i>; about 20 inches
+above the door the pipe <i>B</i>, which conducts hot air, terminates in the
+ring <i>a a</i>, through the holes in which, <i>e e</i>, it is distributed into
+the funnel filled with peat. The air is driven in by a blower, and is
+heated by circulating through a system of pipes, which are disposed in
+the chimney of a steam boiler. From time to time a quantity of dried
+peat is drawn off into the wagon <i>D</i>, which runs on rails, and a similar
+amount of undried peat is thrown in above.</p>
+
+<p>According to Welkner, a kiln of the dimensions stated, which cost, about
+$1800 gold, is capable of desiccating daily ten tons of peat with 20
+<i>per cent.</i> of water, using thereby 2000 cubic feet of air of a
+temperature of 212&deg; F. When the air is heated by a fire kept up
+exclusively for that purpose, 10 <i>per cent.</i> of the dried peat, or its
+equivalent, is consumed in the operation. At the Alexis Smelting Works,
+near Lingen, in Hanover, this peat kiln <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>furnishes about half the fuel
+for a high furnace, in which bog iron ore is smelted. The drying costs
+but little, since half the requisite heat is obtained from the waste
+heat of the furnace itself.</p>
+
+<div class="img">
+<a href="images/imagep156.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep156.jpg" width="55%" alt="Fig. 22." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 22.&mdash;<span class="smcap">WELKNER'S PEAT DRYING KILN.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The advantages of this drying kiln are, that it is cheap in construction
+and working; dries gradually and uniformly; occupies little ground, and
+runs without intermission.</p>
+
+<p>Other drying ovens are described in Knapp's <i>Lehrbuch</i> der <i>Chemischen
+Technologie</i>, 3. Aufl. Bd. 1, Theil 1, pp. 178-9; <i>Jahrbuch der
+Bergakademien Schemnitz</i> und <i>Leoben</i>, 1860, p. 108, 1861, p. 55;
+Wagner's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span><i>Jahresbericht der Chemischen Technologie</i>, 1863, p. 748;
+Zerrenner's <i>Metallurgische Gasfeuerung in Oesterreich</i>; Tunner's
+<i>Stabeisen- und Stahlbereitung</i>, 2. Auflage, Bd. I, pp. 23-25.</p>
+
+<p>15. <i>Peat Coal, or Coke.</i></p>
+
+<p>When peat is charred, it yields a coal or coke which, being richer in
+carbon, is capable of giving an intenser heat than peat itself, in the
+same way that charcoal emits an intenser heat in its combustion than the
+wood from which it is made.</p>
+
+<p>Peat coal has been and is employed to some extent in metallurgical
+processes, as a substitute for charcoal, and when properly prepared from
+good peat, is in no way inferior to the latter; is, in fact, better.</p>
+
+<p>It is only, however, from peat which naturally dries to a hard and dense
+consistency, or which has been solidified on the principles of
+Challeton's and Weber's methods, that a coal can be made possessing the
+firmness necessary for furnace use. Fibrous peat, or that condensed by
+pressure, as in Exter's, Elsberg's, and the Lithuanian process, yields
+by coking or charring, a friable coal comparatively unsuited for heating
+purposes.</p>
+
+<p>A peat which is dense as the result of proper mechanical treatment and
+slow drying, yields a very homogeneous and compact coal, superior to any
+wood charcoal, the best qualities weighing nearly twice as much per
+bushel.</p>
+
+<p>Peat is either charred in pits and heaps, or in kilns. From the
+regularity of the rectangular blocks into which peat is usually formed,
+it may be charred more easily in pits than wood, since the blocks admit
+of closer packing in the heap, and because the peat coal is less
+inflammable than wood coal. The heaps may likewise be made much smaller
+than is needful in case of wood, viz.: six to eight feet in diameter,
+and four feet high. The pit is arranged <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>as follows: The ground is
+selected and prepared as for charcoal burning, and should be elevated,
+dry and compact. Three stout poles are firmly driven into the ground, so
+as to stand vertically and equi-distant from each other, leaving within
+them a space of six or eight inches. Around these poles the peats are
+placed endwise, in concentric rows to the required width and height,
+leaving at the bottom a number of air-channels of the width of one peat,
+radiating from the centre outwards. The upper layers of peat are
+narrowed in so as to round off the heap, which is first covered with dry
+leaves, sods, or moss, over which a layer of soil is thrown. Dry, light
+wood being placed at the bottom of the central shaft, it is kindled from
+one of the canals at the bottom, and the charring is conducted as is
+usual in making wood coal. The yield of coal ranges from 25 to 35 <i>per
+cent.</i> of the peat by weight, and from 30 to 50 <i>per cent.</i> by volume.</p>
+
+<p>Gysser recommends to mould the peat for charring in the form of
+cylinders of 3 to 4 feet long, which, when dry, may be built up into a
+heap like wood.</p>
+
+<p>A great variety of ovens or kilns have been constructed for coking peat.</p>
+
+<p>At the Gun Factory of Oberndorf, in Wirtemberg, peat is charred in the
+kiln represented in the accompanying figure. The chamber is 9 feet high,
+and 5-&frac12; feet in diameter. The oven proper, <i>b b</i>, is surrounded by a
+mantle of brick <i>a a</i>, and the space between, <i>c c</i>, is filled with
+sand. Each wall, as well as the space, is 15 inches in thickness, and
+the walls are connected by stones <i>d d</i>, at intervals of three feet.
+Above the sole of the kiln, are three series of air holes, made by
+imbedding old gun barrels in the walls. The door, which serves to empty
+the kiln, is a plate of cast iron, the sides of its frame are wider than
+the thickness of the wall, and by means of a board <i>e</i>, a box <i>m</i> can be
+made in front of the door, which is filled <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>with sand to prevent access
+of air. The peat is filled in through <i>i</i>, a channel being arranged
+across the bottom of the kiln, from the door <i>f</i>, for kindling. When the
+firing begins, the lowest air-holes and <i>i</i> are open. When, through the
+lower gun barrels, the peat is seen to be ignited, these are corked, and
+those above are opened. When the smoke ceases to escape above, all the
+openings are closed, <i>m</i>, is filled with sand, <i>i</i> is covered over with
+it, and the whole is left to cool. It requires about 8 to 9 days to
+finish the charring of a charge. Several kilns are kept in operation, so
+that the work proceeds uninterruptedly.</p>
+
+<div class="img">
+<a href="images/imagep159.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep159.jpg" width="55%" alt="Fig. 23." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 23.&mdash;<span class="smcap">OBERNDORFER PEAT CHARRING KILN.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="imgl" style="width: 30%;">
+<a href="images/imagep160a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep160a.jpg" width="95%" alt="Fig. 24." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 24.&mdash;<span class="smcap">WEBER'S CHARRING FURNACE.&mdash;TRANSVERSE SECTION.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>At Staltach, Weber prepares peat coal in a cylinder of sheet iron, which
+is surrounded by masonry. Below, it rests on a grating of stout wire.
+Above, it has a cover, that may be raised by a pulley and on one side is
+attached a small furnace, figure 24, the draught of which is kept up by
+means of a blower, or an exhauster, and the flame and hot <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>gases from
+it, <i>which contain no excess of oxygen</i>, play upon the peat and
+decompose it, expelling its volatile portions without burning or wasting
+it in the slightest degree. The construction of the furnace, see fig.
+24, is such, that the sticks of wood, which are employed for fuel, are
+supported at their ends on shoulders in the brick-work, and the draught
+enters the fire above instead of below. The wood is hereby completely
+consumed, and by regulating the supply of air at <i>a</i> (fig. 25) by a
+sliding cover, and at <i>b</i> by a register, the flame and current of air
+which enters the cylinder containing the peat, is intensely hot and
+accomplishes a rapid carbonization of the peat, but as before <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>stated,
+does not burn it. In this furnace the wood, which is cut of uniform
+length, is itself the grate, since iron would melt or rapidly burn out;
+and the coals that fall are consumed by the air admitted through c. The
+hot gases which enter the cylinder filled with peat near its top, are
+distributed by pipes, and, passing off through the grating at the
+bottom, enter the surrounding brick mantle. Before reaching the
+exhaustor, however, they pass through a cooler in which a quantity of
+tar and pyroligneous acid is collected.</p>
+
+<div class="img" style="clear: both;">
+<a href="images/imagep160b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep160b.jpg" width="55%" alt="Fig. 25." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Fig. 25.&mdash;<span class="smcap">WEBER'S CHARRING FURNACE.&mdash;LONGITUDINAL SECTION.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Weber's oven is 15 feet in diameter, and 3-&frac12; feet high; 528 cubic feet
+of peat may be coked in it in the space of 15 hours. The wood furnace is
+2 feet in section, and consumes for the above amount of peat 3-&frac12; cwt.
+of wood. So perfectly are the contents of the iron cylinder protected
+from contact of oxygen, that a rabbit placed within it, has been
+converted into coal without the singeing of a hair; and a bouquet of
+flowers has been carbonized, perfectly retaining its shape. The yield of
+coal in Weber's oven is nearly 50 <i>per cent.</i> of the peat by weight.</p>
+
+<p>Whenever possible, charring of peat should be carried on, or aided by
+waste heat, or the heat necessary to coking should be itself economized.
+In manufacturing and metallurgical establishments, a considerable
+economy in both the drying and coking may often be effected in this
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>On the bog of Allen, in Ireland, we have an example of this kind. Peat
+is placed in iron ovens in the form of truncated pyramids, the bottoms
+of which consist of movable and perforated iron plates. The ovens are
+mounted on wheels, and run on a rail track.</p>
+
+<p>Five ovens filled with peat are run into a pit in a drying house, in
+which blocks of fresh peat are arranged for drying. Each oven is
+connected with a flue, and fire is applied. The peat burns below, and
+the heat generated <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>in the coking, warms the air of the drying house.
+When the escaping smoke becomes transparent, the pit in which the ovens
+stand is filled with water slightly above their lower edges, whereby
+access of air to the burning peat is at once cut off. When cool, the
+ovens are run out and replaced by others filled with peat. Each oven
+holds about 600 lbs. of peat, and the yield of coal is 25 <i>per cent.</i> by
+weight. The small yield compared with that obtained by Weber's method,
+is due to the burning of the peat and the coal itself, in the draught of
+air that passes through the ovens.</p>
+
+<p>The author has carbonized, in an iron retort, specimens of peat prepared
+by Elsberg's, Leavitt's, and Aschcroft and Betteley's processes.
+Elsberg's gave 35, the others 37 <i>per cent.</i> of coal. The coal from
+Elsberg's peat was greatly fissured, and could be crushed in the fingers
+to small fragments. That from the other peats was more firm, and
+required considerable exertion to break it. All had a decided metallic
+brilliancy of surface.</p>
+
+<p>16.&mdash;<i>Metallurgical Uses of Peat.</i></p>
+
+<p>In Austria, more than any other country, peat has been employed in the
+manufacture of iron. In Bavaria, Prussia, Wirtemberg, Hanover, and
+Sweden, and latterly in Great Britain, peat has been put to the same
+use. The general results of experience, are as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Peat can only be employed to advantage, when wood and mineral coal are
+expensive, or of poor quality.</p>
+
+<p>Peat can be used in furnaces adapted for charcoal, but not in those
+built for mineral coal.</p>
+
+<p>Good air-dry peat, containing 20 to 30 <i>per cent.</i> of water, in some
+cases may replace a share of charcoal in the high furnace.</p>
+
+<p>At Pillersee, in Austria, spathic iron ore has been reduced by a mixture
+of fir-wood charcoal, and air-dry peat <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>in the proportions of three
+parts by bulk of the former to one of the latter. The use of peat was
+found to effect a considerable saving in the outlay for fuel, and
+enabled the production to be somewhat increased, while the excellence of
+the iron was in no way impaired. The peat was of the best quality, and
+was worked and moulded by hand.</p>
+
+<p>When the ore is refractory and contains impurities that must be fluxed
+and worked off in slag, a large proportion of air-dry peat cannot be
+used to advantage, because the evaporation of the water in it consumes
+so much heat, that the requisite temperature is not easily attained.</p>
+
+<p>At Achthal, in Bavaria, air-dry peat was employed in 1860, to replace a
+portion of the fir wood charcoal, which had been used for smelting an
+impure clay-iron-stone: the latter fuel having become so dear, that peat
+was resorted to as a make shift. Instead of one "sack," or 33 cubic feet
+of charcoal, 24 cubic feet of charcoal and 15 cubic feet of peat were
+employed in each charge, and the quantity of ore had to be diminished
+thereby, so that the yield of pig was reduced, on the average, by about
+17 <i>per cent.</i> In this case the quality of the iron, when worked into
+bar, was injured by the use of peat, obviously from an increase of its
+content of phosphorus. The exclusive use of air-dry peat as fuel in the
+high furnace, appears to be out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>At Ransko, in Bohemia, <i>kiln-dried peat</i>, nearly altogether free from
+water, has been employed in a high furnace, mixed with but one-third its
+bulk of charcoal, and in cupola furnaces for re-melting pig, full-dried
+peat has been used alone, answering the purpose perfectly.</p>
+
+<p>The most important metallurgical application of peat is in the refining
+of iron.</p>
+
+<p>Dried peat is extensively used in puddling furnaces, especially in the
+so-called gas puddling furnaces, in Carinthia, Steyermark, Silesia,
+Bavaria, Wirtemberg, Sweden, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>and other parts of Europe. In Steyermark,
+peat has been thus employed for 25 years.</p>
+
+<p>Air-dry peat is, indeed, also employed, but is not so well adapted for
+puddling, as its water burns away a notable quantity of iron. It is one
+of the best known facts in chemistry, that ignited iron is rapidly
+oxidized in a stream of water-vapor, free hydrogen being at the same
+time evolved.</p>
+
+<p>In the high furnace, <i>peat-coal</i>, when compact and firm (not crumbly)
+may replace charcoal perfectly, but its cost is usually too great.</p>
+
+<p>When peat or peat-coal is employed in smelting, it must be as free as
+possible from ash, because the ash usually consists largely of silica,
+and this must be worked off by flux. If the ash be carbonate of lime, it
+will, in most cases, serve itself usefully as flux. In hearth puddling,
+it is important not only that the peat or peat-coal contain little ash,
+but especially that the ash be as free as possible from sulphates and
+phosphates, which act so deleteriously on the metal. The notion that, in
+general, peat and peat charcoal are peculiarly adapted for the iron
+manufacture, because they are free from sulphur and phosphorus, is
+extremely erroneous. Not infrequently they contain these bodies in such
+quantity, as to forbid their use in smelting.</p>
+
+<p>In the gas-puddling furnace, or in the ordinary reverberatory, impure
+peat may, however, be employed, since the ashes do not come in contact
+with the metal. The only disadvantage in the use of peat in these
+furnaces is, that the grates require cleaning more frequently, which
+interrupts the fire, and, according to Tunner, increases the consumption
+of fuel 8 to 10 <i>per cent.</i>, and diminishes the amount of metal that can
+be turned out in a given time by the same quantity.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>Notwithstanding the interruption of work, it has been found, at
+Rothburga, in Austria, that by substitution of machine-made and
+kiln-dried peat for wood in the gas-puddling furnace, a saving of 50
+<i>per cent.</i> in the cost of bar iron was effected, in 1860. What is to
+the point, in estimating the economy of peat, is the fact that while 6.2
+cubic feet of dry fir-wood were required to produce 100 lbs. of crude
+bar, this quantity of iron could be puddled with 4.3 cubic feet of peat.</p>
+
+<p>In the gas furnace, a second blast of air is thrown into the flame,
+effecting its complete combustion; Dellvik asserts, that at
+Lesj&oelig;forss, in Sweden, 100 lbs. of kiln-dried peat are equal to 197
+lbs. of kiln-dried wood in heavy forging. In an ordinary fire, the peat
+would be less effective from the escape of unburned carbon in the smoke.</p>
+
+<p>In other metallurgical and manufacturing operations where flame is
+required, as well as in those which are not inconvenienced by the
+ingredients of its ash, it is obvious that peat can be employed when
+circumstances conspire to render its use economical.</p>
+
+<p>17.&mdash;<i>Peat as a source of illuminating gas.</i></p>
+
+<p>Prof Pettenkofer, of Munich, was the first to succeed in making
+illuminating gas from wood; and peat, when operated according to his
+method, furnishes also a gas of good quality, though somewhat inferior
+to wood-gas in illuminating power.</p>
+
+<p>It is essential, that well-dried peat be employed, and the waste heat
+from the retorts may serve in part, at least, for the drying.</p>
+
+<p>The retorts must be of a good conducting material; therefore cast iron
+is better than clay. They are made of the [**symbol] form, and must be
+relatively larger than those <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>used for coal. A retort of two feet width,
+one foot depth, and 8 to 9 feet length, must receive but 100 lbs. of
+peat at a charge.</p>
+
+<p>The quantity of gas yielded in a given time, is much greater than from
+bituminous coal. From retorts of the size just named, 8000 to 9000 cubic
+feet of gas are delivered in 24 hours. The exit pipes must, therefore,
+be large, not less than 5 to 6 inches, and the coolers must be much more
+effective than is needful for coal gas, in order to separate from it the
+tarry matters.</p>
+
+<p>The number of retorts requisite to furnish a given volume of gas, is
+much less than in the manufacture from coal. On the other hand, the
+dimensions of the furnace are considerably greater, because the
+consumption of fuel must be more rapid, in order to supply the heat,
+which is carried off by the copious formation of gas.</p>
+
+<p>Gas may be made from peat at a comparatively low temperature, but its
+illuminating power is then trifling. At a red heat alone can we procure
+a gas of good quality.</p>
+
+<p>The chief impurity of peat-gas is carbonic acid: this amounts to 25 to
+30 <i>per cent.</i> of the gas before purification, and if the peat be
+insufficiently dried, it is considerably more. The quantity of slaked
+lime that is consumed in purifying, is therefore much greater than is
+needed for coal-gas, and is an expensive item in the making of peat-gas.</p>
+
+<p>While wood-gas is practically free from sulphur compounds and ammonia,
+peat-gas may contain them both, especially the latter, in quantity that
+depends upon the composition of the peat, which, as regards sulphur and
+nitrogen, is very variable.</p>
+
+<p>Peat-gas is denser than coal-gas, and therefore cannot be burned to
+advantage except from considerably wider orifices than answer for the
+latter, and under slight pressure.</p>
+
+<p>The above statements show the absurdity of judging <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>of the value of peat
+as a source of gas, by the results of trials made in gas works arranged
+for bituminous coal.</p>
+
+<p>As to the yield of gas we have the following data, weights and measures
+being English:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="85%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png167">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="77%">100 lbs. of peat of medium quality from Munich, gave <span class="smcap">Reissig</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr" width="23%">303 cub. ft.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">100 lbs. of air-dry peat from Biermoos, Salzburg, gave <span class="smcap">Riedinger</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">305 cub. ft.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">100 lbs. of very light fibrous peat, gave <span class="smcap">Reissig</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">379 to 430 cub. ft.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">100 lbs. of Exter's machine-peat, from Haspelmoor, gave</td>
+  <td class="tdr">367 cub. ft.</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>Thenius states, that, to produce 1000 English cubic feet of purified
+peat-gas, in the works at Kempten, Bavaria, there are required in the
+retorts 292 lbs of peat. To distil this, 138-&frac12; lbs. of peat are
+consumed in the fire; and to purify the gas from carbonic acid, 91-&frac12;
+lbs. of lime are used. In the retorts remain 117 lbs. of peat coal, and
+nearly 6 lbs. of tar are collected in the operation, besides smaller
+quantities of acetic acid and ammonia.</p>
+
+<p>According to Stammer, 4 cwt. of dry peat are required for 1000 cubic
+feet of purified gas.</p>
+
+<p>The quality of the gas is somewhat better than that made from bituminous
+coal.</p>
+
+<p>18.&mdash;<i>The examination of Peat as to its value for Fuel</i>, begins with and
+refers to the air-dry substance, in which:</p>
+
+<p>1.&mdash;Water is estimated, by drying the pulverized peat, at 212&deg;, as long
+as any diminution of weight occurs. Well-dried peat-fuel should not
+contain more than 20 <i>per cent.</i> of water. On the other hand it cannot
+contain less than 15 <i>per cent.</i>, except it has been artificially dried
+at a high temperature, or kept for a long time in a heated apartment.</p>
+
+<p>2.&mdash;<i>Ash</i> is estimated by carefully burning the dry residue in 1. In
+first-rate fuel, it should amount to less than 3 <i>per cent.</i> If more
+than 8 <i>per cent.</i>, the peat is thereby rendered of inferior quality,
+though peat is employed which contains considerably more.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>3.&mdash;<i>Sulphur</i> and <i>phosphorus</i> are estimated by processes, which it
+would be useless to describe here. Only in case of vitriol peats is so
+much sulphur present, that it is recognizable by the suffocating fumes
+of sulphuric acid or of sulphurous acid, which escape in the burning.
+When peat is to be employed for iron manufacture, or under steam
+boilers, its phosphorus, and especially its sulphur, should be
+estimated, as they injure the quality of iron when their quantity
+exceeds a certain small amount, and have a destructive effect on
+grate-bars and boilers. For common uses it is unnecessary to regard
+these substances.</p>
+
+<p>4.&mdash;The quantity of <i>coal</i> or <i>coke</i> yielded by peat, is determined by
+heating a weighed quantity of the peat to redness in an iron retort, or
+in a large platinum crucible, until gases cease to escape. The neck of
+the retort is corked, and when the vessel is cool, the coal is removed
+and weighed. In case a platinum crucible is employed, it should have a
+tight-fitting cover, and when gases cease to escape, the crucible is
+quickly cooled by placing it in cold water.</p>
+
+<p>Coal, or coke, includes of course the ash of the peat. This, being
+variable, should be deducted, and the <i>ash-free coal</i> be considered in
+comparing fuels.</p>
+
+<p>5.&mdash;The <i>density</i> of peat-fuel may be ascertained by cutting out a block
+that will admit of accurate measurement, calculating its cubic contents,
+and comparing its weight with that of an equal bulk of water. To avoid
+calculation, the block may be made accurately one or several cubic
+inches in dimensions and weighed. The cubic inch of water at 60&deg; F.,
+weighs 252-&frac12; grains.</p>
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> The apparent specific gravity here means the weight of the
+mass,&mdash;the air-filled cavities and pores included&mdash;as compared with an
+equal bulk of water. The real specific gravity of the <i>peat itself</i> is
+always greater than that of water, and all kinds of peat will sink in
+water when they soak long enough, or are otherwise treated so that all
+air is removed.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> The "full" cubic foot implies a cubic foot having no
+cavities or waste space, such as exist in a pile, made up of numerous
+blocks. If a number of peat blocks be put into a box and shaken
+together, the empty space between the more or less irregular blocks, may
+amount to 46 <i>per cent.</i> of the whole; and when closely packed, the
+cavities amount to 30 <i>per cent.</i>, according to the observations of
+<i>Wasserzieher</i>. (<i>Dingler's Journal</i>, Oct., 1864, p. 118.) Some
+confusion exists in the statements of writers in regard to this matter,
+and want of attention to it, has led to grave errors in estimating the
+weight of fuel.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> The <i>waste space</i> in peat and wood as commonly piled, is
+probably included here in the statement, and is usually about the same
+in both; viz.: not far from 40 <i>per cent.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> See note on the preceding page.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>Der Torf, etc.</i>, S. 43.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> See page 00.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> On account of the great convenience of the decimal weights
+and measures, and their nearly universal recognition by scientific men,
+we have adopted them here. The gramme = 15 grains; 5 degrees centigrade
+= 9 degrees Fahrenheit.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Pliny, Hist. Nat. (Lib. XVI, 1) expresses his pity for the
+"miserable people" living in East Friesland and vicinity in his day, who
+"dug out with the hands a moor earth, which, dried more by wind than
+sun, they used for preparing their food and warming their bodies:"
+<i>captum manibus lutum ventis magis quam sole siccantis, terra cibos et
+rigentia septembrione viscera sua urunt</i>.
+</p><p>
+As regards the "<i>misera gens</i>," it should be said that rich grain fields
+and numerous flourishing villages have occupied for several centuries
+large portions of the Duevel moor near Bremen.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> For further account and plans of this machine see
+Dingler's Polytechnisches Journal, Bd. 176, S. 336.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Described and figured in Bulletin de la Societe
+d'Encouragement, August 1857, p. 513; also Dingler's Polytechnisches
+Journal, Bd. 146, S. 252.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Berg- und Huettenm&aelig;nnische Zeitung, 1859, Nr. 26.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Henneberg's Journal fuer Landwirthschaft, 1858, S. 42.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Henneberg's Journal fuer Landwirthschaft, 1858, p.p. 42
+and 83.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Dingler's Journal, Oct., 1864.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Dingler's Polytechnisches Journal, Bd. 152, S. 272. See
+also, Knapp, Lehrbuch der Chemischen Technologie, 3te Auflage, 1., 167.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Der Torf; seine Bildung und Bereitungsweise, von Rudolph
+Gysser, Weimar, 1864.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Dingler's Journal, Bd. 165, S. 184.; und Bd. 172, S, 333.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Scientific American, Feb. 10, 1866; also, Facts about Peat
+as Fuel, by T. H. Leavitt, 2d Ed., Boston, p. 23.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Dingler's Journal, Bd. 168, S. 306, und Bd. 172, S. 332.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Described in Journal of the Society of Arts, 1860, p.
+437.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Bernemann &amp; Kerl's Berg und Huettenm&aelig;nnische Zeitung,
+1862, 221.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<div class="tr">
+<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Transcriber's Note</p>
+<br />
+
+Typographical errors corrected in the text:<br />
+<br />
+Page &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;6&nbsp;  Robert's changed to Roberts'<br />
+Page &nbsp;&nbsp;24&nbsp;  Jaeckel changed to J&aelig;ckel<br />
+Page &nbsp;&nbsp;47&nbsp;  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock<br />
+Page &nbsp;&nbsp;49&nbsp;  connexion changed to connection<br />
+Page &nbsp;&nbsp;51&nbsp;  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock<br />
+Page &nbsp;&nbsp;53&nbsp;  Russel changed to Russell<br />
+Page &nbsp;&nbsp;53&nbsp;  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock<br />
+Page &nbsp;&nbsp;62&nbsp;  subtances changed to substances<br />
+Page &nbsp;&nbsp;67&nbsp;  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock<br />
+Page &nbsp;&nbsp;89&nbsp;  5 changed to 4<br />
+Page &nbsp;&nbsp;89&nbsp;  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock<br />
+Page 116&nbsp;  artifical changed to artificial<br />
+Page 127&nbsp;  developes changed to develops<br />
+Page 149&nbsp;  Kneeding changed to Kneading<br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+</body>
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@@ -0,0 +1,6128 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and Fuel, by
+Samuel William Johnson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and Fuel
+
+Author: Samuel William Johnson
+
+Release Date: July 28, 2008 [EBook #26142]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEAT AND ITS USES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven Giacomelli, Barbara Kosker, Jeannie
+Howse and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+produced by Core Historical Literature in Agriculture
+(CHLA), Cornell University)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  PEAT AND ITS USES,
+
+  AS
+
+  FERTILIZER AND FUEL.
+
+
+
+  BY
+
+  SAMUEL W. JOHNSON, A. M.,
+
+  PROFESSOR OF ANALYTICAL AND AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY, YALE COLLEGE.
+
+
+
+  FULLY ILLUSTRATED.
+
+
+
+  NEW-YORK:
+  ORANGE JUDD & COMPANY.
+  245 BROADWAY.
+
+
+
+
+  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
+
+  ORANGE JUDD & CO.,
+
+  At the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
+  for the Southern District of New-York.
+
+
+
+  LOVEJOY & SON,
+  ELECTROTYPERS AND STEREOTYPERS
+  15 Vandewater street N. Y.
+
+
+
+
+  TO MY FATHER,
+
+  MY EARLIEST AND BEST
+
+  INSTRUCTOR IN RURAL AFFAIRS,
+
+  THIS VOLUME
+
+  IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED.
+
+  S. W. J.
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS.
+
+  Introduction                                                         vii
+
+  PART I.--ORIGIN, VARIETIES, AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERS OF PEAT.
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+  1. What is Peat?                                                       9
+  2. Conditions of its Formation                                         9
+  3. Different Kinds of Peat                                            14
+        Swamp Muck                                                      17
+        Salt Mud                                                        18
+  4. Chemical Characters and Composition of Peat                        18
+     a. Organic or combustible part                                     19
+        Ulmic and Humic Acids                                           19
+        Ulmin and Humin--Crenic and Apocrenic Acids                     20
+        Ulmates and Humates                                             21
+        Crenates and Apocrenates                                        22
+        Gein and Geic Acid--Elementary Composition of Peat              23
+        Ultimate Composition of the Constituents of Peat                25
+     b. Mineral Part--Ashes                                             25
+  5. Chemical Changes that occur in the Formation of Peat               26
+
+
+  PART II.--ON THE AGRICULTURAL USES OF PEAT AND SWAMP MUCK.
+
+  1. Characters that adapt Peat for Agricultural Use                    28
+     A. Physical or Amending Characters                                 28
+        I. Absorbent Power for Water, as Liquid and Vapor               31
+        II.   "        "   for Ammonia                                  32
+        III. Influence in Disintegrating the Soil                       34
+        IV. Influence on the Temperature of Soils                       37
+     B. Fertilizing Characters                                          38
+        I. Fertilizing Effects of the Organic Matters, excluding
+           Nitrogen                                                     38
+           1. Organic Matters as Direct Food to Plants                  38
+           2. Organic Matters as Indirect Food to Plants                40
+           3. Nitrogen, including Ammonia and Nitric Acid               42
+        II. Fertilizing Effects of the Ashes of Peat                    46
+        III. Peculiarities in the Decay of Peat                         50
+        IV. Comparison of Peat with Stable Manure                       51
+    2. Characters of Peat that are detrimental, or that need
+       correction                                                       54
+        I. Possible Bad Effects on Heavy Soils                          54
+        II. Noxious Ingredients                                         55
+           a. Vitriol Peats                                             55
+           b. Acidity--c. Resinous Matters                              57
+    3. Preparation of Peat for Agricultural Use                         57
+           a. Excavation                                                57
+           b. Exposure, or Seasoning                                    59
+           c. Composting                                                62
+              Compost with Stable Manure                                63
+                 "     "   Night Soil                                   68
+                 "     "   Guano                                        69
+                 "     "   Fish and other Animal Matters                70
+                 "     "   Potash-lye & Soda-ash; Wood-ashes,
+                           Shell-marl, Lime                             72
+                 "     "   Salt and Lime Mixture                        73
+                 "     "   Carbonate of Lime, Mortar, etc               75
+    4. The Author's Experiments with Peat Composts                      77
+    5. Examination of Peat with reference to its Agricultural Value     81
+    6. Composition of Connecticut Peats                                 84
+       Method of Analysis                                               86
+       Tables of Composition                                      88-89-90
+
+
+  PART III.--ON PEAT AS FUEL
+
+    1. Kinds of Peat that Make the Best Fuel                            92
+    2. Density of Peat                                                  95
+    3. Heating Power of Peat as Compared with Wood and Anthracite       96
+    4. Modes of Burning Peat                                           102
+    5. Burning of Broken Peat                                          103
+    6. Hygroscopic Water of Peat-fuel                                  104
+    7. Shrinkage                                                       105
+    8. Time of Excavation and Drying                                   105
+    9. Drainage                                                        106
+   10. Cutting of Peat for Fuel--a. Preparations for Cutting           107
+       b. Cutting by Hand; with Common Spade; German Peat Knife        108
+             "    with Irish Slane--System employed in East
+          Friesland                                                    109
+       c. Machines for Cutting Peat; Brosowsky's Machine; Lepreux's
+          Machine                                                      113
+   11. Dredging of Peat                                                115
+   12. Moulding of Peat                                                116
+   13. Preparation of Peat-fuel by Machinery, etc                      116
+       A. Condensation by Pressure                                     116
+          a. Of Fresh Peat                                             116
+                   Mannhardt's Method                                  117
+                   The Neustadt Method                                 119
+          b. Of Air-dried Peat--Lithuanian Process                     120
+          c. Of Hot-dried Peat--Gwynne's Method; Exter's Method        121
+              Elsberg's Process                                         125
+       B. Condensation without Pressure                                127
+          a. Of Earthy Peat                                            128
+             Challeton's Method, at Mennecy, France                    128
+                 "         "        Langenberg, Prussia                130
+             Roberts'      "        Pekin, N. Y.                       132
+             Siemens'      "        Boeblingen, Wirtemberg             134
+          b. Condensation of Fibrous Peat--Weber's Method; Hot-drying  135
+             Gysser's Method and Machine                               140
+          c. Condensation of Peat of all Kinds--Schlickeysen's
+             Machine                                                   144
+             Leavitt's Peat Mill, Lexington, Mass                      146
+             Ashcroft & Betteley's Machine                             148
+             Versmann's Machine, Great Britain                         150
+             Buckland's    "          "                                151
+   14. Artificial Drying of Peat                                       152
+   15. Peat Coal                                                       157
+   16. Metallurgical Uses of Peat                                      162
+   17. Peat as a Source of Illuminating Gas                            165
+   18. Examination of Peat with regard to its Value as Fuel            167
+
+
+
+
+  INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+In the years 1857 and 1858, the writer, in the capacity of Chemist to
+the State Agricultural Society of Connecticut, was commissioned to make
+investigations into the agricultural uses of the deposits of peat or
+swamp muck which are abundant in this State; and, in 1858, he submitted
+a Report to Henry A. Dyer, Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the Society,
+embodying his conclusions. In the present work the valuable portions of
+that Report have been recast, and, with addition of much new matter,
+form Parts I. and II. The remainder of the book, relating to the
+preparation and employment of peat for fuel, &c., is now for the first
+time published, and is intended to give a faithful account of the
+results of the experience that has been acquired in Europe, during the
+last twenty-five years, in regard to the important subject of which it
+treats.
+
+The employment of peat as an amendment and absorbent for agricultural
+purposes has proved to be of great advantage in New-England farming.
+
+It is not to be doubted, that, as fuel, it will be even more valuable
+than as a fertilizer. Our peat-beds, while they do not occupy so much
+territory as to be an impediment and a reproach to our country, as they
+have been to Ireland, are yet so abundant and so widely
+distributed--occurring from the Atlantic to the Missouri, along and
+above the 40th parallel, and appearing on our Eastern Coast at least as
+far South as North Carolina[1]--as to present, at numberless points,
+material, which, sooner or later, will serve us most usefully when other
+fuel has become scarce and costly.
+
+The high prices which coal and wood have commanded for several years
+back have directed attention to peat fuel; and, such is the adventurous
+character of American enterprise, it cannot be doubted that we shall
+rapidly develop and improve the machinery for producing it. As has
+always been the case, we shall waste a vast deal of time and money in
+contriving machines that violate every principle of mechanism and of
+economy; but the results of European invention furnish a safe basis from
+which to set out, and we have among us the genius and the patience that
+shall work out the perfect method.
+
+It may well be urged that a good degree of caution is advisable in
+entering upon the peat enterprise. In this country we have exhaustless
+mines of the best coal, which can be afforded at a very low rate, with
+which other fuel must compete. In Germany, where the best methods of
+working peat have originated, fuel is more costly than here; and a
+universal and intense economy there prevails, of which we, as a people,
+have no conception.
+
+If, as the Germans themselves admit, the peat question there is still a
+nice one as regards the test of dollars and cents, it is obvious, that,
+for a time, we must "hasten slowly." It is circumstances that make peat,
+and gold as well, remunerative or otherwise; and these must be well
+considered in each individual case. Peat is the name for a material that
+varies extremely in its quality, and this quality should be investigated
+carefully before going to work upon general deductions.
+
+In my account of the various processes for working peat by machinery,
+such data as I have been able to find have been given as to cost of
+production. These data are however very imperfect, and not altogether
+trustworthy, in direct application to American conditions. The cheapness
+of labor in Europe is an item to our disadvantage in interpreting
+foreign estimates. I incline to the belief that this is more than offset
+among us by the quality of our labor, by the energy of our
+administration, by the efficiency of our overseeing, and, especially, by
+our greater skill in the adaptation of mechanical appliances. While
+counselling caution, I also recommend enterprise in developing our
+resources in this important particular; knowing full well, however, that
+what I can say in its favor will scarcely add to the impulse already
+apparent among my countrymen.
+
+SAMUEL W. JOHNSON.
+
+_Sheffield Scientific School_,}
+_Yale College, June, 1866._   }
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The great Dismal Swamp is a grand peat bog, and doubtless other of
+the swamps of the coast, as far south as Florida and the Gulf, are of
+the same character.
+
+
+
+
+PART I.
+
+THE ORIGIN, VARIETIES, AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERS
+OF PEAT.
+
+1. _What is Peat?_
+
+By the general term Peat, we understand the organic matter or vegetable
+soil of bogs, swamps, beaver-meadows and salt-marshes.
+
+It consists of substances that have resulted from the decay of many
+generations of aquatic or marsh plants, as mosses, sedges, coarse
+grasses, and a great variety of shrubs, mixed with more or less mineral
+substances, derived from these plants, or in many cases blown or washed
+in from the surrounding lands.
+
+2. _The conditions under which Peat is formed._
+
+In this country the production of Peat from fallen and decaying plants,
+depends upon the presence of so much water as to cover or saturate the
+vegetable matters, and thereby hinder the full access of air. Saturation
+with water also has the effect to maintain the decaying matters at a
+low temperature, and by these two causes in combination, the process of
+decay is made to proceed with great slowness, and the solid products of
+such slow decay, are compounds that themselves resist decay, and hence
+they accumulate.
+
+In the United States there appears to be nothing like the extensive
+_moors_ or _heaths_, that abound in Ireland, Scotland, the north of
+England, North Germany, Holland, and the elevated plains of Bavaria,
+which are mostly level or gently sloping tracts of country, covered with
+peat or turf to a depth often of 20, and sometimes of 40, or more, feet.
+In this country it is only in low places, where streams become
+obstructed and form swamps, or in bays and inlets on salt water, where
+the flow of the tide furnishes the requisite moisture, that our
+peat-beds occur. If we go north-east as far as Anticosti, Labrador, or
+Newfoundland, we find true moors. In these regions have been found a few
+localities of the _Heather_ (_Calluna vulgaris_), which is so
+conspicuous a plant on the moors of Europe, but which is wanting in the
+peat-beds of the United States.
+
+In the countries above named, the weather is more uniform than here, the
+air is more moist, and the excessive heat of our summers is scarcely
+known. Such is the greater humidity of the atmosphere that the
+bog-mosses,--the so-called _Sphagnums_,--which have a wonderful avidity
+for moisture, (hence used for packing plants which require to be kept
+moist on journeys), are able to keep fresh and in growth during the
+entire summer. These mosses decay below, and throw out new vegetation
+above, and thus produce a bog, especially wherever the earth is springy.
+It is in this way that in those countries, moors and peat-bogs actually
+grow, increasing in depth and area, from year to year, and raise
+themselves above the level of the surrounding country.
+
+Prof. Marsh informs the writer that he has seen in Ireland, near the
+north-west coast, a granite hill, capped with a peat-bed, several feet
+in thickness. In the Bavarian highlands similar cases have been
+observed, in localities where the atmosphere and the ground are kept
+moist enough for the growth of moss by the extraordinary prevalence of
+fogs. Many of the European moors rise more or less above the level of
+their borders towards the centre, often to a height of 10 or 20 and
+sometimes of 30 feet. They are hence known in Germany as _high_ moors
+(_Hochmoore_) to distinguish from the level or dishing _meadow-moors_,
+(_Wiesenmoore_). The peat-producing vegetation of the former is chiefly
+moss and heather, of the latter coarse grasses and sedges.
+
+In Great Britain the reclamation of a moor is usually an expensive
+operation, for which not only much draining, but actual cutting out and
+burning of the compact peat is necessary.
+
+The warmth of our summers and the dryness of our atmosphere prevent the
+accumulation of peat above the highest level of the standing water of
+our marshes, and so soon as the marshes are well drained, the peat
+ceases to form, and in most cases the swamp may be easily converted into
+good meadow land.
+
+Springy hill-sides, which in cooler, moister climates would become
+moors, here dry up in summer to such an extent that no peat can be
+formed upon them.
+
+As already observed, our peat is found in low places. In many instances
+its accumulation began by the obstruction of a stream. To that
+remarkable creature, the beaver, we owe many of our peat-bogs. These
+animals, from time immemorial, have built their dams across rivers so as
+to flood the adjacent forest. In the rich leaf-mold at the water's
+verge, and in the cool shade of the standing trees, has begun the growth
+of the sphagnums, sedges, and various purely aquatic plants. These in
+their annual decay have shortly filled the shallow borders of the
+stagnating water, and by slow encroachments, going on through many
+years, they have occupied the deeper portions, aided by the trees,
+which, perishing, give their fallen branches and trunks, towards
+completing the work. The trees decay and fall, and become entirely
+converted into peat; or, as not unfrequently happens, especially in case
+of resinous woods, preserve their form, and to some extent their
+soundness.
+
+In a similar manner, ponds and lakes are encroached upon; or, if
+shallow, entirely filled up by peat deposits. In the Great Forest of
+Northern New York, the voyager has abundant opportunity to observe the
+formation of peat-swamps, both as a result of beaver dams, and of the
+filling of shallow ponds, or the narrowing of level river courses. The
+formation of peat in water of some depth greatly depends upon the growth
+of aquatic plants, other than those already mentioned. In our Eastern
+States the most conspicuous are the Arrow-head, (_Sagittaria_); the
+Pickerel Weed, (_Pontederia_;) Duck Meat, (_Lemna_;) Pond Weed,
+(_Potamogeton_;) various _Polygonums_, brothers of Buckwheat and
+Smart-weed; and especially the Pond Lilies, _(Nymphoea_ and _Nuphar_.)
+The latter grow in water four or five feet deep, their leaves and long
+stems are thick and fleshy, and their roots, which fill the oozy mud,
+are often several inches in diameter. Their decaying leaves and stems,
+and their huge roots, living or dead, accumulate below and gradually
+raise the bed of the pond. Their living foliage which often covers the
+water almost completely for acres, becomes a shelter or support for
+other more delicate aquatic plants and sphagnums, which, creeping out
+from the shore, may so develop as to form a floating carpet, whereon the
+leaves of the neighboring wood, and dust scattered by the wind collect,
+bearing down the mass, which again increases above, or is reproduced
+until the water is filled to its bottom with vegetable matter.
+
+It is not rare to find in our bogs, patches of moss of considerable area
+concealing deep water with a treacherous appearance of solidity, as the
+hunter and botanist have often found to their cost. In countries of more
+humid atmosphere, they are more common and attain greater dimensions. In
+Zealand the surfaces of ponds are so frequently covered with floating
+beds of moss, often stout enough to bear a man, that they have there
+received a special name "_Hangesak_." In the Russian Ural, there occur
+lakes whose floating covers of moss often extend five or six feet above
+the water, and are so firm that roads are made across them, and forests
+of large fir-trees find support. These immense accumulations are in fact
+floating moors, consisting entirely of peat, save the living vegetation
+at the surface.
+
+Sometimes these floating peat-beds, bearing trees, are separated by
+winds from their connection with the shore, and become swimming peat
+islands. In a small lake near Eisenach, in Central Germany, is a
+swimming island of this sort. Its diameter is 40 rods, and it consists
+of a felt-like mass of peat, three to five feet in depth, covered above
+by sphagnums and a great variety of aquatic plants. A few birches and
+dwarf firs grow in this peat, binding it together by their roots, and
+when the wind blows, they act as sails, so that the island is constantly
+moving about upon the lake.
+
+On the Neusiedler lake, in Hungary, is said to float a peat island
+having an area of six square miles, and on lakes of the high Mexican
+Plateau are similar islands which, long ago, were converted in fruitful
+gardens.
+
+3. _The different kinds of Peat._
+
+Very great differences in the characters of the deposits in our
+peat-beds are observable. These differences are partly of color, some
+peats being gray, others red, others again black; the majority, when
+dry, possess a dark brown-red or snuff color. They also vary remarkably
+in weight and consistency. Some are compact, destitute of fibres or
+other traces of the vegetation from which they have been derived, and on
+drying, shrink greatly and yield tough dense masses which burn readily,
+and make an excellent fuel. Others again are light and porous, and
+remain so on drying; these contain intermixed vegetable matter that is
+but little advanced in the peaty decomposition. Some peats are almost
+entirely free from mineral matters, and on burning, leave but a few _per
+cent._ of ash, others contain considerable quantities of lime or iron,
+in chemical combination, or of sand and clay that have been washed in
+from the hills adjoining the swamps. As has been observed, the peat of
+some swamps is mostly derived from mosses, that of others originates
+largely from grasses; some contain much decayed wood and leaves, others
+again are free from these.
+
+In the same swamp we usually observe more or less of all these
+differences. We find the surface peat is light and full of partly
+decayed vegetation, while below, the deposits are more compact. We
+commonly can trace distinct strata or layers of peat, which are often
+very unlike each other in appearance and quality, and in some cases the
+light and compact layers alternate so that the former are found below
+the latter.
+
+The light and porous kinds of peat appear in general to be formed in
+shallow swamps or on the surface of bogs, where there is considerable
+access of air to the decaying matters, while the compacter, older, riper
+peats are found at a depth, and seem to have been formed beneath the
+low water mark, in more complete exclusion of the atmosphere, and under
+a considerable degree of pressure.
+
+The nature of the vegetation that flourishes in a bog, has much effect
+on the character of the peat. The peats chiefly derived from mosses that
+have grown in the full sunlight, have a yellowish-red color in their
+upper layers, which usually becomes darker as we go down, running
+through all shades of brown until at a considerable depth it is black.
+Peats produced principally from grasses are grayish in appearance at the
+surface, being full of silvery fibres--the skeletons of the blades of
+grasses and sedges, while below they are commonly black.
+
+_Moss peat_ is more often fibrous in structure, and when dried forms
+somewhat elastic masses. _Grass peat_, when taken a little below the
+surface, is commonly destitute of fibres; when wet, is earthy in its
+look, and dries to dense hard lumps.
+
+Where mosses and grasses have grown together simultaneously in the same
+swamp, the peat is modified in its characters accordingly. Where, as may
+happen, grass succeeds moss, or moss succeeds grass, the different
+layers reveal their origin by their color and texture. At considerable
+depths, however, where the peat is very old, these differences nearly or
+entirely disappear.
+
+The geological character of a country is not without influence on the
+kind of peat. It is only in regions where the rocks are granitic or
+silicious, where, at least, the surface waters are free or nearly free
+from lime, that _mosses_ make the bulk of the peat.
+
+In limestone districts, peat is chiefly formed from _grasses_ and
+_sedges_.
+
+This is due to the fact that mosses (sphagnums) need little lime for
+their growth, while the grasses require much; aquatic grasses cannot,
+therefore, thrive in pure waters, and in waters containing the requisite
+proportion of lime, grasses and sedges choke out the moss.
+
+The accidental admixtures of soil often greatly affect the appearance
+and value of a peat, but on the whole it would appear that its quality
+is most influenced by the degree of decomposition it has been subjected
+to.
+
+In meadows and marshes, overflowed by the ocean tides, we have
+_salt-peat_, formed from Sea-weeds (_Algae_,) Salt-wort (_Salicornia_,)
+and a great variety of marine or strand-plants. In its upper portions,
+salt-peat is coarsely fibrous from the grass roots, and dark-brown in
+color. At sufficient depth it is black and destitute of fibres.
+
+The fact that peat is fibrous in texture shows that it is of
+comparatively recent formation, or that the decomposition has been
+arrested before reaching its later stages. Fibrous peat is found near
+the surface, and as we dig down into a very deep bed we find almost
+invariably that the fibrous structure becomes less and less evident
+until at a certain depth it entirely disappears.
+
+It is not depth simply, but age or advancement in decomposition, which
+determines these differences of texture.
+
+The "ripest," most perfectly formed peat, that in which the peaty
+decomposition has reached its last stage,--which, in Germany, is termed
+_pitchy-peat_ or _fat peat_, (_Pechtorf_, _Specktorf_)--is dark-brown or
+black in color, and comparatively heavy and dense. When moist, it is
+firm, sticky and coherent almost like clay, may be cut and moulded to
+any shape. Dried, it becomes hard, and on a cut or burnished surface
+takes a luster like wax or pitch.
+
+In Holland, West Friesland, Holstein, Denmark and Pomerania, a so-called
+_mud-peat_ (_Schlammtorf_, also _Baggertorf_ and _Streichtorf_,) is
+"fished up" from the bottoms of ponds, as a black mud or paste, 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 a source is, however, so far as
+the writer is informed, unknown to any extent in this country. We might
+distinguish as _leaf-muck_ the leaves which have decomposed under or
+saturated with water, retaining the well established term leaf-mold to
+designate the dry or drier covering of the soil in a dense forest of
+deciduous trees.
+
+_Salt-mud._--In the marshes, bays, and estuaries along the sea-shore,
+accumulate large quantities of fine silt, brought down by rivers or
+deposited from the sea-water, which are more or less mixed with finely
+divided peat or partly decomposed vegetable matters, derived largely
+from Sea-weed, and in many cases also with animal remains (mussels and
+other shell-fish, crabs, and myriads of minute organisms.) This black
+mud has great value as a fertilizer.
+
+4. _The Chemical Characters and Composition of Peat._
+
+The process of burning, demonstrates that peat consists of two kinds of
+substance; one of which, the larger portion, is combustible, and is
+_organic_ or vegetable matter; the other, smaller portion, remaining
+indestructible by fire is _inorganic matter_ or _ash_. We shall consider
+these separately.
+
+a. _The organic or combustible part of peat_ varies considerably in its
+proximate composition. It is in fact an indefinite mixture of several or
+perhaps of many compound bodies, whose precise nature is little known.
+These bodies have received the collective names _Humus_ and _Geine_. We
+shall employ the term _humus_ to designate this mixture, whether
+occurring in peat, swamp-muck, salt-mud, in composts, or in the arable
+soil. Its chemical characters are much the same, whatever its appearance
+or mode of occurrence; and this is to be expected since it is always
+formed from the same materials and under essentially similar conditions.
+
+_Resinous_ and _Bituminous matters_.--If dry pulverized peat be agitated
+and warmed for a short time with alcohol, there is usually extracted a
+small amount of _resinous_ and sometimes of _bituminous_ matters, which
+are of no account in the agricultural applications of peat, but have a
+bearing on its value as fuel.
+
+_Ulmic_ and _Humic acids_.--On boiling what remains from the treatment
+with alcohol, with a weak solution of carbonate of soda (sal-soda), we
+obtain a yellowish-brown or black liquid. This liquid contains certain
+acid ingredients of the peat which become soluble by entering into
+chemical combination with soda.
+
+On adding to the solution strong vinegar, or any other strong acid,
+there separates a bulky brown or black substance, which, after a time,
+subsides to the bottom of the vessel as a precipitate, to use a chemical
+term, leaving the liquid of a more or less yellow tinge. This deposit,
+if obtained from light brown peat, is _ulmic acid_; if from black peat,
+it is _humic acid_. These acids, when in the precipitated state, are
+insoluble in vinegar; but when this is washed away, they are
+considerably soluble in water. They are, in fact, modified by the action
+of the soda, so as to acquire much greater solubility in water than they
+otherwise possess. On drying the bulky bodies thus obtained, brown or
+black lustrous masses result, which have much the appearance of coal.
+
+_Ulmin_ and _Humin_.--After extracting the peat with solution of
+carbonate of soda, it still contains ulmin or humin. These bodies cannot
+be obtained in the pure state from peat, since they are mixed with more
+or less partially decomposed vegetable matters from which they cannot be
+separated without suffering chemical change. They have been procured,
+however, by the action of muriatic acid on sugar. They are indifferent
+in their chemical characters, are insoluble in water and in solution of
+carbonate of soda; but upon heating with solution of hydrate of soda
+they give dark-colored liquids, being in fact converted by this
+treatment into ulmic and humic acids, respectively, with which they are
+identical in composition.
+
+The terms ulmic and humic acids do not refer each to a single compound,
+but rather to a group of bodies of closely similar appearance and
+properties, which, however, do differ slightly in their characteristics,
+and differ also in composition by containing more or less of oxygen and
+hydrogen in equal equivalents.
+
+After complete extraction with hydrate of soda, there remains more or
+less undecomposed vegetable matter, together with sand and soil, were
+these contained in the peat.
+
+_Crenic_ and _apocrenic acids_.--From the usually yellowish liquid out
+of which the ulmic and humic acids have been separated, may further be
+procured by appropriate chemical means, not needful to be detailed
+here, two other bodies which bear the names respectively of _Crenic
+Acid_ and _Apocrenic Acid_. These acids were discovered by Berzelius,
+the great Swedish chemist, in the water and sediment of the Porla
+spring, in Sweden.
+
+By the action upon peat of carbonate of ammonia, which is generated to
+some extent in the decay of vegetable matters and is also absorbed from
+the air, ulmic and humic acids are made soluble, and combine with the
+ammonia as well as with lime, oxide of iron, etc. In some cases the
+ulmates and humates thus produced may be extracted from the peat by
+water, and consequently occur dissolved in the water of the swamp from
+which the peat is taken, giving it a yellow or brown color.
+
+_Ulmates_ and _Humates_.--Of considerable interest to us here, are the
+properties of the compounds of these acids, that may be formed in peat
+when it is used as an ingredient of composts. The ulmates and humates of
+the alkalies, viz.: _potash_, _soda_, and _ammonia_, dissolve readily in
+water. They are formed when the alkalies or their carbonates act on
+ulmin and humin, or upon ulmates or humates of lime, iron, etc. Their
+dilute solutions are yellow, or brown.
+
+The ulmates and humates of _lime_, _magnesia_, oxide of _iron_, oxide of
+_manganese_ and _alumina_, are insoluble, or nearly so in water.
+
+In ordinary soils, the earths and oxides just named, predominate over
+the alkalies, and although they may contain considerable ulmic and humic
+acids, water is able to extract but very minute quantities of the
+latter, on account of the insolubility of the compounds they have
+formed.
+
+On the other hand, peat, highly manured garden soil, leaf-mold, rotted
+manure and composts, yield yellow or brown extracts with water, from the
+fact that alkalies are here present to form soluble compounds.
+
+An important fact established by Mulder is, that when solutions of
+alkali-carbonates are put in contact with the insoluble ulmates and
+humates, the latter are decomposed; soluble alkali-ulmates and humates
+being formed, and _in these, a portion of the otherwise insoluble
+ulmates and humates dissolve_, so that thus, in a compost, lime,
+magnesia, oxide of iron, and even alumina may exist in soluble
+combinations, by the agency of these acids.
+
+_Crenates_ and _Apocrenates_.--The ulmic and humic acids when separated
+from their compounds, are nearly insoluble, and, so far as we know,
+comparatively inert bodies; by further change, (uniting with oxygen)
+they pass into or yield the crenic and apocrenic acids which, according
+to Mulder, have an acid taste, being freely soluble in water, and in all
+respects, decided acids. The compounds of both these acids with the
+alkalies are soluble. The crenates of lime, magnesia, and protoxide of
+iron are soluble, crenates of peroxide of iron and of oxide of manganese
+are but very slightly soluble; crenate of alumina is insoluble. The
+apocrenates of iron and manganese are slightly soluble; those of lime,
+magnesia, and alumina are insoluble. All the insoluble crenates and
+apocrenates, are soluble in solutions of the corresponding salts of the
+alkalies.
+
+Application of these facts will be given in subsequent paragraphs. It
+may be here remarked, that the crenate of protoxide of iron is not
+unfrequently formed in considerable quantity in peat-bogs, and
+dissolving in the water of springs gives them a chalybeate character.
+Copious springs of this kind occur at the edge of a peat-bed at
+Woodstock, Conn., which are in no small repute for their medicinal
+qualities, having a tonic effect from the iron they contain. Such
+waters, on exposure to the air, shortly absorb oxygen, and the substance
+is thereby converted into crenate and afterwards into apocrenate of
+peroxide of iron, which, being but slightly soluble, or insoluble,
+separates as a yellow or brown ochreous deposit along the course of the
+water. By further exposure to air the organic acid is oxidized to
+carbonic acid, and hydrated oxide of iron remains. Bog-iron ore appears
+often to have originated in this way.
+
+_Gein and Geic acid._--Mulder formerly believed another substance to
+exist in peat which he called _Gein_, and from this by the action of
+alkalies he supposed geic acid to be formed. In his later writings,
+however, he expresses doubt as to the existence of such a substance,
+and we may omit further notice of it, especially since, if it really
+do occur, its properties are not distinct from those of humic acid.
+
+We should not neglect to remark, however, that the word gein has been
+employed by some writers in the sense in which we use humus, viz.: to
+denote the brown or black products of the decomposition of vegetable
+matters.
+
+It is scarcely to be doubted that other organic compounds exist in peat.
+As yet, however, we have no knowledge of any other ingredients, while it
+appears certain that those we have described are its chief constituents,
+and give it its peculiar properties. With regard to them it must
+nevertheless be admitted, that our chemical knowledge is not entirely
+satisfactory, and new investigations are urgently demanded to supply the
+deficiencies of the researches so ably made by Mulder, more than twenty
+years ago.
+
+_Elementary Composition of Peat._
+
+After this brief notice of those organic _compounds_ that have been
+recognized in or produced from peat, we may give attention to the
+elementary composition of peat itself.
+
+Like that of the vegetation from which it originates, the organic part
+of peat consists of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen. In the
+subjoined table are given the proportions of these elements as found in
+the combustible part of sphagnum, of several kinds of wood, and in that
+of a number of peats in various stages of ripeness. They are arranged in
+the order of their content of carbon.
+
+ -----------------------------------+----------+-----+-------+-----+-------
+                                    |          |_Car-|_Hydro-|_Oxy-|_Nitro-
+                                    |_Analyst._|bon._| gen._ |gen._| gen._
+ -----------------------------------+----------+-----+-------+-----+-------
+  1--Sphagnum   }                   | Websky   |49.88| 6.54  |42.42| 1.16
+  2--Peach wood } undecomposed      |Chevandier|49.90| 6.10  |43.10| 0.90
+  3--Poplar "   }                   |    "     |50.30| 6.30  |42.40| 1.00
+  4--Oak    "   }                   |    "     |50.60| 6.00  |42.10| 1.30
+  5--Peat, porous, light-brown,     |          |     |       |     |
+         sphagnous                  | Websky   |50.86| 5.80  |42.57| 0.77
+  6-- "  porous, red-brown.         | Jaeckel   |53.51| 5.90  |   40.59
+  7-- "  heavy, brown.              |    "     |56.43| 5.32  |   38.25
+  8-- "  dark red-brown,            |          |     |       |     |
+         well decomposed            | Websky   |59.47| 6.52  |31.51| 2.51
+  9-- "  black, very dense          |          |     |       |     |
+         and hard.                  |   "      |59.70| 5.70  |33.04| 1.56
+ 10-- "  black, heavy, }best quality|   "      |59.71| 5.27  |32.07| 2.59
+ 11-- "  brown, heavy, }for fuel.   |   "      |62.54| 6.81  |29.24| 1.41
+ -----------------------------------+----------+-----+-------+-----+-------
+
+From this table it is seen that sphagnum, and the wood of our forest
+trees are very similar in composition, though not identical. Further, it
+is seen from analyses 1 and 5, that in the first stages of the
+conversion of sphagnum into peat--which are marked by a change of color,
+but in which the form of the sphagnum is to a considerable extent
+preserved--but little alteration occurs in ultimate composition; about
+one _per cent._ of carbon being gained, and one of hydrogen lost. We
+notice in running down the columns that as the peat becomes heavier and
+darker in color, it also becomes richer in carbon and poorer in oxygen.
+Hydrogen varies but slightly.
+
+As a general statement we may say that the ripest and heaviest peat
+contains 10 or 12 _per cent._ more carbon and 10 or 12 _per cent._ less
+oxygen than the vegetable matter from which it is produced; while
+between the unaltered vegetation and the last stage of humification, the
+peat runs through an indefinite number of intermediate stages.
+
+Nitrogen is variable, but, in general, the older peats contain the most.
+To this topic we shall shortly recur, and now pass on to notice--
+
+_The ultimate composition of the compounds of which peat consists._
+
+Below are tabulated analyses of the organic acids of peat:--
+
+                                     _Carbon._  _Hydrogen._  _Oxygen._
+ Ulmic acid, artificial from sugar     67.10       4.20        28.70
+ Humic acid, from Frisian peat         61.10       4.30        34.60
+ Crenic acid                           56.47       2.74        40.78
+ Apocrenic acid                        45.70       4.80        49.50
+
+It is seen that the amount of carbon diminishes from ulmic acid to
+apocrenic, that of oxygen increases in the same direction and to the
+same extent, viz.: about 21 _per cent._, while the hydrogen remains
+nearly the same in all.
+
+b. _The mineral part of peat, which remains as ashes_ when the organic
+matters are burned away, is variable in quantity and composition.
+Usually a portion of sand or soil is found in it, and this not
+unfrequently constitutes its larger portion. Some peats leave on burning
+much carbonate of lime; others chiefly sulphate of lime; the ash of
+others again is mostly oxyd of iron; silicic, and phosphoric acids,
+magnesia, potash, soda, alumina and chlorine, also occur in small
+quantities in the ash of all peats.
+
+With one exception (alumina) all these bodies are important ingredients
+of agricultural plants.
+
+In some rare instances, peats are found, which are so impregnated with
+soluble sulphates of iron and alumina, as to yield these salts to water
+in large quantity; and sulphate of iron (green vitriol,) has actually
+been manufactured from such peats, which in consequence have been
+characterized as _vitriol peats_.
+
+Those bases (lime, oxide of iron, etc.,) which are found as carbonates
+or simple oxides in the ashes, exist in the peat itself in combination
+with the humic and other organic acids. When these compounds are
+destroyed by burning, the bases remain united to carbonic acid.
+
+5.--_Chemical Changes that occur in the formation of Peat._ When a plant
+perishes, its conversion into humus usually begins at once. When exposed
+to the atmosphere, the oxygen of the air attacks it, uniting with its
+carbon producing carbonic acid gas, and with its hydrogen generating
+water. This action goes on, though slowly, even at some depth under
+water, because the latter dissolves oxygen from the air in small
+quantity,[2] and constantly resupplies itself as rapidly as the gas is
+consumed.
+
+Whether exposed to the air or not, the organic matter suffers internal
+decomposition, and portions of its elements assume the gaseous or liquid
+form. We have seen that ripe peat is 10 to 12 _per cent._ richer in
+carbon and equally poorer in oxygen, than the vegetable matters from
+which it originates. Organic matters, in passing into peat, lose carbon
+and nitrogen; but they lose oxygen more rapidly than the other two
+elements, and hence the latter become relatively more abundant. The loss
+of hydrogen is such that its proportion to the other elements is but
+little altered.
+
+The bodies that separate from the decomposing vegetable matter are
+carbonic acid gas, carburetted hydrogen (marsh gas), nitrogen gas, and
+water.
+
+Carbonic acid is the most abundant gaseous product of the peaty
+decomposition. Since it contains nearly 73 _per cent._ of oxygen and but
+27 _per cent._ of carbon, it is obvious that by its escape the
+proportion of carbon in the residual mass is increased. In the formation
+of water from the decaying matters, 1 part of hydrogen carries off 8
+parts of oxygen, and this change increases the proportion of carbon and
+of hydrogen. Marsh gas consists of one part of hydrogen to three of
+carbon, but it is evolved in comparatively small quantity, and hence has
+no effect in diminishing the _per cent._ of carbon.
+
+The gas that bubbles up through the water of a peat-bog, especially if
+the decomposing matters at the bottom be stirred, consists largely of
+marsh gas and nitrogen, often with but a small proportion of carbonic
+acid. Thus Websky found in gas from a peat-bed
+
+ Carbonic acid     2.97
+ Marsh gas        43.36
+ Nitrogen         53.67
+                 ------
+                 100.00
+
+Carbonic acid, however, dissolves to a considerable extent in water, and
+is furthermore absorbed by the living vegetation, which is not true of
+marsh gas and nitrogen; hence the latter escape while the former does
+not. Nitrogen escapes in the uncombined state, as it always (or usually)
+does in the decay of vegetable and animal matters that contain it. Its
+loss is, in general, slower than that of the other elements, and it
+sometimes accumulates in the peat in considerable quantity. A small
+portion of nitrogen unites with hydrogen, forming ammonia, which remains
+combined with the humic and other acids.
+
+
+PART II.
+
+ON THE AGRICULTURAL USES OF PEAT AND
+SWAMP MUCK.
+
+
+After the foregoing account of the composition of peat, we may proceed
+to notice:
+
+1.--_The characters that adapt it for agricultural uses._
+
+These characters are conveniently discussed under two heads, viz.:
+
+Those which render it useful in improving the texture and physical
+characters of the soil, and indirectly contribute to the nourishment of
+crops,--characters which constitute it an _amendment_ to the soil (_A_);
+and
+
+Those which make it a direct _fertilizer_ (_B_).
+
+A.--Considered as an amendment, the value of peat depends upon
+
+_Its remarkable power of absorbing and retaining water, both as a liquid
+and as a vapor_ (I):
+
+_Its power of absorbing ammonia_ (II):
+
+_Its effect in promoting the disintegration and solution of mineral
+ingredients, that is the stony matters of the soil_ (III): _and_
+
+_Its influence on the temperature of the soil_ (IV).
+
+The agricultural importance of these properties of peat is best
+illustrated by considering the faults of a certain class of soils.
+
+Throughout the State of Connecticut, for instance, are found abundant
+examples of light, leachy, hungry soils, which consist of coarse sand or
+fine gravel; are surface-dry in a few hours after the heaviest rains,
+and in the summer drouths, are as dry as an ash-heap to a depth of
+several or many feet.
+
+These soils are easy to work, are ready for the plow early in the
+spring, and if well manured give fair crops in wet seasons. In a dry
+summer, however, they yield poorly, or fail of crops entirely; and, at
+the best, they require constant and very heavy manuring to keep them in
+heart.
+
+Crops fail on these soils from two causes, viz.; _want of moisture_ and
+_want of food_. Cultivated plants demand as an indispensable condition
+of their growth and perfection, to be supplied with water in certain
+quantities, which differ with different crops. Buckwheat will flourish
+best on dry soils, while cranberries and rice grow in swamps.
+
+Our ordinary cereal, root, forage and garden crops require a medium
+degree of moisture, and with us it is in all cases desirable that the
+soil be equally protected from excess of water and from drouth. Soils
+must be thus situated either naturally, or as the result of improvement,
+before any steadily good results can be obtained in their cultivation.
+The remedy for excess of water in too heavy soils, is thorough drainage.
+It is expensive, but effectual. It makes the earth more porous, opens
+and maintains channels, through which the surplus water speedily runs
+off, and permits the roots of crops to go down to a considerable depth.
+
+What, let us consider, is the means of obviating the defects of soils
+that are naturally too porous, from which the water runs off too
+readily, and whose crops "burn up" in dry seasons?
+
+In wet summers, these light soils, as we have remarked, are quite
+productive if well manured. It is then plain that if we could add
+anything to them which would retain the moisture of dews and rains in
+spite of the summer-heats, our crops would be uniformly fair, provided
+the supply of manure were kept up.
+
+But why is it that light soils, need more manure than loamy or heavy
+lands? We answer--because, in the first place the rains which quickly
+descend through the open soil, wash down out of the reach of vegetation
+the soluble fertilizing matters, especially the nitrates, for which the
+soil has no retentive power; and in the second place, from the porosity
+of the soil, the air has too great access, so that the vegetable and
+animal matters of manures decay too rapidly, their volatile portions,
+ammonia and carbonic acid, escape into the atmosphere, and are in
+measure lost to the crops. From these combined causes we find that a
+heavy dressing of well-rotted stable manure, almost if not entirely,
+disappears from such soils in one season, so that another year the field
+requires a renewed application; while on loamy soils the same amount of
+manure would have lasted several years, and produced each year a better
+effect.
+
+We want then to _amend_ light soils by incorporating with them something
+that prevents the rains from leaching through them too rapidly, and also
+that renders them less open to the air, or absorbs and retains for the
+use of crops the volatile products of the decay of manures.
+
+For these purposes, vegetable matter of some sort is the best and almost
+the only amendment that can be economically employed. In many cases a
+good peat or muck is the best form of this material, that lies at the
+farmer's command.
+
+I.--_Its absorbent power for liquid water_ is well known to every farmer
+who has thrown it up in a pile to season for use. It holds the water
+like a sponge, and, according to its greater or less porosity, will
+retain from 50 to 100 or more _per cent._ of its weight of liquid,
+without dripping. Nor can this water escape from it rapidly. It dries
+almost as slowly as clay, and a heap of it that has been exposed to sun
+and wind for a whole summer, though it has of course lost much water, is
+still distinctly wet to the eye and the feel a little below the surface.
+
+_Its absorbent power for vapor of water_ is so great that more than once
+it has happened in Germany, that barns or close sheds filled with
+partially dried peat, such as is used for fuel, have been burst by the
+swelling of the peat in damp weather, occasioned by the absorption of
+moisture from the air. This power is further shown by the fact that when
+peat has been kept all summer long in a warm room, thinly spread out to
+the air, and has become like dry snuff to the feel, it still contains
+from 8 to 30 _per cent._ (average 15 _per cent._) of water. To dry a
+peat thoroughly, it requires to be exposed for some time to the
+temperature of boiling water. It is thus plain, as experience has
+repeatedly demonstrated, that no ordinary summer heats can dry up a soil
+which has had a good dressing of this material, for on the one hand, it
+soaks up and holds the rains that fall upon it, and on the other, it
+absorbs the vapor of water out of the atmosphere whenever it is moist,
+as at night and in cloudy weather.
+
+When peat has once become _air-dry_, it no longer manifests this avidity
+for water. In drying it shrinks, loses its porosity and requires long
+soaking to saturate it again. In the soil, however, it rarely becomes
+air-dry, unless indeed, this may happen during long drouth with a peaty
+soil, such as results from the draining of a bog.
+
+II.--_Absorbent power for ammonia._
+
+All soils that deserve to be called fertile, have the property of
+absorbing and retaining ammonia and the volatile matters which escape
+from fermenting manures, but light and coarse soils may be deficient in
+this power. Here again in respect to its absorptive power for ammonia,
+peat comes to our aid.
+
+It is easy to show by direct experiment that peat absorbs and combines
+with ammonia.
+
+In 1858 I took a weighed quantity of air-dry peat from the New Haven
+Beaver Pond, (a specimen furnished me by Chauncey Goodyear, Esq.,) and
+poured upon it a known quantity of dilute solution of ammonia, and
+agitated the two together occasionally during 48 hours. I then distilled
+off at a boiling heat the unabsorbed ammonia and determined its
+quantity. This amount subtracted from that of the ammonia originally
+employed, gave the quantity of ammonia absorbed and retained by the peat
+at the temperature of boiling water.
+
+The peat retained ammonia to the amount of 0.95 of _one per cent._
+
+I made another trial at the same time with carbonate of ammonia, adding
+excess of solution of this salt to a quantity of peat, and exposing it
+to the heat of boiling water, until no smell of ammonia was perceptible.
+The entire nitrogen in the peat was then determined, and it was found
+that the dry peat which originally contained nitrogen equivalent to 2.4
+_per cent._ of ammonia, now yielded an amount corresponding to 3.7 _per
+cent._ The quantity of ammonia absorbed and retained at a temperature
+of 212 deg., was thus 1.3 _per cent._
+
+This last experiment most nearly represents the true power of
+absorption; because, in fermenting manures, ammonia mostly occurs in the
+form of carbonate, and this is more largely retained than free ammonia,
+on account of its power of decomposing the humate of lime, forming with
+it carbonate of lime and humate of ammonia.
+
+The absorbent power of peat is well shown by the analyses of three
+specimens, sent me in 1858, by Edwin Hoyt, Esq., of New Canaan, Conn.
+The first of these was the swamp muck he employed. It contained in the
+air-dry state nitrogen equivalent to 0.58 _per cent._ of ammonia. The
+second sample was the same muck that had lain under the flooring of the
+horse stables, and had been, in this way, partially saturated with
+urine. It contained nitrogen equivalent to 1.15 _per cent._ of ammonia.
+The third sample was, finally, the same muck composted with white-fish.
+It contained nitrogen corresponding to 1.31 _per cent._ of ammonia.[3]
+
+The quantities of ammonia thus absorbed, both in the laboratory and
+field experiments are small--from 0.7 to 1.3 _per cent._ The absorption
+is without doubt chiefly due to the organic matter of the peats, and in
+all the specimens on which these trials were made, the proportion of
+inorganic matter is large. The results therefore become a better
+expression of the power of _peat_, in general, to absorb ammonia, if we
+reckon them on the organic matter alone. Calculated in this way, the
+organic matter of the Beaver Pond peat (which constitutes but 68 _per
+cent._ of the dry peat) absorbs 1.4 _per cent._ of free ammonia, and 1.9
+_per cent._ of ammonia out of the carbonate of ammonia.
+
+Similar experiments, by Anderson, on a Scotch peat, showed it to
+possess, when wet, an absorptive power of 2 _per cent._, and, after
+drying in the air, it still retained 1.5 _per cent._--[Trans. Highland
+and Ag'l Soc'y.]
+
+When we consider how small an ingredient of most manures nitrogen is,
+viz.: from one-half to three-quarters of one _per cent._ in case of
+stable manure, and how little of it, in the shape of guano for instance,
+is usually applied to crops--not more than 40 to 60 lbs. to the acre,
+(the usual dressings with guano are from 250 to 400 lbs. per acre, and
+nitrogen averages but 15 _per cent._ of the guano), we at once perceive
+that an absorptive power of one or even one-half _per cent._ is greatly
+more than adequate for every agricultural purpose.
+
+III.--_Peat promotes the disintegration of the soil._
+
+The soil is a storehouse of food for crops; the stores it contains are,
+however, only partly available for immediate use. In fact, by far the
+larger share is locked up, as it were, in insoluble combinations, and
+only by a slow and gradual change can it become accessible to the plant.
+This change is largely brought about by the united action of _water_ and
+_carbonic acid gas_. Nearly all the rocks and minerals out of which
+fertile soils are formed,--which therefore contain those inorganic
+matters that are essential to vegetable growth,--though very slowly
+acted on by pure water, are decomposed and dissolved to a much greater
+extent by water, charged with carbonic acid gas.
+
+It is by these solvents that the formation of soil from broken rocks is
+to a great extent due. Clay is invariably a result of their direct
+action upon rocks. The efficiency of the soil depends greatly upon their
+chemical influence.
+
+_The only abundant source of carbonic acid in the soil, is decaying
+vegetable matter._
+
+Hungry, leachy soils, from their deficiency of vegetable matter and of
+moisture, do not adequately yield their own native resources to the
+support of crops, because the conditions for converting their fixed into
+floating capital are wanting. Such soils dressed with peat or green
+manured, at once acquire the power of retaining water, and keep that
+water ever charged with carbonic acid: thus not only the extraneous
+manures which the farmer applies are fully economized; but the soil
+becomes more productive from its own stores of fertility which now begin
+to be unlocked and available.
+
+Dr. Peters, of Saxony, has made some instructive experiments that are
+here in point. He filled several large glass jars, (2-1/2 feet high and
+5-1/2 inches wide) with a rather poor loamy sand, containing
+considerable humus, and planted in each one, June 14, 1857, an equal
+number of seeds of oats and peas. Jar No. 2 had daily passed into it
+through a tube, adapted to the bottom, about 3-1/4 pints of common air.
+No. 3 received daily the same bulk of a mixture of air and carbonic acid
+gas, of which the latter amounted to one-fourth. No. 1 remained without
+any treatment of this kind, _i. e._: in just the condition of the soil
+in an open field, having no air in its pores, save that penetrating it
+from the atmosphere. On October 3, the plants were removed from the
+soil, and after drying at the boiling point of water, were weighed. The
+crops from the pots into which air and carbonic acid were daily forced,
+were about _twice as heavy_ as No. 1, which remained in the ordinary
+condition.
+
+Examination of the soil further demonstrated, that in the last two
+soils, a considerably greater quantity of mineral and organic matters
+had become soluble in water, than in the soil that was not artificially
+aerated. The actual results are given in the table below in grammes, and
+refer to 6000 grammes of soil in each case:--
+
+ ACTION OF CARBONIC ACID ON THE SOIL.
+ -----------------------------------+-----------+--------+------------
+                                    |  _No. 1,  |        |
+                                    |  Without  |_No. 2, |  _No. 3,
+ _Substances soluble in water, etc._| Artificial| Common |  Air and
+                                    | Supply of |  Air   |  Carbonic
+                                    |   Air._   | Added._|acid added._
+ -----------------------------------+-----------+--------+------------
+ Mineral matters                    |    2.04   |  3.71  |    4.99
+ Potash                             |    0.07   |  0.17  |    0.14
+ Soda                               |    0.17   |  0.23  |    0.28
+ Organic matters                    |    2.76   |  4.32  |    2.43
+                                    |           |        |
+ Weight of Crops                    |    5.89   | 10.49  |   12.35
+ -----------------------------------+-----------+--------+------------
+
+It will be seen from the above that air alone exercised nearly as much
+solvent effect as the mixture of air with one-fourth its weight of
+carbonic acid; this is doubtless, in part due to the fact that the air,
+upon entering the soil rich in humus, caused the abundant formation of
+carbonic acid, as will be presently shown must have been the case. It
+is, however, probable that organic acids (crenic and apocrenic,) and
+nitric acid were also produced (by oxidation,) and shared with carbonic
+the work of solution.
+
+It is almost certain, that the acids of peat exert a powerful
+decomposing, and ultimately solvent effect on the minerals of the soil;
+but on this point we have no precise information, and must therefore be
+content merely to present the probability. This is sustained by the fact
+that the crenic, apocrenic and humic acids, though often partly
+uncombined, are never wholly so, but usually occur united in part to
+various bases, viz.: lime, magnesia, ammonia, potash, alumina and oxide
+of iron.
+
+The crenic and apocrenic acids (that are formed by the oxidation of
+ulmic and humic acids,) have such decided acid characters,--crenic acid
+especially, which has a strongly sour taste--that we cannot well doubt
+their dissolving action.
+
+IV.--_The influence of peat on the temperature_ of light soils dressed
+with it may often be of considerable practical importance. A light dry
+soil is subject to great variations of temperature, and rapidly follows
+the changes of the atmosphere from cold to hot, and from hot to cold. In
+the summer noon a sandy soil becomes so warm as to be hardly endurable
+to the feel, and again it is on such soils that the earliest frosts take
+effect. If a soil thus subject to extremes of temperature have a dressing
+of peat, it will on the one hand not become so warm in the hot day, and
+on the other hand it will not cool so rapidly, nor so much in the night;
+its temperature will be rendered more uniform, and on the whole, more
+conducive to the welfare of vegetation. This regulative effect on
+temperature is partly due to the stores of water held by peat. In a hot
+day this water is constantly evaporating, and this, as all know, is a
+cooling process. At night the peat absorbs vapor of water from the air,
+and condenses it within its pores, this condensation is again accompanied
+with the evolution of heat.
+
+It appears to be a general, though not invariable fact, that dark
+colored soils, other things being equal, are constantly the warmest, or
+at any rate maintain the temperature most favorable to vegetation. It
+has been repeatedly observed that on light-colored soils plants mature
+more rapidly, if the earth be thinly covered with a coating of some
+black substance. Thus Lampadius, Professor in the School of Mines at
+Freiberg, a town situated in a mountainous part of Saxony, found that he
+could ripen melons, even in the coolest summers, by strewing a coating
+of coal-dust an inch deep over the surface of the soil. In some of the
+vineyards of the Rhine, the powder of a black slate is employed to
+hasten the ripening of the grape.
+
+Girardin, an eminent French agriculturist, in a series of experiments on
+the cultivation of potatoes, found that the time of their ripening
+varied eight to fourteen days, according to the character of the soil.
+He found, on the 25th of August, in a very dark soil, made so by the
+presence of much humus or decaying vegetable matter, twenty-six
+varieties ripe; in sandy soil but twenty, in clay nineteen, and in a
+white lime soil only sixteen.
+
+It cannot be doubted then, that the effect of dressing a light sandy or
+gravelly soil with peat, or otherwise enriching it in vegetable matter,
+is to render it warmer, in the sense in which that word is usually
+applied to soils. The upward range of the thermometer is not, indeed,
+increased, but the uniform warmth so salutary to our most valued crops
+is thereby secured.
+
+In the light soils stable-manure wastes too rapidly because, for one
+reason, at the extremes of high temperature, oxidation and decay proceed
+with great rapidity, and the volatile portions of the fertilizer are
+used up faster than the plant can appropriate them, so that not only are
+they wasted during the early periods of growth, but they are wanting at
+a later period when their absence may prove the failure of a crop.
+
+
+B. The ingredients and qualities which make peat _a direct fertilizer_
+next come under discussion. We shall notice:
+
+_The organic matters including nitrogen (ammonia and nitric acid)_ (I):
+
+_The inorganic or mineral ingredients_ (II):
+
+_Peculiarities in the decay of Peat_ (III), _and_
+
+_Institute a comparison between peat and stable manure_ (IV).
+
+I.--Under this division we have to consider:
+
+1. _The organic matters as direct food to plants._
+
+Thirty years ago, when Chemistry and Vegetable Physiology began to be
+applied to Agriculture, the opinion was firmly held among scientific
+men, that the organic parts of humus--by which we understand decayed
+vegetable matter, such as is found to a greater or less extent in all
+good soils, and _abounds_ in many fertile ones, such as constitutes the
+leaf-mold of forests, such as is produced in the fermenting of stable
+manure, and that forms the principal part of swamp-muck and peat,--are
+the true nourishment of vegetation, at any rate of the higher orders of
+plants, those which supply food to man and to domestic animals.
+
+
+In 1840, Liebig, in his celebrated treatise on the "Applications of
+Chemistry to Agriculture and Physiology," gave as his opinion that these
+organic bodies do not nourish vegetation except by the products of their
+decay. He asserted that they cannot enter the plant directly, but that
+the water, carbonic acid and ammonia resulting from their decay, are the
+substances actually imbibed by plants, and from these alone is built up
+the organic or combustible part of vegetation.
+
+To this day there is a division of opinion among scientific men on this
+subject, some adopting the views of Liebig, others maintaining that
+certain soluble organic matters, viz., crenic and apocrenic acids are
+proper food of plants.
+
+On the one hand it has been abundantly demonstrated that these organic
+matters are not at all essential to the growth of agricultural plants,
+and can constitute but a small part of the actual food of vegetation
+taken in the aggregate.
+
+On the other hand, we are acquainted with no satisfactory evidence that
+the soluble organic matters of the soil and of peat, especially the
+crenates and apocrenates, are not actually appropriated by, and, so far
+as they go, are not directly serviceable as food to plants.
+
+Be this as it may, practice has abundantly demonstrated the value of
+humus as an ingredient of the soil, and if not directly, yet indirectly,
+it furnishes the material out of which plants build up their parts.
+
+2. _The organic matters of peat as indirect food to plants._ Very nearly
+one-half, by weight, of our common crops, when perfectly dry, consists
+of _carbon_. The substance which supplies this element to plants is the
+gas, carbonic acid. Plants derive this gas mostly from the atmosphere,
+absorbing it by means of their leaves. But the free atmosphere, at only
+a little space above the soil, contains on the average but 1/2500 of its
+bulk of this gas, whereas plants flourish in air containing a larger
+quantity, and, in fact, their other wants being supplied, they grow
+better as the quantity is increased to 1/12 the bulk of the air. These
+considerations make sufficiently obvious how important it is that the
+soil have in itself a constant and abundant source of carbonic acid gas.
+As before said, _organic matter, in a state of decay_, is the single
+material which the farmer can incorporate with his soil in order to make
+the latter a supply of this most indispensable form of plant-food.
+
+When organic matters decay in the soil, their carbon ultimately assumes
+the form of Carbonic acid. This gas, constantly exhaling from the soil,
+is taken up by the foliage of the crops, and to some extent is absorbed
+likewise by their roots.
+
+Boussingault & Lewy have examined the air inclosed in the interstices of
+various soils, and invariably found it much richer (10 to 400 times)
+than that of the atmosphere above. Here follow some of their results:
+
+ CARBONIC ACID IN SOILS.
+ --------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Key:
+ A - _Volumes of Carbonic acid in 100 of air in pores of Soil._
+ B - _Cubic feet of air in acre to depth of 14 inches._
+ C - _Cubic feet of Carbonic acid in acre to depth of 14 inches._
+ D - _Volumes of Carbonic acid to 100 of air above the soil._
+ E - _Cubic feet of air over one acre to height of 14 inches._
+ F - _Cubic feet of Carbonic acid over one acre to a height of 14 inches._
+
+ --------------------------------------------------------+-----+------+----
+           _Designation and Condition of Soil._          |  A  |  B   | C
+ --------------------------------------------------------+-----+------+----
+ Sandy subsoil of forest                                 |0.24 | 4,326|  14
+ Loamy   "     "   "                                     |0.82 | 3,458|  28
+ Surface soil  "   "                                     |0.86 | 5,768|  56
+ Clayey soil of artichoke field                          |0.66 |10,094|  71
+ Soil of asparagus bed, unmanured for one year           |0.79 |10,948|  86
+ "    "    "       "    newly manured                    |1.54 |10,948| 172
+ Sandy soil, six days after manuring, and three          |     |      |
+                                            days of rain.|2.21 |11,536| 257
+ "      "    ten   "    "      "      "   "              |     |      |
+                                             "   "   "   |9.74 |11,536|1144
+ Compost of vegetable mold                               |3.64 |20,608| 772
+                                                         |     |      |
+              _Carbonic Acid in Atmosphere_              |  D  |  E   | F
+                                                         |-----+------+----
+                                                         |0.025|50,820|  14
+ --------------------------------------------------------+-----+------+----
+
+From the above it is seen that in soils containing little decomposing
+organic matters--as the forest sub-soils--the quantity of carbonic acid
+is no greater than that contained in an equal bulk of the atmosphere. It
+is greater in loamy and clayey soils; but is still small. In the
+artichoke field (probably light soil not lately manured), and even in an
+asparagus bed unmanured for one year, the amount of carbonic acid is not
+greatly larger. In newly manured fields, and especially in a vegetable
+compost, the quantity is vastly greater.
+
+The organic matters which come from manures, or from the roots and other
+residues of crops, are the source of the carbonic acid of the soil.
+These matters continually waste in yielding this gas, and must be
+supplied anew. Boussingault found that the rich soil of his kitchen
+garden (near Strasburg) which had been heavily manured from the
+barn-yard for many years, lost one-third of its carbon by exposure to
+the air for three months (July, August and September,) being daily
+watered. It originally contained 2.43 _per cent._ At the conclusion of
+the experiment it contained but 1.60 _per cent._, having lost 0.83 _per
+cent._
+
+Peat and swamp-muck, when properly prepared, furnish carbonic acid in
+large quantities during their slow oxidation in the soil.
+
+3. _The Nitrogen of Peat, including Ammonia and Nitric Acid._
+
+The sources of the nitrogen of plants, and the real cause of the value
+of nitrogenous fertilizers, are topics that have excited more discussion
+than any other points in Agricultural Chemistry. This is the result of
+two circumstances. One is the obscurity in which some parts of the
+subject have rested; the other is the immense practical and commercial
+importance of this element, as a characteristic and essential ingredient
+of the most precious fertilizers. It is a rule that the most valuable
+manures, _commercially considered_, are those containing the most
+nitrogen. Peruvian guano, sulphate of ammonia, soda-saltpeter, fish and
+flesh manures, bones and urine, cost the farmer more money per ton than
+any other manures he buys or makes, superphosphate of lime excepted, and
+this does not find sale, for general purposes, unless it contains
+several _per cent._ of nitrogen. These are, in the highest sense,
+nitrogenous fertilizers, and, if deprived of their nitrogen, they would
+lose the greater share of their fertilizing power.
+
+The importance of the nitrogen of manures depends upon the fact that
+those forms (compounds) of nitrogen which are capable of supplying it to
+vegetation are comparatively scarce.
+
+It has long been known that peat contains a considerable quantity of
+nitrogen. The average amount in thirty specimens, analyzed under the
+author's direction, including peats and swamp mucks of all grades of
+quality, is equivalent to 1-1/2 _per cent._ of the air-dried substance,
+or more than thrice as much as exists in ordinary stable or yard manure.
+In several peats the amount is as high as 2.4 _per cent._, and in one
+case 2.9 _per cent._ were found.
+
+Of these thirty samples, one-half were largely mixed with soil, and
+contained from 15 to 60 _per cent._ of mineral matters.
+
+Reducing them to an average of 15 _per cent._ of water and 5 _per cent._
+of ash, they contain 2.1 _per cent._ of nitrogen, while the organic
+part, considered free from water and mineral substances, contains on the
+average 2.6 _per cent._ See table, page 90.
+
+The five peats, analyzed by Websky and Chevandier, as cited on page 24,
+considered free from water and ash, contain an average of 1.8 _per
+cent._ of nitrogen.
+
+We should not neglect to notice that peat is often comparatively poor in
+nitrogen. Of the specimens, examined in the Yale Analytical Laboratory,
+several contained but half a _per cent._ or less. So in the analyses of
+Websky, one sample contained but 0.77 _per cent._ of the element in
+question.
+
+As concerns the state of combination in which nitrogen exists in peat,
+there is a difference of opinion. Mulder regards it as chiefly occurring
+in the form of _ammonia_ (a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen), united
+to the organic acids from which it is very difficult to separate it.
+Recent investigations indicate that in general, peat contains but a
+small proportion of ready-formed ammonia.
+
+The great part of the nitrogen of peat exists in an insoluble and inert
+form: but, by the action of the atmosphere upon it, especially when
+mixed with and divided by the soil, it gradually becomes available to
+vegetation to as great an extent as the nitrogen of ordinary
+fertilizers.
+
+It appears from late examinations that weathered peat may contain
+_nitric acid_ (compound of nitrogen with oxygen) in a proportion which,
+though small, is yet of great importance, agriculturally speaking. What
+analytical data we possess are subjoined.
+
+ PROPORTIONS OF NITROGEN, ETC., IN PEAT.
+ ---------+-------------+------------+------------+---------+------------
+          |             |            |   Total    |Ammonia, |
+          |             |  Analyst.  | Nitrogen.  |per cent.|Nitric acid.
+ ---------+-------------+------------+------------+---------+------------
+ 1--Brown |             |            |            |         |
+      Peat|Air dry (?)  |Boussingault|    2.20    |  0.018  |   0.000
+ 2--Black |             |            |            |         |
+      Peat|     "       |     "      |Undetermined|  0.025  |Undetermined
+ 3--Peat  |Dried at 212 deg.|Reichardt[4]|     "      |  0.152  |   0.483
+ 4--Peat  |     "       |     "      |     "      |  0.165  |   0.525
+ 5--Peat  |     "       |     "      |     "      |  0.305  |   0.241
+ 6--Peat  |     "       |     "      |     "      |  0.335  |   0.421
+ ---------+-------------+------------+------------+---------+------------
+
+Specimens 3, 4 and 5, are swamp (or heath) mucks, and have been
+weathered for use in flower-culture. 3 and 4 are alike, save that 3 has
+been weathered a year longer than 4. They contain respectively 41, 56
+and 67 _per cent._ of organic matter.
+
+Sample 6, containing 86 _per cent._ of organic matter, is employed as a
+manure with great advantage, and probably was weathered before analysis.
+It contained 85 _per cent._ of organic substance.
+
+More important to us than the circumstance that this peat contains but
+little or no ammonia or nitric acid, and the other contains such or such
+a fraction of one _per cent._ of these bodies, is the grand fact that
+all peats may yield a good share of their nitrogen to the support of
+crops, when properly treated and applied.
+
+Under the influence of Liebig's teachings, which were logically based
+upon the best data at the disposal of this distinguished philosopher
+when he wrote 25 years ago, it has been believed that the nitrogen of a
+fertilizer, in order to be available, must be converted into ammonia and
+presented in that shape to the plant. It has been recently made clear
+that nitric acid, rather than ammonia, is the form of nitrogenous food
+which is most serviceable to vegetation, and the one which is most
+abundantly supplied by the air and soil. The value of ammonia is however
+positive, and not to be overlooked.
+
+When peat, properly prepared by weathering or composting, is suitably
+incorporated with a poor or light soil, it slowly suffers decomposition
+and wastes away. If it be wet, and air have access in limited quantity,
+especially if _lime_ be mixed with it, a portion of its nitrogen is
+gradually converted into ammonia. With full access of air _nitric acid_
+is produced. In either case, it appears that a considerable share of the
+nitrogen escapes in the free state as gas, thereby becoming useless to
+vegetation until it shall have become converted again into ammonia or
+nitric acid. It happens in a cultivated soil that the oxygen of the air
+is in excess at the surface, and less abundant as we go down until we
+get below organic matters: it happens that one day it is saturated with
+water more or less, and another day it is dry, so that at one time we
+have the conditions for the formation of ammonia, and at another, those
+favorable to producing nitric acid. In this way, so far as our present
+knowledge warrants us to affirm, organic matters, decaying in the soil,
+continuously yield portions of their nitrogen in the forms of ammonia
+and nitric acid for the nourishment of plants.
+
+The farmer who skillfully employs as a fertilizer a peat containing a
+good proportion of nitrogen, may thus expect to get from it results
+similar to what would come from the corresponding quantity of nitrogen
+in guano or stable manure.
+
+But the capacity of peat for feeding crops with, nitrogen appears not
+to stop here. Under certain conditions, _the free nitrogen of the air
+which cannot be directly appropriated by vegetation, is oxidized in the
+pores of the soil to nitric acid, and thus, free of expense to the
+farmer, his crops are daily dressed with the most precious of all
+fertilizers_.
+
+This gathering of useless nitrogen from the air, and making it over into
+plant-food cannot go on in a soil destitute of organic matter, requires
+in fact that vegetable remains or humified substances of some sort be
+present there. The evidence of this statement, whose truth was maintained
+years ago as a matter of opinion by many of the older chemists, has
+recently become nearly a matter of demonstration by the investigations of
+Boussingault and Knop, while the explanation of it is furnished by the
+researches of Schoenbein and Zabelin. To attempt any elucidation of it
+here would require more space than is at our disposal.
+
+It is plain from the contents of this paragraph that peat or swamp muck
+is, in general, an abundant source of nitrogen, and is often therefore
+an extremely cheap means of replacing the most rare and costly
+fertilizers.
+
+II.--With regard to the _inorganic matters of peat_ considered as food
+to plants, it is obvious, that, leaving out of the account for the
+present, some exceptional cases, they are useful as far as they go.
+
+In the ashes of peats, we almost always find small quantities of
+sulphate of lime, magnesia and phosphoric acid. Potash and soda too, are
+often present, though rarely to any considerable amount. Carbonate and
+sulphate of lime are large ingredients of the ashes of about one-half,
+of the thirty-three peats and swamp mucks I have examined. The ashes of
+the other half are largely mixed with sand and soil, but in most cases
+also contain considerable sulphate of lime, and often carbonates of
+lime and magnesia.
+
+In one swamp-muck, from Milford, Conn., there was found but two _per
+cent._ of ash, at least one-half of which was sand, and the remainder
+sulphate of lime, (gypsum.) In other samples 20, 30, 50 and even 60 _per
+cent._ remained after burning off the organic matter. In these cases the
+ash is chiefly sand. The amount of ash found in those peats which were
+most free from sand, ranges from five to nine _per cent._ Probably the
+average proportion of true ash, viz.: that derived from the organic
+matters themselves, not including sand and accidental ingredients, is
+not far from five _per cent._
+
+In twenty-two specimens of European peat, examined by Websky, Jaeckel,
+Walz, Wiegmann, Einhof and Berthier, eleven contained from 0.6 to 3.5
+_per cent._ of ash. The other eleven yielded from 5.3 to 22 _per cent._
+The average of the former was 2.4, that of the latter 12.7 _per cent._
+Most of these contained a considerable proportion of sand or soil.
+
+Variation in the composition as well as in the quantity of ash is very
+great.
+
+Three analyses of peat-ashes have been executed at the author's instance
+with the subjoined results:
+
+
+                      ANALYSES OF PEAT-ASHES.
+ ---------------------------+-----------+-----------+----------
+                            |     A.    |     B.    |     C.
+ Potash.                    |    0.69   |    0.80   |    3.46
+ Soda.                      |    0.58   |           |   trace.
+ Lime.                      |   40.52   |   35.59   |    6.60
+ Magnesia.                  |    6.06   |    4.92   |    1.05
+ Oxide of iron and alumina. |    5.17   |    9.08   |   15.59
+ Phosphoric acid.           |    0.50   |    0.77   |    1.55
+ Sulphuric acid.            |    5.52   |   10.41   |    4.04
+ Chlorine.                  |    0.15   |    0.43   |    0.70
+ Soluble silica.            |    8.23   |    1.40 } |
+ Carbonic acid.             |   19.60   |   22.28 } |   67.01
+ Sand.                      |   12.11   |   15.04 } |
+                            +-----------+-----------+----------
+                            |   99.13   |  100.74   |  100.00
+ ---------------------------+-----------+-----------+----------
+
+A was furnished by Mr. Daniel Buck, Jr., of Poquonock, Conn., and comes
+from a peat which he uses as fuel.
+
+B was sent by Mr. J. H. Stanwood, of Colebrook, Conn.
+
+C was sent from Guilford, Conn., by Mr. Andrew Foote.[5]
+
+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, Jaeckel 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.
+
+The causes of this variation in the ash-content of peat, deserve a
+moment's notice. The plants that produce peat contain considerable
+proportions of lime, magnesia, alkalies, sulphuric acid, chlorine and
+phosphoric acid, as seen from the following analysis by Websky.
+
+ COMPOSITION OF THE ASH OF SPHAGNUM.
+
+ Potash.                        17.2
+ Soda.                           8.3
+ Lime.                          11.8
+ Magnesia.                       6.7
+ Sulphuric acid.                 6.5
+ Chlorine.                       6.2
+ Phosphoric acid.                6.7
+     _Per cent._ of ash, 2.5.
+
+The mineral matters of the sphagnum do not all become ingredients of
+the peat; but, as rapidly as the moss decays below, its soluble matters
+are to a great degree absorbed by the vegetation, which is still living
+and growing above. Again, when a stream flows through a peat-bed,
+soluble matters are carried away by the water, which is often dark-brown
+from the substances dissolved in it. Finally the soil of the adjacent
+land is washed or blown upon the swamp, in greater or less quantities.
+
+III.--_The decomposition of peat in the soil offers some peculiarities_
+that are worthy of notice in this place. Peat is more gradual and
+regular in decay than the vegetable matters of stable dung, or than that
+furnished by turning under sod or green crops. It is thus a more steady
+and lasting benefit, especially in light soils, out of which ordinary
+vegetable manures disappear too rapidly. The decay of peat appears to
+proceed through a regular series of steps. In the soil, especially in
+contact with soluble alkaline bodies, as ammonia and lime, there is a
+progressive conversion of the _insoluble_ or _less soluble_ into
+_soluble_ compounds. Thus the inert matters that resist the immediate
+solvent power of alkalies, absorb oxygen from the air, and form the
+humic or ulmic acids soluble in alkalies; the humic acids undergo
+conversion into crenic acid, and this body, by oxidation, passes into
+apocrenic acid. The two latter are soluble in water, and, in the porous
+soil, they are rapidly brought to the end-results of decay, viz.: water,
+carbonic acid, ammonia and free nitrogen.
+
+Great differences must be observed, however, in the rapidity with which
+these changes take place. Doubtless they go on most slowly in case of
+the fibrous compact peats, and perhaps some of the lighter and more
+porous samples of swamp muck, would decay nearly as fast as rotted
+stable dung.
+
+It might appear from the above statement, that the effect of exposing
+peat to the air, as is done when it is incorporated with the soil, would
+be to increase relatively the amount of soluble organic matters; but the
+truth is, that they are often actually diminished. In fact, the
+oxidation and consequent removal of these soluble matters (crenic and
+apocrenic acids,) is likely to proceed more rapidly than they can be
+produced from the less soluble humic acid of the peat.
+
+IV.--_Comparison of Peat with Stable Manure._
+
+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.
+
+As before insisted upon, it is true in general, that peat is more slow
+of decomposition than yard-manure, and this fact, which is an advantage
+in an amendment, is a disadvantage in a fertilizer. Though there may be
+some peats, or rather swamp mucks, which are energetic and rapid in
+their action, it seems that they need to be applied in larger quantities
+than stable manure in order to produce corresponding fertilizing
+effects. In many cases peat requires some preparation by weathering, or
+by chemical action--"fermentation"--induced by decomposing animal
+matters or by alkalies. This topic will shortly be discussed.
+
+We adopt, as a general fact, the conclusion that peat is inferior in
+fertilizing power to stable manure.
+
+Experience asserts, however, with regard to some individual kinds, that
+they are equal to common yard manure without any preparation whatever.
+
+Mr. Daniel Buck, of Poquonock, Conn., says, of the 'muck,' over-lying
+the peat, whose composition has just been compared with stable manure,
+that it "has been applied fresh to meadow with good results; the grass
+is not as tall but thicker and finer, and of a darker green in the
+spring, than when barn-yard manure is spread on."
+
+A swamp muck, from Mr. A. M. Haling, Rockville, Conn., "has been used as
+a top-dressing, on grass, with excellent results. It is a good
+substitute for barn-yard manure."
+
+A peat, from Mr. Russell U. Peck, of Berlin, Conn., "has been used
+fresh, on corn and meadow, with good effect."
+
+Of the peat, from the 'Beaver Pond,' near New Haven, Mr. Chauncey
+Goodyear, says, "it has been largely used in a fresh state, and in this
+condition is as good as cow dung."
+
+Mr. Henry Keeler, remarks, concerning a swamp muck occurring at South
+Salem, N. Y., that "it has been used in the fresh state, applied to corn
+and potatoes, and appears to be equal to good barn manure:"
+further:--"it has rarely been weathered more than two months, and then
+applied side by side with the best yard manure has given equally good
+results."
+
+A few words as to the apparent contradiction between Chemistry, which
+says that peat is not equal to stable dung as a fertilizer, and
+Practice, which in these cases affirms that it is equal to our standard
+manure.
+
+In the first place, the chemical conclusion is a general one, and does
+not apply to individual peats, which, in a few instances, may be
+superior to yard manure. The practical judgment also is, that, in
+general, yard manure is the best.
+
+To go to the individual cases; second: A peat in which nitrogen exists
+in as large a proportion as is found in stable or yard manure, being
+used in larger quantity, or being more durable in its action, may for a
+few seasons produce better results than the latter, merely on account of
+the presence of this one ingredient, it may in fact, for the soil and
+crop to which it is applied, be a better fertilizer than yard manure,
+because nitrogen is most needed in that soil, and yet for the generality
+of soils, or in the long run, it may prove to be an inferior fertilizer.
+
+Again; third--the melioration of the physical qualities of a soil, the
+amendment of its dryness and excessive porosity, by means of peat, may
+be more effective for agricultural purposes, than the application of
+tenfold as much fertilizing, _i. e._ plant-feeding materials; in the
+same way that the mere draining of an over-moist soil often makes it
+more productive than the heaviest manuring.
+
+2.--_On the characters of Peat that are detrimental, or that may
+sometimes need correction before it is agriculturally useful._
+
+I.--_Bad effects on wet heavy soils._
+
+We have laid much stress on the amending qualities of peat, when applied
+to dry and leachy soils, which by its use are rendered more retentive of
+moisture and manure. These properties, which it would seem, are just
+adapted to renovate very light land, under certain circumstances, may
+become disadvantageous on heavier soils. On clays no application is
+needed to retain moisture. They are already too wet as a general thing.
+
+Peat, when put into the soil, lasts much longer than stubble, or green
+crops plowed in, or than long manure. If buried too deeply, or put into
+a heavy soil, especially if in large quantity, it does not decay, but
+remains wet, and tends to make a bog of the field itself.
+
+For soils that are rather heavy, it is therefore best to compost the
+peat with some rapidly fermenting manure. We thus get a compound which
+is quicker than muck, and slower than stable manure, etc., and is
+therefore better adapted to the wants of the soil than either of these
+would be alone.
+
+Here it will be seen that much depends on the character of the peat
+itself. If light and spongy, and easily dried, it may be used alone with
+advantage on loamy soils, whereas if dense, and coherent, it would most
+likely be a poor amendment on a soil which has much tendency to become
+compact, and therefore does not readily free itself from excess of
+water.
+
+But even a clay soil, if _thorough-drained and deeply plowed_, may be
+wonderfully improved by even a heavy dressing of muck, as then, the
+water being let off, the muck can exert no detrimental action; but
+operates as effectually to loosen a too heavy soil, as in case of sand,
+it makes an over-porous soil compact or retentive. A clay may be made
+friable, if well drained, by incorporating with it any substance as
+lime, sand, long manure or muck, which interposing between the clayey
+particles, prevents their adhering together.
+
+II.--_Noxious ingredients._
+
+a. _Vitriol peat._ Occasionally a peat is met with which is injurious if
+applied in the fresh state to crops, from its containing some substance
+which exerts a poisonous action on vegetation. The principal detrimental
+ingredients that occur in peat, appear to be sulphate of protoxide of
+iron,--the same body that is popularly known under the names copperas
+and green-vitriol,--and sulphate of alumina, the astringent component of
+alum.
+
+I have found these substances ready formed in large quantity in but one
+of the peats that I have examined, viz.: that sent me by Mr. Perrin
+Scarborough; of Brooklyn, Conn. This peat dissolved in water to the
+extent of 15 _per cent._, and the soluble portion, although containing
+some organic matter and sulphate of lime, consisted in great part of
+green-vitriol.
+
+Portions of this muck, when thrown up to the air, become covered with "a
+white crust, having the taste of alum or saltpeter."
+
+The bed containing this peat, though drained, yields but a little poor
+bog hay, and the peat itself, even after weathering for a year, when
+applied, mixed with one-fifth of stable manure to corn in the hill, gave
+no encouraging results, though a fair crop was obtained. It is probable
+that the sample analyzed was much richer in salts of iron and alumina,
+than the average of the muck.
+
+Green-vitriol in minute doses is not hurtful, but rather beneficial to
+vegetation; but in larger quantity it is fatally destructive.
+
+In a salt-marsh mud sent me by the Rev. Wm. Clift, of Stonington, Conn.,
+there was found sulphate of iron in considerable quantity.
+
+This noxious substance likewise occurred in small amount in swamp muck
+from E. Hoyt, Esq., New Canaan, Conn., and in hardly appreciable
+quantity in several others that I have examined. Besides green-vitriol,
+it is possible that certain organic salts of iron, may be deleterious.
+
+The poisonous properties of vitriol-peats may be effectually corrected
+by composting with lime, or wood-ashes. By the action of these
+substances, sulphate of lime, (plaster of Paris) is formed, while the
+iron separates as peroxide, which, being insoluble, is without
+deleterious effect on vegetation. Where only soluble organic salts of
+iron (crenate of iron) are present, simple exposure to the air suffices
+to render them innocuous.
+
+b. _The acidity of Peats._--Many writers have asserted that peat and
+muck possess a hurtful "acidity" which must be corrected before they can
+be usefully employed. It is indeed a fact, that peat consists largely of
+acids, but, except perhaps in the vitriol-peats, (those containing
+copperas,) they are so insoluble, or if soluble, are so quickly modified
+by the absorption of oxygen, that they do not exhibit any "acidity" that
+can be deleterious to vegetation. It is advised to neutralize this
+supposed acidity by lime or an alkali before using peat as a fertilizer
+or amendment, and there is great use in such mixtures of peat with
+alkaline matters, as we shall presently notice under the head of
+composts.
+
+By the word acidity is conveyed the idea of something hurtful to plants.
+This something is, doubtless, in many cases, the salts of iron we have
+just noticed. In others, it is simply the inertness, "coldness" of the
+peat, which is not positively injurious, but is, for a time at least, of
+no benefit to the soil.
+
+c. _Resinous matters_ are mentioned by various writers as injurious
+ingredients of peat, but I find no evidence that this notion is
+well-founded. The peat or muck formed from the decay of resinous wood
+and leaves does not appear to be injurious, and the amount of resin in
+peat is exceedingly small.
+
+3.--_The Preparation of Peat for Agricultural use._
+
+a. _Excavation._--As to the time and manner of getting out peat, the
+circumstances of each case must determine. I only venture here to offer
+a few hints on this subject, which belongs so exclusively to the farm.
+The month of August is generally the appropriate time for throwing up
+peat, as then the swamps are usually most free from water, and most
+accessible to men and teams; but peat is often dug to best advantage in
+the winter, not only on account of the cheapness of labor, and from
+there being less hurry with other matters on the farm at that season,
+but also, because the freezing and thawing of the peat that is thrown
+out, greatly aid to disintegrate it and prepare it for use.
+
+A correspondent of The _Homestead_, signing himself "Commentator," has
+given directions for getting out peat that are well worth the attention
+of farmers. He says:--
+
+     "The composting of muck and peat, with our stable and
+     barn-yard manures, is surely destined to become one of the
+     most important items in farm management throughout all the
+     older States at least. One of the difficulties which lie in
+     the way, is the first removal of the muck from its low and
+     generally watery bed; to facilitate this, in many locations,
+     it is less expensive to dry it before carting, by beginning an
+     excavation at the border of the marsh in autumn, sufficiently
+     wide for a cart path, throwing the muck out upon the surface
+     on each side, and on a floor of boards or planks, to prevent
+     it from absorbing moisture from the wet ground beneath; this
+     broad ditch to be carried a sufficient length and depth to
+     obtain the requisite quantity of muck. Thus thrown out, the
+     two piles are now in a convenient form to be covered with
+     boards, and, if properly done, the muck kept covered till the
+     succeeding autumn, will be found to be dry and light, and in
+     some cases may be carted away on the surface, or it may be
+     best to let it remain a few months longer until the bottom of
+     the ditch has become sufficiently frozen to bear a team; it
+     can then be more easily loaded upon a sled or sleigh, and
+     drawn to the yards and barn. In other localities, and where
+     large quantities are wanted, and it lies deep, a sort of
+     wooden railroad and inclined plane can be constructed by means
+     of a plank track for the wheels of the cart to run upon, the
+     team walking between these planks, and if the vehicle is
+     inclined to 'run off the track,' it may usually be prevented
+     by scantlings, say four inches thick, nailed upon one of the
+     tracks on each side of the place where the wheel should run.
+     Two or more teams and carts may now be employed, returning
+     into the excavation outside of this track. As the work
+     progresses, the track can be extended at both ends, and by
+     continuing or increasing the inclination at the upper end, a
+     large and high 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 Colebrook, Conn., that it "has
+been used to some extent as a top-dressing for grass and other crops
+with satisfactory results, _although no particular benefit was
+noticeable during the first year_. After that, the effects might be seen
+for a number of years."
+
+Rev. Wm. Clift observes, concerning a salt peat, from Stonington,
+Conn.:--"It has not been used fresh; is too acid; even potatoes do not
+yield well _in it the first season_, without manure."
+
+The nature of the chemical changes induced by weathering, is to some
+extent understood so far as the nitrogen, the most important fertilizing
+element, is concerned. The nitrogen of peat, as we have seen, is mostly
+inert, a small portion of it only, existing in a soluble or available
+form. By weathering, portions of this nitrogen become converted into
+nitric acid. This action goes on at the surface of the heap, where it is
+most fully exposed to the air. Below, where the peat is more moist,
+ammonia is formed, perhaps simply by the reduction of nitric acid--not
+unlikely also, by the transformation of inert nitrogen. On referring to
+the analyses given on page 44, it is seen, that the first two samples
+contain but little ammonia and no nitric acid. Though it is not stated
+what was the condition of these peats, it is probable they had not been
+weathered. The other four samples were weathered, and the weathering had
+been the more effectual from the large admixture of sand with them. They
+yielded to the analyst very considerable quantities of ammonia and
+nitrates.
+
+When a peat contains sulphate of protoxide of iron, or soluble organic
+salts of iron, to an injurious extent, these may be converted into other
+insoluble and innocuous bodies, by a sufficient exposure to the air.
+Sulphate of protoxide of iron is thus changed into sulphate of peroxide
+of iron, which is insoluble, and can therefore exert no hurtful effect
+on vegetation, while the soluble organic bodies of peat are oxydized and
+either converted into carbonic acid gas, carbonate of ammonia and water,
+or else made insoluble.
+
+It is not probable, however, that merely throwing up a well
+characterized vitriol-peat into heaps, and exposing it thus imperfectly
+to the atmosphere, is sufficient to correct its bad qualities. Such
+peats need the addition of some alkaline body, as ammonia, lime, or
+potash, to render them salutary fertilizers.
+
+c. _This brings us to the subject of composting_, which appears to be
+the best means of taking full advantage of all the good qualities of
+peat, and of obviating or neutralizing the ill results that might follow
+the use of some raw peats, either from a peculiarity in their
+composition, (soluble organic compounds of iron, sulphate of protoxide
+of iron,) or from too great indestructibility. The chemical changes
+(oxidation of _iron_ and _organic acids_), which prepare the inert or
+even hurtful ingredients of peat to minister to the support of
+vegetation, take place most rapidly in presence of certain other
+substances.
+
+The substances which rapidly induce chemical change in peats, are of two
+kinds, viz.: 1.--animal or vegetable matters that are highly susceptible
+to alteration and decay, and 2.--alkalies, either _ammonia_ coming from
+the decomposition of animal matters, or _lime_, _potash_ and _soda_.
+
+A great variety of matters may of course be employed for making or
+mixing with peat composts; but there are comparatively few which allow
+of extensive and economical use, and our notice will be confined to
+these.
+
+First of all, the composting of peat with _animal manures_ deserves
+attention. Its advantages may be summed up in two statements.
+
+1.--It is an easy and perfect method of economizing all such manures,
+even those kinds most liable to loss by fermentation, as night soil and
+horse dung; and,
+
+2.--It develops most fully and speedily the inert fertilizing qualities
+of the peat itself.
+
+Without attempting any explanation of the changes undergone by a peat
+and manure compost, further than to say that the fermentation which
+begins in the manure extends to and involves the peat, reducing the
+whole nearly, if not exactly, to the condition of well-rotted dung, and
+that in this process the peat effectually prevents the loss of nitrogen
+as ammonia,--I may appropriately give the practical experience of
+farmers who have proved in the most conclusive manner how profitable it
+is to devote a share of time and labor to the manufacture of this kind
+of compost.
+
+_Preparation of Composts with Stable Manure._--The best plan of
+composting is to have a water tight trench, four inches deep and twenty
+inches wide, constructed in the stable floor, immediately behind the
+cattle, and every morning put a bushel-basketful of muck behind each
+animal. In this way the urine is perfectly absorbed by the muck, while
+the warmth of the freshly voided excrements so facilitates the
+fermentative process, that, according to Mr. F. Holbrook, Brattleboro,
+Vt., who has described this method, _much more muck can thus be well
+prepared for use_ in the spring, than by any of the ordinary modes of
+composting. When the dung and muck are removed from the stable, they
+should be well intermixed, and as fast as the compost is prepared, it
+should be put into a compact heap, and covered with a layer of muck
+several inches thick. It will then hardly require any shelter if used in
+the spring.
+
+If the peat be sufficiently dry and powdery, or free from tough lumps,
+it may usefully serve as bedding, or litter for horses and cattle, as it
+absorbs the urine, and is sufficiently mixed with the dung in the
+operation of cleaning the stable. It is especially good in the pig-pen,
+where the animals themselves work over the compost in the most thorough
+manner, especially if a few kernels of corn be occasionally scattered
+upon it.
+
+Mr. Edwin Hoyt, of New Canaan, Conn., writes:--"Our horse stables are
+constructed with a movable floor and pit beneath, which holds 20 loads
+of muck of 25 bushels per load. Spring and fall, this pit is filled with
+fresh muck, which receives all the urine of the horses, and being
+occasionally worked over and mixed, furnishes us annually with 40 loads
+of the most valuable manure."
+
+"Our stables are sprinkled with muck every morning, at the rate of one
+bushel per stall, and the smell of ammonia, etc., so offensive in most
+stables, is never perceived in ours. Not only are the stables kept
+sweet, but the ammonia is saved by this procedure."
+
+When it is preferred to make the compost out of doors, the plan
+generally followed is to lay down a bed of weathered peat, say eight to
+twelve inches thick; cover this with a layer of stable dung, of four to
+eight inches; put on another stratum of peat, and so, until a heap of
+three to four feet is built up. The heap may be six to eight feet wide,
+and indefinitely long. It should be finished with a thick coating of
+peat, and the manure should be covered as fast as brought out.
+
+The proportions of manure and peat should vary somewhat according to
+their quality and characters. Strawy manure, or that from milch-cows,
+will "ferment" less peat than clear dung, especially when the latter is
+made by horses or highly fed animals. Some kinds of peat heat much
+easier than others. There are peats which will ferment of themselves in
+warm moist weather--even in the bog, giving off ammonia in perceptible
+though small amount. Experience is the only certain guide as to the
+relative quantities to be employed, various proportions from one to five
+of peat for one of manure, by bulk, being used.
+
+When the land is light and needs amending, as regards its retentive
+power, it is best to make the quantity of peat as large as can be
+thoroughly fermented by the manure.
+
+The making of a high heap, and the keeping it trim and in shape, is a
+matter requiring more labor than is generally necessary. Mr. J. H.
+Stanwood, of Colebrook, Conn., writes me:--
+
+"My method of composting is as follows: I draw my muck to the barn-yard,
+placing the loads as near together as I can tip them from the cart. Upon
+this I spread whatever manure I have at hand, and mix with the feet of
+the cattle, and heap up with a scraper."
+
+Peat may be advantageously used to save from waste the droppings of the
+yard.
+
+Mr. Edwin Hoyt, of New Canaan, Conn., says:--"We use muck largely in our
+barn-yards, and after it becomes thoroughly saturated and intermixed
+with the droppings of the stock, it is piled up to ferment, and the yard
+is covered again with fresh muck."
+
+Mr. N. Hart, Jr., of West Cornwall, Conn., writes:--"In the use of muck
+we proceed as follows: Soon after haying we throw up enough for a year's
+use, or several hundred loads. In the fall, the summer's accumulation in
+hog-pens and barn cellars is spread upon the mowing grounds, and a
+liberal supply of muck carted in and spread in the bottoms of the
+cellars, ready for the season for stabling cattle. When this is well
+saturated with the drippings of the stables, a new supply is added. The
+accumulation of the winter is usually applied to the land for the corn
+crop, except the finer portion, which is used to top-dress meadow land.
+A new supply is then drawn in for the swine to work up. This is added to
+from time to time, and as the swine are fed on whey, they will convert a
+large quantity into valuable manure for top-dressing mowing land."
+
+A difference of opinion exists as to the treatment of the compost. Some
+hold it indifferent whether the peat and manure are mixed, or put in
+layers when the composting begins. Others assert, that the fermentation
+proceeds better when the ingredients are stratified. Some direct, that
+the compost should not be stirred. The general testimony is, that
+mixture, at the outset, is as effectual as putting up in layers; but,
+if the manure be strawy, it is, of course, difficult or impracticable to
+mix at first. Opinion also preponderates in favor of stirring, during or
+after the fermentation.
+
+Mr. Hoyt remarks:--"We are convinced, that the oftener a compost pile of
+yard manure and muck is worked over after fermenting, the better. We
+work it over and add to it a little more muck and other material, and
+the air being thus allowed to penetrate it, a new fermentation or
+heating takes place, rendering it more decomposable and valuable."
+
+Rev. Wm. Clift, writes:--"Three or four loads of muck to one of stable
+manure, put together in the fall or winter in alternate layers, forked
+over twice before spreading and plowing in, may represent the method of
+composting."
+
+Mr. Adams White, of Brooklyn, Conn., proceeds in a different manner. He
+says:--"In composting, 20 loads are drawn on to upland in September, and
+thrown up in a long pile. Early in the spring 20 loads of stable manure
+are laid along side, and covered with the muck. As soon as it has heated
+moderately, the whole is forked over and well mixed."
+
+Those who have practiced making peat composts with their yard, stable,
+and pen manure, almost invariably find them highly satisfactory in use,
+especially upon light soils.
+
+A number of years ago, I saw a large pile of compost in the farm-yard of
+Mr. Pond, of Milford, Conn., and witnessed its effect as applied by that
+gentleman to a field of sixteen acres of fine gravelly or coarse sandy
+soil. The soil, from having a light color and excessive porosity, had
+become dark, unctuous, and retentive of moisture, so that during the
+drouth of 1856, the crops on this field were good and continued to
+flourish, while on the contiguous land they were dried up and nearly
+ruined. This compost was made from a light muck, that contained but
+three _per cent._ of ash (more than half of which was sand), and but 1.2
+_per cent._ of nitrogen, in the air-dry state--(twenty _per cent._ of
+water). Three loads of this muck were used to one of stable manure.
+
+Here follow some estimates of the value of this compost by practical
+men. They are given to show that older statements, to the same effect,
+cannot be regarded as exaggerated.
+
+Mr. J. H. Stanwood, of Colebrook, Conn., says:--"Experiments made by
+myself, have confirmed me in the opinion that a compost of equal parts
+of muck and stable manure is equal to the same quantity of stable
+manure."
+
+Mr. Daniel Buck, Jr., of Poquonock, Conn., remarks:--"8 loads of muck
+and 4 of manure in compost, when properly forked over, are equal to 12
+loads of barn-yard manure on sandy soil."
+
+Rev. Wm. Clift, of Stonington, Conn., writes:--"I consider a compost
+made of one load of stable manure and three of muck, equal in value to
+four loads of yard manure."
+
+Mr. N. Hart, Jr., of West Cornwall, Conn., observes of a peat sent by
+him for analysis:--"We formerly composted it in the yard with stable
+manure, but have remodeled our stables, and now use it as an absorbent
+and to increase the bulk of manure to double its original quantity. We
+consider the mixture more valuable than the same quantity of stable
+manure." Again, "so successful has been the use of it, that we could
+hardly carry on our farming operations without it."
+
+Mr. Adams White, of Brooklyn, Conn., states:--"The compost of equal
+bulks of muck and stable manure, has been used for corn (with plaster in
+the hill,) on dry sandy soil to great advantage. I consider the compost
+worth more per cord than the barn-yard manure."
+
+_Night Soil_ is a substance which possesses, when fresh, the most
+valuable fertilizing qualities, in a very concentrated form. It is also
+one which is liable to rapid and almost complete deterioration, as I
+have demonstrated by analyses. The only methods of getting the full
+effect of this material are, either to use it fresh, as is done by the
+Chinese and Japanese on a most extensive and offensive scale; or to
+compost it before it can decompose. The former method, will, it is to be
+hoped, never find acceptance among us. The latter plan has nearly all
+the advantages of the former, without its unpleasant features.
+
+When the night soil falls into a vault, it may be composted, by simply
+sprinkling fine peat over its surface, once or twice weekly, as the case
+may require, _i. e._ as often as a bad odor prevails. The quantity thus
+added, may be from twice to ten times the bulk of the night soil,--the
+more within these limits, the better. When the vault is full, the mass
+should be removed, worked well over and after a few days standing, will
+be ready to use to manure corn, tobacco, etc., in the hill, or for any
+purpose to which guano or poudrette is applied. If it cannot be shortly
+used, it should be made into a compact heap, and covered with a thick
+stratum of peat. When signs of heating appear, it should be watched
+closely; and if the process attains too much violence, additional peat
+should be worked into it. Drenching with water is one of the readiest
+means of checking too much heating, but acts only temporarily. Dilution
+with peat to a proper point, which experience alone can teach, is the
+surest way of preventing loss. It should not be forgotten to put a thick
+layer of peat at the bottom of the vault to begin with.
+
+Another excellent plan, when circumstances admit, is, to have the
+earth-floor where the night soil drops, level with the surface of the
+ground, or but slightly excavated, and a shed attached to the rear of
+the privy to shelter a good supply of peat as well as the compost
+itself. Operations are begun by putting down a layer of peat to receive
+the droppings; enough should be used to absorb all the urine. When this
+is nearly saturated, more should be sprinkled on, and the process is
+repeated until the accumulations must be removed to make room for more.
+Then, once a week or so, the whole is hauled out into the shed, well
+mixed, and formed into a compact heap, or placed as a layer upon a
+stratum of peat, some inches thick, and covered with the same. The
+quantity of first-class compost that may be made yearly upon any farm,
+if due care be taken, would astonish those who have not tried it. James
+Smith, of Deanston, Scotland, who originated our present system of
+Thorough Drainage, asserted, that the excrements of one man for a year,
+are sufficient to manure half an acre of land. In Belgium the manure
+from such a source has a commercial value of $9.00 gold.
+
+It is certain, that the skillful farmer may make considerably more than
+that sum from it in New England, _per annum_. Mr. Hoyt, of New Canaan,
+Conn., says:--
+
+"Our privies are deodorized by the use of muck, which is sprinkled over
+the surface of the pit once a week, and from them alone we thus prepare
+annually, enough "poudrette" to manure our corn in the hill."
+
+_Peruvian Guano_, so serviceable in its first applications to light
+soils, may be composted with muck to the greatest advantage. Guano is an
+excellent material for bringing muck into good condition, and on the
+other hand the muck most effectually prevents any waste of the costly
+guano, and at the same time, by furnishing the soil with its own
+ingredients, to a greater or less degree prevents the exhaustion that
+often follows the use of guano alone. The quantity of muck should be
+pretty large compared to that of the guano,--a bushel of guano will
+compost six, eight, or ten of muck. Both should be quite fine, and
+should be well mixed, the mixture should be moist and kept covered with
+a layer of muck of several inches of thickness. This sort of compost
+would probably be sufficiently fermented in a week or two of warm
+weather, and should be made and kept under cover.
+
+If no more than five or six parts of muck to one of guano are employed,
+the compost, according to the experience of Simon Brown, Esq., of the
+Boston _Cultivator_, (Patent Office Report for 1856), will prove
+injurious, if placed in the hill in contact with seed, but may be
+applied broadcast without danger.
+
+The _Menhaden_ or "_White fish_", so abundantly caught along our Sound
+coast during the summer months, or any variety of fish may be composted
+with muck, so as to make a powerful manure, with avoidance of the
+excessively disagreeable stench which is produced when these fish are
+put directly on the land. Messrs. Stephen Hoyt & Sons, of New Canaan,
+Conn., make this compost on a large scale. I cannot do better than to
+give entire Mr. Edwin Hoyt's account of their operations, communicated
+to me several years ago.
+
+"During the present season, (1858,) we have composted about 200,000
+white fish with about 700 loads (17,500 bushels) of muck. We vary the
+proportions somewhat according to the crop the compost is intended for.
+For rye we apply 20 to 25 loads per acre of a compost made with 4,500
+fish, (one load) and with this manuring, no matter how poor the soil,
+the rye will be as large as a man can cradle. Much of ours we have to
+reap. For oats we use less fish, as this crop is apt to lodge. For corn,
+one part fish to ten or twelve muck is about right, while for grass or
+any top-dressing, the proportion of fish may be increased."
+
+"We find it is best to mix the fish in the summer and not use the
+compost until the next spring and summer. Yet we are obliged to use in
+September for our winter rye a great deal of the compost made in July.
+We usually compost the first arrivals of fish in June for our winter
+grain; after this pile has stood three or four weeks, it is worked over
+thoroughly. In this space of time the fish become pretty well
+decomposed, though they still preserve their form and smell
+outrageously. As the pile is worked over, a sprinkling of muck or
+plaster is given to retain any escaping ammonia. At the time of use in
+September the fish have completely disappeared, bones and fins
+excepted."
+
+"The effect on the muck is to blacken it and make it more loose and
+crumbly. As to the results of the use of this compost, we find them in
+the highest degree satisfactory. We have raised 30 to 35 bushels of rye
+per acre on land that without it could have yielded 6 or 8 bushels at
+the utmost. This year we have corn that will give 60 to 70 bushels per
+acre, that otherwise would yield but 20 to 25 bushels. It makes large
+potatoes, excellent turnips and carrots."
+
+Fish compost thus prepared, is a uniform mass of fishy but not
+putrefactive odor, not disagreeable to handle. It retains perfectly all
+the fertilizing power of the fish. Lands, manured with this compost,
+will keep in heart and improve: while, as is well known to our coast
+farmers, the use of fish alone is ruinous in the end, on light soils.
+
+It is obvious that _any other easily decomposing animal matters, as
+slaughter-house offal, soap boiler's scraps, glue waste, horn shavings,
+shoddy, castor pummace, cotton seed-meal, etc., etc._, may be composted
+in a similar manner, and that several or all these substances may be
+made together into one compost.
+
+In case of the composts with yard manure, guano and other animal
+matters, the alkali, _ammonia_, formed in the fermentation, greatly
+promotes chemical change, and it would appear that this substance, on
+some accounts, excels all others in its efficacy. The other alkaline
+bodies, _potash_, _soda_ and _lime_, are however scarcely less active in
+this respect, and being at the same time, of themselves, useful
+fertilizers, they also may be employed in preparing muck composts.
+
+_Potash-lye_ and _soda-ash_ have been recommended for composting with
+muck; but, although they are no doubt highly efficacious, they are too
+costly for extended use.
+
+The other alkaline materials that may be cheaply employed, and are
+recommended, are _wood-ashes_, leached and unleached, _ashes of peat_,
+_shell marl_, (consisting of carbonate of lime,) _quick lime_, _gas
+lime_, and what is called "_salt and lime mixture_."
+
+With regard to the proportions to be used, no very definite rules can be
+laid down; but we may safely follow those who have had experience in the
+matter. Thus, to a cord of muck, which is about 100 bushels, may be
+added, of unleached wood ashes twelve bushels, or of leached wood ashes
+twenty bushels, or of peat ashes twenty bushels, or of marl, or of gas
+lime twenty bushels. Ten bushels of quick lime, slaked with water or
+salt-brine previous to use, is enough for a cord of muck.
+
+Instead of using the above mentioned substances singly, any or all of
+them may be employed together.
+
+The muck should be as fine and free from lumps as possible, and must be
+intimately mixed with the other ingredients by shoveling over. The mass
+is then thrown up into a compact heap, which may be four feet high. When
+the heap is formed, it is well to pour on as much water as the mass will
+absorb, (this may be omitted if the muck is already quite moist,) and
+finally the whole is covered over with a few inches of pure muck, so as
+to retain moisture and heat. If the heap is put up in the Spring, it may
+stand undisturbed for one or two months, when it is well to shovel it
+over and mix it thoroughly. It should then be built up again, covered
+with fresh muck, and allowed to stand as before until thoroughly
+decomposed. The time required for this purpose varies with the kind of
+muck, and the quality of the other material used. The weather and
+thoroughness of intermixture of the ingredients also materially affect
+the rapidity of decomposition. In all cases five or six months of summer
+weather is a sufficient time to fit these composts for application to
+the soil.
+
+Mr. Stanwood of Colebrook, Conn., says: "I have found a compost made of
+two bushels of unleached ashes to twenty-five of muck, superior to
+stable manure as a top-dressing for grass, on a warm, dry soil."
+
+N. Hart, Jr., of West Cornwall, Conn., states: "I have mixed 25 bushels
+of ashes with the same number of loads of muck, and applied it to 3/4 of
+an acre. The result was far beyond that obtained by applying 300 lbs.
+best guano to the same piece."
+
+The use of "_salt and lime mixture_" is so strongly recommended, that a
+few words may be devoted to its consideration.
+
+When quick-lime is slaked with a brine of common salt (chloride of
+sodium), there are formed by double decomposition, small portions of
+caustic soda and chloride of calcium, which dissolve in the liquid. If
+the solution stand awhile, carbonic acid is absorbed from the air,
+forming carbonate of soda: but carbonate of soda and chloride of calcium
+instantly exchange their ingredients, forming insoluble carbonate of
+lime and reproducing common salt.
+
+When the fresh mixture of quick-lime and salt is incorporated with _any
+porous body_, as soil or peat, then, as Graham has shown, _unequal
+diffusion_ of the caustic soda and chloride of calcium occurs from the
+point where they are formed, through the moist porous mass, and the
+result is, that the small portion of caustic soda which diffuses most
+rapidly, or the carbonate of soda formed by its speedy union with
+carbonic acid, is removed from contact with the chloride of calcium.
+
+Soda and carbonate of soda are more soluble in water and more strongly
+alkaline than lime. They, therefore, act on peat more energetically than
+the latter. It is on account of the formation of soda and carbonate of
+soda from the lime and salt mixture, that this mixture exerts a more
+powerful decomposing action than lime alone. Where salt is cheap and
+wood ashes scarce, the mixture may be employed accordingly to advantage.
+Of its usefulness we have the testimony of practical men.
+
+Says Mr. F. Holbrook of Vermont, (Patent Office Report for 1856, page
+193.) "I had a heap of seventy-five half cords of muck mixed with lime
+in the proportion of a half cord of muck to a bushel of lime. The muck
+was drawn to the field when wanted in August. A bushel of salt to six
+bushels of lime was dissolved in water enough to slake the lime down to
+a fine dry powder, the lime being slaked no faster than wanted, and
+spread immediately while warm, over the layers of muck, which were about
+six inches thick; then a coating of lime and so on, until the heap
+reached the height of five feet, a convenient width, and length enough
+to embrace the whole quantity of the muck. In about three weeks a
+powerful decomposition was apparent, and the heap was nicely overhauled,
+nothing more being done to it till it was loaded the next Spring for
+spreading. The compost was spread on the plowed surface of a dry sandy
+loam at the rate of about fifteen cords to the acre, and harrowed in.
+The land was planted with corn and the crop was more than sixty bushels
+to the acre."
+
+Other writers assert that they "have decomposed with this mixture, spent
+tan, saw dust, corn stalks, swamp muck, leaves from the woods, indeed
+every variety of inert substance, and in _much shorter time than it
+could be done by any other means_." (Working Farmer, Vol. III. p. 280.)
+
+Some experiments that have a bearing on the efficacy of this compost
+will be detailed presently.
+
+There is no doubt that the soluble and more active (caustic) forms of
+alkaline bodies exert a powerful decomposing and solvent action on peat.
+It is asserted too that the _nearly insoluble and less active matters of
+this kind_, also have an effect, though a less complete and rapid one.
+Thus, _carbonate of lime_ in the various forms of chalk, shell marl,[6]
+old mortar, leached ashes and peat ashes, (for in all these it is the
+chief and most "alkaline" ingredient,) is recommended to compost with
+peat. Let us inquire whether carbonate of lime can really exert any
+noticeable influence in improving the fertilizing quality of peat.
+
+In the case of vitriol peats, carbonate of lime is the cheapest and most
+appropriate means of destroying the noxious sulphate of protoxide of
+iron, and correcting their deleterious quality. When carbonate of lime
+is brought in contact with sulphate of protoxide of iron, the two bodies
+mutually decompose, with formation of sulphate of lime (gypsum) and
+carbonate of protoxide of iron. The latter substance absorbs oxygen from
+the air with the utmost avidity, and passes into the peroxide of iron,
+which is entirely inert.
+
+The admixture of any earthy matter with peat, will facilitate its
+decomposition, and make it more active chemically, in so far as it
+promotes the separation of the particles of the peat from each other,
+and the consequent access of air. This benefit may well amount to
+something when we add to peat one-fifth of its bulk of marl or leached
+ashes, but the question comes up: Do these insoluble mild alkalies exert
+any direct action? Would not as much soil of any kind be equally
+efficacious, by promoting to an equal degree the contact of oxygen from
+the atmosphere?
+
+There are two ways in which carbonate of lime may exert a chemical
+action on the organic matters of peat. Carbonate of lime, itself, in the
+forms we have mentioned, is commonly called insoluble in water. It is,
+however, soluble to a very slight extent; it dissolves, namely, in about
+30,000 times its weight of pure water. It is nearly thirty times more
+soluble in water saturated with carbonic acid; and this solution has
+distinct alkaline characters. Since the water contained in a heap of
+peat must be considerably impregnated with carbonic acid, it follows
+that when carbonate of lime is present, the latter must form a
+solution, very dilute indeed, but still capable of some direct effect on
+the organic matters of the peat, when it acts through a long space of
+time. Again, it is possible that the solution of carbonate of lime in
+carbonic acid, may act to liberate some ammonia from the soluble
+portions of the peat, and this ammonia may react on the remainder of the
+peat to produce the same effects as it does in the case of a compost
+made with animal matters.
+
+Whether the effects thus theoretically possible, amount to anything
+practically important, is a question of great interest. It often happens
+that opinions entertained by practical men, not only by farmers, but by
+mechanics and artisans as well, are founded on so untrustworthy a basis,
+are supported by trials so destitute of precision, that their accuracy
+may well be doubted, and from all the accounts I have met with, it does
+not seem to have been well established, practically, that composts made
+with carbonate of lime, are better than the peat and carbonate used
+separately.
+
+Carbonate of lime (leached ashes, shell marl, etc.), is very well to use
+_in conjunction with_ peat, to furnish a substance or substances needful
+to the growth of plants, and supply the deficiencies of peat as regards
+composition. Although in the agricultural papers, numerous accounts of
+the efficacy of such mixtures are given, we do not learn from them
+whether these bodies exert any such good effect upon the peat itself, as
+to warrant the trouble of making a _compost_.
+
+4.--_Experiments by the author on the effect of alkaline bodies in
+developing the fertilizing power of Peat._
+
+During the summer of 1862, the author undertook a series of experiments
+with a view of ascertaining the effect of various composting materials
+upon peat.
+
+Two bushels of peat were obtained from a heap that had been weathering
+for some time on the "Beaver Meadow," near New Haven. This was
+thoroughly air-dried, then crushed by the hand, and finally rubbed
+through a moderately fine sieve. In this way, the peat was brought to a
+perfectly homogeneous condition.
+
+Twelve-quart flower-pots, new from the warehouse, were filled as
+described below; the trials being made in duplicate:--
+
+Pots 1 and 2 contained each 270 grammes of peat.
+
+Pots 3 and 4 contained each 270 grammes of peat, mixed-with 10 grammes
+of ashes of young grass.
+
+Pots 5 and 6 contained each 270 grammes of peat, 10 grammes of ashes,
+and 10 grammes of carbonate of lime.
+
+Pots 7 and 8 contained each 270 grammes of peat, 10 grammes of ashes,
+and 10 grammes of slaked (hydrate of) lime.
+
+Pots 9 and 10 contained each 270 grammes of peat, 10 grammes of ashes,
+and 5 grammes of lime, slaked with strong solution of common salt.
+
+Pots 11 and 12 contained each 270 grammes of peat, 10 grammes of ashes,
+and 3 grammes of Peruvian guano.
+
+In each case the materials were thoroughly mixed together, and so much
+water was cautiously added as served to wet them thoroughly. Five
+kernels of dwarf (pop) corn were planted in each pot, the weight of each
+planting being carefully ascertained.
+
+The pots were disposed in a glazed case within a cold grapery,[7] and
+were watered when needful with pure water. The seeds sprouted duly, and
+developed into healthy plants. The plants served thus as tests of the
+chemical effect of carbonate of lime, of slaked lime, and of salt and
+lime mixture, on the peat. The guano pots enabled making a comparison
+with a well-known fertilizer. The plants were allowed to grow until
+those best developed, enlarged above, not at the expense of the peat,
+etc., but of their own lower leaves, as shown by the withering of the
+latter. They were then cut, and, after drying in the air, were weighed
+with the subjoined results.
+
+                 VEGETATION EXPERIMENTS IN PEAT COMPOSTS.
+ KEY
+ A - _Weight of crops in grammes._
+ B - _Comparative weight of crops, the sum of 1. and 2. taken as unity._
+ C - _Ratio of weight of crops to weight of seeds, the latter assumed
+     as unity._
+
+ -------------------------------------------+---------------+----+-------
+ _Nos._       _Medium of Growth._           |      A        |  B |    C
+ -------------------------------------------+---------------+----+-------
+   1 }                                      |  1.61}        |    |
+   2 }  Peat alone.                         |  2.59}   4.20 |  1 |  2-1/2
+                                            |               |    |
+   3 }                                      | 14.19}        |    |
+   4 }  Peat, and ashes of grass,           | 18.25}  32.44 |  8 | 20-1/2
+                                            |               |    |
+   5 }                                      | 18.19}        |    |
+   6 }  Peat, ashes, and carbonate of lime, | 20.25}  38.44 |  9 | 25-1/2
+                                            |               |    |
+   7 }                                      | 21.49}        |    |
+   8 }  Peat, ashes, and slaked lime,       | 20.73}  42.22 | 10 | 28-1/2
+                                            |               |    |
+   9 }                                      | 23.08}        |    |
+  10 }  Peat, ashes, slaked lime, and salt, | 23.34}  46.42 | 11 | 30-1/2
+                                            |               |    |
+  11 }                                      | 26.79}        |    |
+  12 }  Peat, ashes, and Peruvian Guano,    | 26.99}  53.78 | 13 | 35-1/2
+ -------------------------------------------+---------------+----+-------
+
+Let us now examine the above results. The experiments 1 and 2,
+demonstrate that the peat itself is deficient in something needful to
+the plant. In both pots, but 4.2 grammes of crop were produced, a
+quantity two and a half times greater than that of the seeds, which
+weighed 1.59 grammes. The plants were pale in color, slender, and
+reached a height of but about six inches.
+
+Nos. 3 and 4 make evident what are some of the deficiencies of the peat.
+A supply of mineral matters, such as are contained in all plants, being
+made by the addition of _ashes_, consisting chiefly of phosphates,
+carbonates and sulphates of lime, magnesia and potash, a crop is
+realized nearly eight times greater than in the previous cases; the
+yield being 32.44 grammes, or 20-1/2 times the weight of the seed. The
+quantity of ashes added, viz.:--10 grammes, was capable of supplying
+every mineral element, greatly in excess of the wants of any crop that
+could be grown in a quart of soil. The plants in pots 3 and 4 were much
+stouter than those in 1 and 2, and had a healthy color.
+
+The experiments 5 and 6 appear to demonstrate that _carbonate of lime_
+considerably aided in converting the peat itself into plant-food. The
+ashes alone contained enough carbonate of lime to supply the wants of
+the plant in respect to that substance. More carbonate of lime could
+only operate by acting on the organic matters of the peat. The amount of
+the crop is raised by the effect of carbonate of lime from 32.44 to
+38.44 grammes, or from 20-1/2 to 25-1/2 times that of the seed.
+
+Experiments 7 and 8 show, that _slaked lime_ has more effect than the
+carbonate, as we should anticipate. Its influence does not, however,
+exceed that of the carbonate very greatly, the yield rising from 38.44
+to 42.22 grammes, or from 25-1/2 to 28-1/2 times the weight of the seed.
+In fact, quick-lime can only act as such for a very short space of time,
+since it rapidly combines with the carbonic acid, which is supplied
+abundantly by the peat. In experiments 7 and 8, a good share of the
+influence exerted must therefore be actually ascribed to the carbonate,
+rather than to the quick-lime itself.
+
+In experiments 9 and 10, we have proof that the "_lime and salt
+mixture_" has a greater efficacy than lime alone, the crop being
+increased thereby from 42.22, to 46.42 grammes, or from 28-1/2 to 30-1/2
+times that of the seed.
+
+Finally, we see from experiments 11 and 12 that in all the foregoing
+cases it was a limited supply of _nitrogen_ that limited the crop; for,
+on adding Peruvian guano, which could only act by this element (its
+other ingredients, phosphates of lime and potash, being abundantly
+supplied in the ashes), the yield was carried up to 53.78 grammes, or
+35-1/2 times the weight of the seed, and 13 times the weight of the crop
+obtained from the unmixed peat.
+
+
+5.--_The Examination of Peat (muck and marsh-mud) with reference to its
+Agricultural Value._
+
+Since, as we are forced to conclude, the variations in the composition
+of peat stand in no recognizable relations to differences of appearance,
+it is only possible to ascertain the value of any given specimen by
+actual trial or by chemical investigation.
+
+The method _by practical trial_ is usually the cheaper and more
+satisfactory of the two, though a half year or more is needful to gain
+the desired information.
+
+It is sufficient to apply to small measured plots of ground, each say
+two rods square, known quantities of the fresh, the weathered, and the
+composted peat in order, by comparison of the growth and _weight_ of the
+crop, to decide the question of their value.
+
+Peat and its composts are usually applied at rates ranging from 20 to 40
+wagon or cart loads per acre. There being 160 square rods in the acre,
+the quantity proper to a plot of two rods square (= four square rods,)
+would be one half to one load.
+
+The composts with stable manure and lime, or salt and lime mixture, are
+those which, in general, it would be best to experiment with. From the
+effects of the stable manure compost, could be inferred with safety the
+value of any compost, of which animal manure is an essential ingredient.
+
+One great advantage of the practical trial on the small scale is, that
+the adaptation of the peat or of the compost to the _peculiarities of
+the soil_, is decided beyond a question.
+
+It must be borne in mind, however, that the results of experiments can
+only be relied upon, when the plots are accurately measured, when the
+peat, etc., are applied in known quantities, and when the crops are
+separately harvested and carefully weighed.
+
+If experiments are made upon grass or clover, the gravest errors may
+arise by drawing conclusions from the appearance of the standing crop.
+Experience has shown that two clover crops, gathered from contiguous
+plots differently manured, may strikingly differ in appearance, but
+yield the same amounts of hay.
+
+The _chemical examination_ of a peat may serve to inform us, without
+loss of time, upon a number of important points.
+
+To test a peat for _soluble iron salts_ which might render it
+deleterious, we soak and agitate a handful for some hours, with four or
+five times its bulk of warm soft water. From a _good fresh-water peat_
+we obtain, by this treatment, a yellow liquid, more or less deep in
+tint, the taste of which is very slight and scarcely definable.
+
+From a _vitriol peat_ we get a dark-brown or black solution, which has a
+bitter, astringent, metallic or inky taste, like that of copperas.
+
+_Salt peat_ will yield a solution having the taste of salt-brine, unless
+it contains iron, when the taste of the latter will prevail.
+
+On evaporating the water-solution to dryness and heating strongly in a
+China cup, a _vitriol peat_ gives off white choking fumes of sulphuric
+acid, and there remains, after burning, brown-red oxide of iron in the
+dish.
+
+The above testings are easily conducted by any one, with the ordinary
+conveniences of the kitchen.
+
+Those that follow, require, for the most part, the chemical laboratory,
+and the skill of the practised chemist, for satisfactory execution.
+
+Besides testing for soluble iron compounds, as already indicated, the
+points to be regarded in the chemical examination, are:--
+
+1st. _Water or moisture._--This must be estimated, because it is so
+variable, and a knowledge of its quantity is needful, if we will compare
+together different samples. A weighed amount of the peat is dried for
+this purpose at 212 deg. F., as long as it suffers loss.
+
+2d. The _proportions of organic matter and ash_ are ascertained by
+carefully burning a weighed sample of the peat. By this trial we
+distinguish between peat with 2 to 10 _per cent._ of ash and peaty soil,
+or mud, containing but a few _per cent._ of organic matter.
+
+This experiment may be made in a rough way, but with sufficient accuracy
+for common purposes, by burning a few lbs. or ozs. of peat upon a piece
+of sheet iron, or in a sauce pan, and noting the loss, which includes
+both _water_ and _organic matter_.
+
+3d. As further regards the organic matters, we ascertain _the extent to
+which the peaty decomposition has taken place_ by boiling with dilute
+solution of carbonate of soda. This solvent separates the humic and
+ulmic acids from the undecomposed vegetable fibers.
+
+For practical purposes this treatment with carbonate of soda may be
+dispensed with, since the amount of undecomposed fiber is gathered with
+sufficient accuracy from careful inspection of the peat.
+
+Special examination of the organic acids is of no consequence in the
+present state of our knowledge.
+
+4th. The _proportion of nitrogen_ is of the first importance to be
+ascertained. In examinations of 30 samples of peat, I have found the
+content of nitrogen to range from 0.4 to 2.9 _per cent._, the richest
+containing seven times as much as the poorest. It is practically a
+matter of great moment whether, for example, a Peruvian guano contains
+16 _per cent._ of nitrogen as it should, or but one-seventh that amount,
+as it may when grossly adulterated. In the same sense, it is important
+before making a heavy outlay in excavating and composting peat, to know
+whether (as regards nitrogen) it belongs to the poorer or richer sorts.
+This can only be done by the complicated methods known to the chemist.
+
+5th. The estimation of _ammonia_ (actual or ready-formed,) is a matter
+of scientific interest, but subordinate in a practical point of view.
+
+6th. _Nitric acid_ and _nitrates_ can scarcely exist in peat except
+where it is well exposed to the air, in a merely moist but not wet
+state. Their estimation in composts is of great interest, though
+troublesome to execute.
+
+7th. As regards the ash, its red color indicates _iron_. Pouring
+hydrochloric acid upon it, causes effervescence in the presence of
+_carbonate of lime_. This compound, in most cases, has been formed in
+the burning, from humate and other organic salts of lime. _Sand_, or
+_clay_, being insoluble in the acid, remains, and may be readily
+estimated.
+
+_Phosphoric acid_ and alkalies, especially _potash_, are, next to lime,
+the important ingredients of the ash. _Magnesia_ and _sulphuric acid_,
+rank next in value. Their estimation requires a number of tedious
+operations, and can scarcely be required for practical purposes, until
+more ready methods of analyses shall have been discovered.
+
+8th. The quantity of _matters soluble in water_ has considerable
+interest, but is not ordinarily requisite to be ascertained.
+
+6.--_Composition of Connecticut Peats_.
+
+In the years 1857 and 1858, the author was charged by the Connecticut
+State Agricultural Society[8] with the chemical investigation of 33
+samples of peat and swamp muck, sent to him in compliance with official
+request.
+
+In the foregoing pages, the facts revealed by the laborious analyses
+executed on these samples, have been for the most part communicated,
+together with many valuable practical results derived from the
+experience of the gentlemen who sent in the specimens. The analytical
+data themselves appear to me to be worthy of printing again, for the
+information of those who may hereafter make investigations in the same
+direction.--See Tables I, II, and III, p.p. 89, 90, and 91.
+
+The specimens came in all stages of dryness. Some were freshly dug and
+wet, others had suffered long exposure, so that they were air-dry; some
+that were sent in the moist state, became dry before being subjected to
+examination; others were prepared for analysis while still moist.
+
+A sufficient quantity of each specimen was carefully pulverized,
+intermixed, and put into a stoppered bottle and thus preserved for
+experiment.
+
+The analyses were begun in the winter of 1857 by my assistant, Edward H.
+Twining, Esq. The samples 1 to 17 of the subjoined tables were then
+analyzed. In the following year the work was continued on the remaining
+specimens 18--33 by Dr. Robert A. Fisher. The method of analysis was the
+same in both cases, except in two particulars.
+
+In the earlier analyses, 1 to 17 inclusive, the treatment with carbonate
+of soda was not carried far enough to dissolve the whole of the soluble
+organic acids. It was merely attempted to make _comparative_
+determinations by treating all alike for the same time, and with the
+same quantity of alkali. I have little doubt that in some cases not more
+than one-half of the portion really soluble in carbonate of soda is
+given as such. In the later analyses, 18 to 33, however, the treatment
+was continued until complete separation of the soluble organic acids was
+effected.
+
+By acting on a peat for a long time with a hot solution of carbonate of
+soda, there is taken up not merely a quantity of organic matter, but
+inorganic matters likewise enter solution. Silica, oxyd of iron and
+alumina are thus dissolved. In this process too, sulphate of lime is
+converted into carbonate of lime.
+
+The total amount of these soluble inorganic matters has been determined
+with approximate accuracy in analyses 18 to 33.
+
+In the analyses 1 to 17 the collective amount of matters soluble in
+water was determined. In the later analyses the proportions of organic
+and inorganic matters in the water-solution were separately estimated.
+
+The process of analysis as elaborated and employed by Dr. Fisher and the
+author, is as follows:
+
+I. To prepare a sample for analysis, half a pound, more or less, of the
+substance is pulverized and passed through a wire sieve of 24 meshes to
+the inch. It is then thoroughly mixed and bottled.
+
+II. 2 grammes of the above are dried (in tared watch-glasses) at the
+temperature of 212 degrees, until they no longer decrease in weight. The
+loss sustained represents the _amount of water_, (according to MARSILLY,
+Annales des Mines, 1857, XII., 404, peat loses carbon if dried at a
+temperature higher than 212 degrees.)
+
+III. The capsule containing the residue from I. is slowly heated to
+incipient redness, and maintained at that temperature until the organic
+matter is entirely consumed. The loss gives the total amount of
+_organic_, the residue the total amount of _inorganic_ matter.
+
+NOTE.--In peats containing sulphate of the protoxide of iron, the loss
+that occurs during ignition is partly due to the escape of sulphuric
+acid, which is set free by the decomposition of the above mentioned salt
+of iron. But the quantity is usually so small in comparison with the
+organic matter, that it may be disregarded. The same may be said of the
+combined water in the clay that is mixed with some mucks, which is only
+expelled at a high temperature.
+
+IV. 3 grammes of the sample are digested for half an hour, with 200
+cubic centimeters (66.6 times their weight,) of boiling water, then
+removed from the sand bath, and at the end of twenty-four hours, the
+clear liquid is decanted. This operation is twice repeated upon the
+residue; the three solutions are mixed, filtered, concentrated, and
+finally evaporated to dryness (in a tared platinum capsule,) over a
+water bath. The residue, which must be dried at 212 degrees, until it
+ceases to lose weight, gives the _total amount soluble in water_. The
+dried residue is then heated to low redness, and maintained at that
+temperature until the organic matter is burned off. The loss represents
+the amount of _organic matter soluble in water_, the ash gives the
+quantity of _soluble inorganic matter_.
+
+V. 1 gramme is digested for two hours, at a temperature just below the
+boiling point, with 100 cubic centimeters of a solution containing 5
+_per cent._ of crystallized carbonate of soda. It is then removed from
+the sand bath and allowed to settle. When the supernatant liquid has
+become perfectly transparent, it is carefully decanted. This operation
+is repeated until all the organic matter soluble in this menstruum is
+removed; which is accomplished as soon as the carbonate of soda solution
+comes off colorless. The residue, which is to be washed with boiling
+water until the washings no longer affect test papers, is thrown upon a
+tared filter, and dried at 212 degrees. It is the _total amount of
+organic and inorganic matter insoluble in carbonate of soda_. The loss
+that it suffers upon ignition, indicates the amount of _organic matter_,
+the ash gives the _inorganic_ matter.
+
+NOTE.--The time required to insure perfect settling after digesting with
+carbonate of soda solution, varies, with different peats, from 24 hours
+to several days. With proper care, the results obtained are very
+satisfactory. Two analyses of No. 6, executed at different times, gave
+_total insoluble in carbonate of soda_--1st analysis 23.20 _per cent._;
+2d analysis 23.45 _per cent._ These residues yielded respectively 14.30
+and 14.15 _per cent._ of ash.
+
+VI. The quantity of _organic matter insoluble in water but soluble in
+solution of carbonate of soda_, is ascertained by deducting the joint
+weight of the amounts soluble in water, and insoluble in carbonate of
+soda, from the total amount of organic matter present. The _inorganic
+matter insoluble in water, but soluble in carbonate of soda_, is
+determined by deducting the joint weight of the amounts of inorganic
+matter soluble in water, and insoluble in carbonate of soda, from the
+total inorganic matter.
+
+VII. The amount of nitrogen is estimated by the combustion of 1 gramme
+with soda-lime in an iron tube, collection of the ammonia in a standard
+solution of sulphuric acid, and determination of the residual free acid
+by an equivalent solution of caustic potash and a few drops of tincture
+of cochineal as an indicator.
+
+The results of the analyses are given in the following Tables. Table I.
+gives the direct results of analysis. In Table II. the analyses are
+calculated on dry matter, and the nitrogen upon the organic matters.
+Table III. gives a condensed statement of the external characters and
+agricultural value[9] of the samples in their different localities, and
+the names of the parties supplying them.
+
+
+ TABLE I.-COMPOSITION OF CONNECTICUT PEATS AND MUCKS.
+
+ KEY:
+ A - _Soluble in water._
+ B - _Insol. in water, but soluble in carbonate of soda._
+ C - _Insol. in water and carbonate of soda._
+ D - _Total._
+ E - _Water._
+ F - _Nitrogen._
+ G - _Total matters soluble in water._
+
+ -------------------------+-----------------------+
+                          |     ORGANIC MATTER.   |
+     _From Whom and       |-----+-----+-----+-----+
+     Whence Received_     |  A  |  B  |  C  |  D  |
+ -------------------------+~~~~~v~~~~~+-----+-----+
+  1. Lewis M. Norton.     |           |     |     |
+        Goshen Conn.      |   17.63   |34.79|52.42|
+  2.  "   "     "         |   60.02   |11.65|71.67|
+  3.  "   "     "         |   50.60   |29.75|80.35|
+  4. Messrs. Pond & Miles.|           |     |     |
+      " Milford Conn.     |   65.15   |11.95|77.10|
+  5.  "   "      "        |   67.75   |16.65|84.40|
+  6. Samuel Camp.         |           |     |     |
+       Plainville Conn.   |   43.20   | 8.90|52.10|
+  7. Russell U. Peck.     |           |     |     |
+       Berlin Conn.       |   38.49   |30.51|69.00|
+  8. Rev. B. F. Northrop. |           |     |     |
+       Griswold Conn.     |   42.30   |10.15|52.45|
+  9. J. H. Stanwood.      |           |     |     |
+       Colebrook Conn.    |   49.65   | 7.40|57.05|
+ 10. N. Hart, Jr.         |           |     |     |
+       West Cornwall Conn.|   55.11   |10.29|65.40|
+ 11. A. L. Loveland.      |           |     |     |
+        North Granby  "   |   38.27   | 2.89|41.16|
+ 12. Daniel Buck, Jr.     |           |     |     |
+        Poquonock    "    |   27.19   |48.84|76.03|
+ 13.   "     "        "   |   33.66   |40.51|74.17|
+ 14. Philip Scarborough   |           |     |     |
+        Brooklyn Conn.    |   51.45   |25.00|76.45|
+ 15. Adams White.         |           |     |     |
+        Brooklyn   "      |   54.38   |23.14|77.52|
+ 16. Paris Dyer.          |           |     |     |
+        Brooklyn   "      |   18.86   | 5.02|23.88|
+ 17. Perrin Scarborough.  |           |     |     |
+        Brooklyn Conn.    |   43.27   |16.83|60.10|
+ 18. Geo. K. Virgin.      |           |     |     |
+        Collinsville Conn.| 2.21|20.57| 8.25|31.03|
+ 19.  "   "           "   | 1.12| 9.19| 5.10|15.41|
+ 20.  "   "           "   | 0.72| 9.31| 3.65|13.68|
+ 21. S. Mead.             |     |     |     |     |
+        New Haven Conn.   | 3.30|40.52| 8.20|52.02|
+ 22. Edwin Hoyt.          |     |     |     |     |
+        New Canaan  "     | 2.84|13.42| 7.55|23.81|
+ 23.  "     "       "     | 2.34|13.49| 8.05|23.88|
+ 24.  "     "       "     | 1.15|17.29| 8.00|26.44|
+ 25. A. M. Haling.        |     |     |     |     |
+        Rockville   "     | 3.43|52.15| 8.65|64.23|
+ 26.  "     "       "     | 3.87|71.57| 8.44|83.88|
+ 27.  "     "       "     | 3.87|44.04| 4.25|52.16|
+ 28. Albert Day.          |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn    "     | 2.45|46.25| 6.35|55.05|
+ 29. C. Goodyear.         |     |     |     |     |
+        New Haven   "     | 1.80|45.42|10.35|57.57|
+ 30. Rev. Wm. Clift       |     |     |     |     |
+        Stonington  "     | 3.33|51.68| 9.80|64.81|
+ 31. Henry Keeler.        |     |     |     |     |
+        South Salem N. Y. | 2.13|45.12|12.05|59.30|
+ 32. John Adams.          |     |     |     |     |
+        Salisbury Conn.   | 1.71|42.87|10.65|55.23|
+ 33. Rev. Wm. Clift.      |     |     |     |     |
+        Stonington   "    | 5.40|16.72| 7.25|29.37|
+                          |     |     |-----|     |
+              Average     |     |     | 2.06|     |
+
+ -------------------------+-----------------------+-----+-----+-----
+                          |   INORGANIC MATTER.   |     |     |
+     _From Whom and       |-----+-----+-----+-----|     |     |
+     Whence Received_     |  A  |  B  |  C  |  D  |  E  |  F  |  G
+ -------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
+  1. Lewis M. Norton.     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Goshen Conn.      |     |     |     |35.21|12.37| 1.28| 1.54
+  2.  "   "     "         |     |     |     | 8.00|20.33| 1.85|
+  3.  "   "     "         |     |     |     | 4.52|15.13| 1.90| 2.51
+  4. Messrs. Pond & Miles.|     |     |     |     |     |     |
+      " Milford Conn.     |     |     |     | 3.23|19.67| 1.20| 1.63
+  5.  "   "      "        |     |     |     | 2.00|13.60|  .95| 3.42
+  6. Samuel Camp.         |~~~~~v~~~~~|     |     |     |     |
+       Plainville Conn.   |   14.90   |14.80|29.20|18.70| 2.10| 2.50
+  7. Russell U. Peck.     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       Berlin Conn.       |     |     |     |13.59|17.41| 1.62| 2.61
+  8. Rev. B. F. Northrop. |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       Griswold Conn.     |     |     |     |34.70|12.85| 1.31| 1.64
+  9. J. H. Stanwood.      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       Colebrook Conn.    |     |     |     | 4.57|38.38| 1.23| 1.83
+ 10. N. Hart, Jr.         |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       West Cornwall Conn.|     |     |     |14.89|19.71| 2.10| 6.20
+ 11. A. L. Loveland.      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        North Granby  "   |     |     |     |47.24|11.60| 1.00|  .75
+ 12. Daniel Buck, Jr.     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Poquonock    "    |     |     |     | 5.92|18.05| 2.40| 2.94
+ 13.   "     "        "   |     |     |     | 8.63|17.20| 2.40| 1.80
+ 14. Philip Scarborough.  |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn Conn.    |     |     |     | 7.67|15.88| 1.20| 1.43
+ 15. Adams White.         |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn   "      |     |     |     | 9.03|13.45| 2.89| 5.90
+ 16. Paris Dyer.          |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn   "      |     |     |     |67.77| 8.35| 1.03| 2.63
+ 17. Perrin Scarborough.  |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn Conn.    |     |     |     |25.78|14.12| 0.86|15.13
+ 18. Geo. K. Virgin.      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Collinsville Conn.| 0.32| 9.41|48.05|57.78|11.19| 0.64| 2.53
+ 19.  "   "           "   | 0.28| 1.08|48.65|50.01|34.58| 0.34| 1.40
+ 20.  "   "           "   | 0.25| 0.76|28.20|29.21|57.11| 0.28|  .97
+ 21. S. Mead.             |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        New Haven Conn.   | 2.60|10.02|23.90|36.52|11.46| 1.51| 5.90
+ 22. Edwin Hoyt.          |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        New Canaan  "     | 2.72|19.88|46.30|68.90| 7.29| 0.45| 5.56
+ 23.  "     "       "     | 1.54|12.42|56.20|70.16| 5.96| 0.90| 3.88
+ 24.  "     "       "     | 1.67|14.13|51.10|66.90| 6.66| 1.01| 2.82
+ 25. A. M. Haling.        |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Rockville   "     | 0.35| 0.16| 4.90| 5.41|30.36| 1.62| 3.78
+ 26.  "     "       "     | 0.23|     | 1.98| 2.21|13.91| 1.32| 4.10
+ 27.  "     "       "     | 0.51| 4.07| 5.05| 9.63|38.21| 1.88| 4.38
+ 28. Albert Day.          |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn    "     | 0.32| 0.65| 5.40| 6.37|38.58| 0.84| 2.77
+ 29. C. Goodyear.         |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        New Haven   "     | 0.35| 7.98|18.80|27.13|15.30| 1.68| 2.15
+ 30. Rev. Wm. Clift       |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Stonington  "     | 2.82|     | 5.86| 8.68|26.51| 0.95| 6.15
+ 31. Henry Keeler.        |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        South Salem N. Y. | 0.78| 3.79|16.70|21.27|19.43| 1.57| 2.91
+ 32. John Adams.          |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       Salisbury Conn.   | 1.02| 1.33|14.35|16.70|28.07| 1.76| 2.73
+ 33. Rev. Wm. Clift.      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Stonington   "    | 7.40| 6.40|48.05|61.85| 8.78| 1.32| 2.80
+                          |     |     |-----|     |     |-----|-----
+              Average     |     |     | 1.44|     |     | 1.37| 3.72
+
+
+
+TABLE II.-COMPOSITION OF CONNECTICUT PEATS AND MUCKS.
+_Calculated in the dry state: the percentage of nitrogen
+calculated also on organic matters._
+
+ KEY:
+ A - _In this table the matters soluble in water and the
+     nitrogen are calculated to two places of decimals;
+     the other ingredients are expressed in round
+     numbers._
+ B - _Soluble in water._
+ C - _Insol. in water, but soluble in carbonate of soda._
+ D - _Insol. in water and carbonate of soda._
+ E - _Total._
+ F - _Total matters soluble in water._
+ G - _Nitrogen._
+ H - _Nitrogen in per cent. of the organic matter._
+
+ -------------------------+-----------------------+
+                          |     ORGANIC MATTER.   |
+                          |-----+-----+-----+-----+
+            A             |  B  |  C  |  D  |  E  |
+ -------------------------+~~~~~v~~~~~+-----+-----+
+  1. Lewis M. Norton.     |           |     |     |
+        Goshen Conn.      |     20    |  40 |  60 |
+  2.  "   "     "         |     75    |  15 |  90 |
+  3.  "   "     "         |     60    |  35 |  95 |
+  5. Messrs. Pond & Miles.|           |     |     |
+      " Milford Conn.     |     81    |  15 |  96 |
+  5.  "   "      "        |     79    |  19 |  98 |
+  6. Samuel Camp.         |           |     |     |
+       Plainville Conn.   |     53    |  11 |  64 |
+  7. Russell U. Peck.     |           |     |     |
+       Berlin Conn.       |     46    |  37 |  83 |
+  8. Rev. B. F. Northrop. |           |     |     |
+       Griswold Conn.     |     48    |  11 |  59 |
+  9. J. H. Stanwood.      |           |     |     |
+       Colebrook Conn.    |     75    |  11 |  86 |
+ 10. N. Hart, Jr.         |           |     |     |
+       West Cornwall Conn.|     69    |  13 |  82 |
+ 11. A. L. Loveland.      |           |     |     |
+        North Granby  "   |     43    |   4 |  47 |
+ 12. Daniel Buck, Jr.     |           |     |     |
+        Poquonock     "   |     33    |  60 |  93 |
+ 13.   "     "        "   |     41    |  49 |  90 |
+ 14. Philip Scarborough.  |           |     |     |
+        Brooklyn Conn.    |     61    |  30 |  91 |
+ 15. Adams White.         |           |     |     |
+        Brooklyn   "      |     63    |  27 |  90 |
+ 16. Paris Dyer.          |           |     |     |
+        Brooklyn   "      |     21    |   5 |  26 |
+ 17. Perrin Scarborough.  |           |     |     |
+        Brooklyn Conn.    |     62    |   8 |  70 |
+ 18. Geo. K. Virgin.      |           |     |     |
+        Collinsville Conn.| 2.48|  23 |   9 |  35 |
+ 19.  "   "           "   | 1.72|  14 |   8 |  23 |
+ 20.  "   "           "   | 1.67|  22 |   8 |  32 |
+ 21. Solomon Mead.        |     |     |     |     |
+        New Haven Conn.   | 3.70|  48 |   9 |  60 |
+ 22. Edwin Hoyt.          |     |     |     |     |
+        New Canaan  "     | 3.05|  14 |   8 |  26 |
+ 23.  "     "       "     | 2.47|  14 |   8 |  25 |
+ 24.  "     "       "     | 1.23|  18 |   9 |  28 |
+ 25. A. M. Haling.        |     |     |     |     |
+        Rockville   "     | 4.90|  75 |  12 |  92 |
+ 26.  "     "       "     | 4.50|  83 |  10 |  97 |
+ 27.  "     "       "     | 6.24|  71 |   7 |  84 |
+ 28. Albert Day.          |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn    "     | 4.01|  76 |  10 |  90 |
+ 29. C. Goodyear.         |     |     |     |     |
+        New Haven   "     | 2.11|  54 |  12 |  68 |
+ 30. Rev. Wm. Clift       |     |     |     |     |
+        Stonington  "     | 4.56|  71 |  13 |  88 |
+ 31. Henry Keeler.        |     |     |     |     |
+        South Salem N. Y. | 2.66|  56 |  15 |  73 |
+ 32. John Adams.          |     |     |     |     |
+        Salisbury Conn.   | 2.37|  59 |  15 |  76 |
+ 33. Rev. Wm. Clift.      |     |     |     |     |
+        Stonington   "    | 5.93|  18 |   8 |  32 |
+ -------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+
+ -------------------------+-----------------------+-----+-----+-----
+                          |   INORGANIC MATTER.   |     |     |
+                          |-----+-----+-----+-----|     |     |
+            A             |  B  |  C  |  D  |  E  |  F  |  G  |  H
+ -------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
+  1. Lewis M. Norton.     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Goshen Conn.      |     |     |     | 40  | 1.75| 1.46| 2.25
+  2.  "   "     "         |     |     |     | 10  |     | 2.32| 2.58
+  3.  "   "     "         |     |     |     |  5  | 2.95| 2.23| 2.36
+  5. Messrs. Pond & Miles.|     |     |     |     |     |     |
+      " Milford Conn.     |     |     |     |  4  | 2.03| 1.49| 1.55
+  5.  "   "      "        |~~~~~v~~~~~|     |  2  | 3.97| 1.09| 1.12
+  6. Samuel Camp.         |    18     |  18 |     |     |     |
+       Plainville Conn.   |     |     |     | 36  | 3.08| 2.58| 4.03
+  7. Russell U. Peck.     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       Berlin Conn.       |     |     |     | 17  | 3.27| 1.96| 2.34
+  8. Rev. B. F. Northrop. |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       Griswold Conn.     |     |     |     | 41  | 1.88| 1.50| 2.49
+  9. J. H. Stanwood.      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       Colebrook Conn.    |     |     |     | 14  | 2.77| 1.99| 2.15
+ 10. N. Hart, Jr.         |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+       West Cornwall Conn.|     |     |     | 18  | 7.75| 2.61| 3.21
+ 11. A. L. Loveland.      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        North Granby  "   |     |     |     | 53  |  .85| 1.13| 2.43
+ 12. Daniel Buck, Jr.     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Poquonock    "    |     |     |     |  7  | 3.58| 2.92| 3.15
+ 13.   "     "        "   |     |     |     | 10  | 2.16| 2.89| 2.23
+ 14. Philip Scarborough.  |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn Conn.    |     |     |     |  9  | 1.70| 1.42| 1.57
+ 15. Adams White.         |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn   "      |     |     |     | 10  | 6.78| 3.33| 3.72
+ 16. Paris Dyer.          |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn   "      |     |     |     | 74  | 2.85| 1.12| 4.31
+ 17. Perrin Scarborough.  |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn Conn.    |     |     |     | 30  |17.59| 1.00| 1.43
+ 18. Geo. K. Virgin.      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Collinsville Conn.| 0.35| 11  | 54  | 65  | 2.83| 0.72| 2.06
+ 19.  "   "           "   |  .43|  2  | 75  | 77  | 2.15| 0.51| 2.20
+ 20.  "   "           "   |  .58|  2  | 66  | 68  | 2.25| 0.65| 2.04
+ 21. Solomon Mead.        |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        New Haven Conn.   | 2.92| 11  | 27  | 40  | 6.62| 1.70| 2.90
+ 22. Edwin Hoyt.          |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        New Canaan  "     | 2.92| 21  | 50  | 74  | 6.07| 0.48| 1.88
+ 23.  "     "       "     | 1.63| 13  | 60  | 75  | 4.10| 0.95| 3.76
+ 24.  "     "       "     | 1.79| 15  | 55  | 72  | 3.02| 1.08| 3.82
+ 25. A. M. Haling.        |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Rockville   "     |  .50|     |  7  |  8  | 5.40| 2.32| 2.52
+ 26.  "     "       "     |  .27|     |  2  |  3  | 4.77| 1.53| 1.57
+ 27.  "     "       "     |  .82|  7  |  8  | 16  | 7.06| 3.04| 3.64
+ 28. Albert Day.          |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Brooklyn    "     |  .52|  1  |  8  | 10  | 4.58| 1.36| 1.52
+ 29. C. Goodyear.         |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        New Haven   "     |  .40|  9  | 22  | 32  | 2.51| 1.98| 2.91
+ 30. Rev. Wm. Clift       |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Stonington  "     | 3.86|     |  8  | 12  | 8.42| 1.29| 1.46
+ 31. Henry Keeler.        |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        South Salem N. Y. |  .97|  5  | 21  | 27  | 3.63| 1.98| 2.64
+ 32. John Adams.          |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Salisbury Conn.   | 1.40|  2  | 20  | 24  | 3.77| 2.44| 3.18
+ 33. Rev. Wm. Clift.      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+        Stonington   "    | 8.13|  7  | 53  | 68  |14.06| 1.44| 4.49
+ -------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
+
+
+TABLE III.--DESCRIPTION, ETC., OF PEATS AND MUCKS.
+
+ _No._                       _Color._
+
+  1. Lewis M. Norton     |chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |.
+  2.    "       "        |    "       "   |
+                         |                |
+  3.    "       "        |light-brown,    |
+                         |                |
+  4. Messrs. Pond & Miles|chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |
+                         |                |
+  5.    "         "      |brownish-red,   |
+                         |                |
+  6. Samuel Camp         |black,          |
+                         |                |
+  7. Russell U. Peck     |chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |
+  8. Rev. B. F. Northrop |grayish-brown,  |
+                         |                |
+                         |                |
+  9. J. H. Stanwood      |chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |
+ 10. N. Hart, Jr         |brownish-black, |
+ 11. A. L. Loveland      |black,          |
+                         |                |
+ 12. Daniel Buck, Jr     |chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |
+ 13.    "      "         |    "       "   |
+ 14. Philip Scarborough  |                |
+                         |                |
+ 15. Adams White         |chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |
+ 16. Paris Dyer          |grayish-black,  |
+                         |                |
+ 17. Perrin Scarborough  |chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |
+                         |                |
+ 18. Geo. K. Virgin      |light           |
+                         | brownish-gray  |
+                         |                |
+ 19.    "      "         |chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |
+ 20.    "      "         |black,          |
+ 21. Solomon Mead        |grayish-brown,  |
+                         |                |
+                         |                |
+ 22. Edwin Hoyt          |brownish-gray,  |
+                         |                |
+ 23.   "    "            |       "        |
+                         |                |
+ 24.   "    "            |       "        |
+                         |                |
+ 25. A. M. Haling        |chocolate-brown,|
+ 26.   "    "            |    "       "   |
+ 27.   "    "            |    "       "   |
+                         |                |
+ 28. Albert Day          |dark-brown,     |
+                         |                |
+                         |                |
+ 29. C. Goodyear         |black,          |
+                         |                |
+ 30. Rev. Wm. Clift      |chocolate-brown,|
+                         |                |
+                         |                |
+ 31. Henry Keeler        |light-brown,    |
+                         |                |
+ 32. John Adams          |      "         |
+                         |                |
+ 33. Rev. Wm. Clift      |dark ash-gray,  |
+                         |                |
+
+                                      _Condition at Time of Analysis,
+ _No._                                   Reputed value, etc._
+
+  1. Lewis M. Norton     |air-dry, tough, compact, heavy; from bottom;
+                         |          3 to 4 feet deep; very good in compost.
+  2.    "       "        |    "    tough, compact, heavier than 1, from
+                         |          near surface; very good in compost.
+  3.    "       "        |   "     coherent but light, from between 1 and
+                         |          2, very good in compost.
+  4. Messrs. Pond & Miles|   "     coherent but light, surface peat,
+                         |          considered better than No. 5; good in
+                         |          compost.
+  5.    "         "      |   "     very light and loose in texture, from
+                         |          depth of 3 feet, good in compost.
+  6. Samuel Camp         |   "     hard lumps, half as good as yard manure,
+                         |          in compost equal to yard manure.
+  7. Russell U. Peck     |   "     is good fresh, long exposed, half as
+                         |          good as barn-yard manure.
+  8. Rev. B. F. Northrop |   "     light, easily crushed masses containing
+                         |          sand, has not been used alone, good in
+                         |          compost.
+  9. J. H. Stanwood      |moist,   hard lumps, used fresh good after first
+                         |          year; excellent in compost.
+ 10. N. Hart, Jr         |air-dry, hard lumps, excellent in compost.
+ 11. A. L. Loveland      |   "     hard lumps, contains grains of coarse
+                         |          sand.
+ 12. Daniel Buck, Jr     |   "     coherent cakes, good as top dressing on
+                         |          grass when fresh; excellent in compost.
+ 13.    "      "         |   "     light surface layers of No. 12.
+ 14. Philip Scarborough  |   "     after exposure over winter, has
+                        |          one-third value of yard-manure.
+ 15. Adams White         |   "     hard lumps, good in compost, causes
+                         |          great growth of straw.
+ 16. Paris Dyer          |   "     easily crushed lumps, largely admixed
+                         |          with soil.
+ 17. Perrin Scarborough  |   "     well-characterized "vitriol peat;" in
+                         |          compost, after 1 year's exposure, gives
+                         |          indifferent results.
+ 18. Geo. K. Virgin      |   "     light, coherent surface peat; sample
+                         |          long exposed; astonishing results on
+                         |          sandy soil.
+ 19.    "      "         |moist,   crumbly, contains much sand, four feet
+                         |          from surface.
+ 20.    "      "         |wet.
+ 21. Solomon Mead        |air-dry, light, porous, coherent from grass
+                         |          roots; long weathered, good; fresh,
+                         |          better in compost.
+ 22. Edwin Hoyt          |   "     loose, light, much mixed with soil,
+                         |          good in compost.
+ 23.   "    "            |   "     No. 22 saturated with horse urine,
+                         |          darker than No. 22.
+ 24.   "    "            |   "     No. 22 composted with white fish,
+                         |          darker than No. 23; fish-bones evident.
+ 25. A. M. Haling        |moist,   fresh dug.
+ 26.   "    "            |air-dry, No. 25 after two year's weathering.
+ 27.   "    "            |moist,   fresh dug, good substitute for yard
+                         |          manure as top-dressing on grass.
+ 28. Albert Day          |  "      coherent and hard; fresh dug, but from
+                         |          surface where weathered; injurious to
+                         |          crops; vitriol peat. (?)
+ 29. C. Goodyear         |air-dry, very hard tough cakes; when fresh dug,
+                         |          "as good as cow dung."
+ 30. Rev. Wm. Clift      |moist,   from an originally fresh water bog,
+                         |          broken into 100 years ago by tide, now
+                         |          salt marsh; good after weathering.
+ 31. Henry Keeler        |air-dry, leaf-muck, friable; when fresh, appears
+                         |          equal to good yard manure.
+ 32. John Adams          |moist,   overlies shell marl, fresh or weathered
+                         |          does not compare with ordinary manure.
+ 33. Rev. Wm. Clift      |air-dry, from bottom of salt ditch, where tide
+                         |          flows daily; contains sulphate of iron.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[2] The oxygen thus absorbed by water, serves for the respiration of
+fish and aquatic animals.
+
+[3] This sample contained also fish-bones, hence the larger content of
+nitrogen was not entirely due to absorbed ammonia.
+
+[4] Reichardt's analyses are probably inaccurate, and give too much
+ammonia and nitric acid.
+
+[5] These analyses were executed--A by Professor G. F. Barker; B by Mr.
+O. C. Sparrow; C by Mr. Peter Collier.
+
+[6] _Shell marl_, consisting of fragments and powder of fresh-water
+shells, is frequently met with, underlying peat beds. Such a deposit
+occurs on the farm of Mr. John Adams, in Salisbury, Conn. It is eight to
+ten feet thick. An air-dry sample, analyzed under the writer's
+direction, gave results as follows:
+
+ "Water                                                  30.62
+                {soluble in water             0.70}
+ Organic matter {                                 }       6.52
+                {insoluble in water           5.82}
+ Carbonate of lime                                       57.09
+ Sand                                                     1.86
+ Oxide of iron and alumina, with traces of potash,
+ magnesia, sulphuric and phosphoric acid                  3.91
+                                                       -------
+                                                        100.00
+
+Another specimen from near Milwaukee, Wis., said to occur there in
+immense quantities underlying peat, contained, by the author's
+analysis--
+
+ Water                                                    1.14
+ Carbonate of lime                                       92.41
+ Carbonate of magnesia                                    3.43
+ Peroxide of iron with a trace of phosphoric acid         0.92
+ Sand                                                     1.60
+                                                        ------
+                                                         99.50
+
+
+
+[7] To the kindness of Joseph Sheffield, Esq., of New Haven, the author
+is indebted for facilities in carrying on these experiments.
+
+[8] At the instigation of Henry A. Dyer, Esq., at that time the
+Society's Corresponding Secretary.
+
+[9] Derived from the communications published in the author's Report.
+Trans. Conn. State Ag. Soc. 1858 p.p. 101-153.
+
+
+
+
+
+PART III.
+
+ON PEAT AS FUEL.
+
+
+1.--_Kinds of peat that make the best fuel._
+
+The value of peat for fuel varies greatly, like its other qualities.
+Only those kinds which can be cut out in the shape of coherent blocks,
+or which admit of being artificially formed into firm masses, are of use
+in ordinary stoves and furnaces. The powdery or friable surface peat,
+which has been disintegrated by frost and exposure, is ordinarily
+useless as fuel, unless it be rendered coherent by some mode of
+preparation. Unripe peat which contains much undecomposed moss or grass
+roots, which is therefore very light and porous, is in general too bulky
+to make an effective heating material before subjection to mechanical
+treatment.
+
+The best peat for burning, is that which is most free from visible fiber
+or undecomposed vegetable matters, which has therefore a homogeneous
+brown or black aspect, and which is likewise free from admixture of
+earthy substances in the form of sand or clay. Such peat is unctuous
+when moist, shrinks greatly on drying, and forms hard and heavy masses
+when dry. It is usually found at a considerable depth, where it has been
+subjected to pressure, and then has such consistence as to admit of
+cutting out in blocks; or it may exist as a black mud or paste at the
+bottom of bogs and sluices.
+
+The value of peat as fuel stands in direct ratio to its content of
+carbon. We have seen that this ranges from 51 to 63 _per cent. of the
+organic matter_, and the increase of carbon is related to its ripeness
+and density. The poorest, youngest peat, has the same proportion of
+carbon as exists in wood. It does not, however, follow that its heating
+power is the same. The various kinds of wood have essentially the same
+proportion of carbon, but their heating power is very different. The
+close textured woods--those which weigh the most per cord--make the best
+fuel for most purposes. We know, that a cord of hickory will produce
+twice as much heat as a cord of bass-wood. Peat, though having the same
+or a greater proportion of carbon, is generally inferior to wood on
+account of its occupying a greater bulk for a given weight, a necessary
+result of its porosity. The best qualities of peat, or poor kinds
+artificially condensed, may, on the other hand, equal or exceed wood in
+heating power, bulk for bulk. One reason that peat is, in general,
+inferior to wood in heating effect, lies in its greater content of
+incombustible ash. Wood has but 0.5 to 1.5 _per cent._ of mineral
+matters, while peat contains usually 5 to 10 _per cent._, and often
+more. The oldest, ripest peats are those which contain the most carbon,
+and have at the same time the greatest compactness. From these two
+circumstances they make the best fuel.
+
+It thus appears that peat which is light, loose in structure, and much
+mixed with clay or sand, is a poor or very poor article for producing
+heat: while a dense pure peat is very good.
+
+A great drawback to the usefulness of most kinds of peat-fuel, lies in
+their great friability. This property renders them unable to endure
+transportation. The blocks of peat which are commonly used in most parts
+of Germany as fuel, break and crumble in handling, so that they cannot
+be carried far without great waste. Besides, when put into a stove,
+there can only go on a slow smouldering combustion as would happen in
+cut tobacco or saw-dust. A free-burning fuel must exist in compact lumps
+or blocks, which so retain their form and solidity, as to admit of a
+rapid draught of air through the burning mass.
+
+The bulkiness of ordinary peat fuel, as compared with hard wood, and
+especially with coal, likewise renders transportation costly, especially
+by water, where freights are charged by bulk and not by weight, and
+renders storage an item of great expense.
+
+The chief value of that peat fuel, which is simply cut from the bog, and
+dried without artificial condensation, must be for the domestic use of
+the farmer or villager who owns a supply of it not far from his
+dwelling, and can employ his own time in getting it out. Though worth
+perhaps much less cord for cord when dry than hard wood, it may be
+cheaper for home consumption than fuel brought from a distance.
+
+Various processes have been devised for preparing peat, with a view to
+bringing it into a condition of density and toughness, sufficient to
+obviate its usual faults, and make it compare with wood or even with
+coal in heating power.
+
+The efforts in this direction have met with abundant success as regards
+producing a good fuel. In many cases, however, the cost of preparation
+has been too great to warrant the general adoption of these processes.
+We shall recur to this subject on a subsequent page, and give an
+account of the methods that have been proposed or employed for the
+manufacture of condensed peat fuel.
+
+2.--_Density of Peat._
+
+The apparent[10] specific gravity of peat in the air-dry state, ranges
+from 0.11 to 1.03. In other words, a full cubic foot weighs from
+one-tenth as much as, to slightly more than a cubic foot of water, =
+62-1/3 lbs. Peat, which has a specific gravity of but 0.25, may be and
+is employed as fuel. A full cubic foot of it will weigh about 16 lbs. In
+Germany, the cubic foot of "good ordinary peat" in blocks,[11] ranges
+from 15 to 25 lbs. in weight, and is employed for domestic purposes. The
+heavier peat, weighing 30 or more lbs. per cubic foot in blocks, is used
+for manufacturing and metallurgical purposes, and for firing
+locomotives.
+
+Karmarsch has carefully investigated more than 100 peats belonging to
+the kingdom of Hanover, with reference to their heating effect. He
+classifies them as follows:--
+
+A. _Turfy peat_, (_Rasentorf_,) consisting of slightly decomposed mosses
+and other peat-producing plants, having a yellow or yellowish-brown
+color, very soft, spongy and elastic, sp. gr. 0.11 to 0.26, the full
+English cubic foot weighing from 7 to 16 lbs.
+
+B. _Fibrous peat_, unripe peat, which is brown or black in color, less
+elastic than turfy peat, the fibres either of moss, grass, roots,
+leaves, or wood, distinguishable by the eye, but brittle, and easily
+broken; sp. gr. 0.24 to 0.67, the weight of a full cubic foot being from
+15 to 42 lbs.
+
+C. _Earthy peat._--Nearly or altogether destitute of fibrous structure,
+drying to earth-like masses which break with more or less difficulty,
+giving lustreless surfaces of fracture; sp. gr. 0.41 to 0.90, the full
+cubic foot weighing, accordingly, from 25 to 56 lbs.
+
+D. _Pitchy peat_, (_Pechtorf_,) dense; when dry, hard; often resisting
+the blows of a hammer, breaking with a smooth, sometimes lustrous
+fracture, into sharp-angled pieces. Sp. gr. 0.62 to 1.03, the full cubic
+foot weighing from 38 to 55 lbs.
+
+In Kane and Sullivan's examination of 27 kinds of Irish peat, the
+specific gravities ranged from 0.274 to 1.058.
+
+3.--_Heating power of peat as compared with wood and anthracite._
+
+Karmarsch found that in absolute heating effect
+
+ 100 lbs. of turfy, air-dry peat, on the average = 95 lbs. of pine wood.
+  "          fibrous       "      "        "     = 108       "       "
+  "          earthy        "      "        "     = 104       "       "
+  "          pitchy        "      "        "     = 111       "       "
+
+The comparison of heating power by bulk, instead of weight, is as
+follows:--
+
+ 100 cubic ft. of turfy peat, on the average[12] =  33 cubic ft. of pine
+                                                       wood, in sticks.
+   "       "      fibrous       "       "        =  90 cubic ft. of pine
+                                                       wood, in sticks.
+   "       "      earthy        "       "        = 145 cubic ft. of pine
+                                                       wood, in sticks.
+   "       "      pitchy        "       "        = 184 cubic ft. of pine
+                                                       wood, in sticks.
+
+According to Brix, the weight per English cord and relative heating
+effect of several air-dry peats--the heating power of an equal bulk of
+oak wood being taken at 100 as a standard--are as follows, _bulk for
+bulk_:[13]
+
+                                                 _Weight per    _Heating
+                                                   cord._       effect._
+ Oak wood                                          4150 lbs.       100
+ Peat from Linum, 1st quality, dense and pitchy    3400  "          70
+       "     "    2d     "     fibrous             2900  "          55
+       "     "    3d     "     turfy               2270  "          53
+ Peat from Buechsenfeld, 1st quality, pitchy,
+      very hard and heavy                          3400 lbs.        74
+ Peat from Buechsenfeld, 2d quality                2730  "          64
+
+These statements agree in showing, that, while weight for weight, the
+ordinary qualities of peat do not differ much from wood in heating
+power; the heating effect of _equal bulks_ of this fuel, as found in
+commerce, may vary extremely, ranging from one-half to three quarters
+that of oak wood.
+
+Condensed peat may be prepared by machinery, which will weigh more than
+hard wood, bulk for bulk, and whose heating power will therefore exceed
+that of wood.
+
+Gysser gives the following comparisons of a good peat with various
+German woods and charcoals, equal weights being employed, and split
+beech wood, air-dry, assumed as the standard.[14]
+
+ Beech wood, split, air dry                                          1.00
+ Peat, condensed by Weber's & Gysser's method,[15] air-dried,
+      with 25 _per cent._ moisture.                                  1.00
+ Peat, condensed by Weber's & Gysser's method, hot-dried,
+      with 10 _per cent._ moisture.                                  1.48
+ Peat-charcoal, from condensed peat.                                 1.73
+ The same peat, simply cut and air-dried.                            0.80
+ Beech-charcoal.                                                     1.90
+ Summer-oak wood.                                                    1.18
+ Birch wood.                                                         0.95
+ White pine wood.                                                    0.72
+ Alder.                                                              0.65
+ Linden.                                                             0.65
+ Red pine.                                                           0.61
+ Poplar.                                                             0.50
+
+Some experiments have been made in this country on the value of peat as
+fuel. One was tried on the N. Y. Central Railroad, Jan. 3, 1866. A
+locomotive with 25 empty freight cars attached, was propelled from
+Syracuse westward--the day being cold and the wind ahead--at the rate of
+16 miles the hour. The engineer reported that "the peat gave us as much
+steam as wood, and burnt a beautiful fire." The peat, we infer, was cut
+and prepared near Syracuse, N. Y.
+
+In one of the pumping houses of the Nassau Water Department of the City
+of Brooklyn, an experiment has been made for the purpose of comparing
+peat with anthracite, for the results of which I am indebted to the
+courtesy of Moses Lane, Esq., Chief Engineer of the Department.
+
+Fire was started under a steam boiler with wood. When steam was up, the
+peat was burned--its quantity being 1743 lbs., or 18 barrels--and after
+it was consumed, the firing was continued with coal. The pressure of
+steam was kept as nearly uniform as possible throughout the trial, and
+it was found that with 1743 lbs. of peat the engine made 2735
+revolutions, while with 1100 lbs. of coal it made 3866 revolutions. In
+other words, 100 lbs. of coal produced 351-45/100 revolutions, and 100
+lbs. of peat produced 156-91/100 revolutions. One pound of coal
+therefore equalled 2-24/100 lbs. of peat in heating effect. The peat
+burned well and generated steam freely.
+
+Mr. Lane could not designate the quality of the peat, not having been
+able to witness the experiment.
+
+These trials have not, indeed, all the precision needful to fix with
+accuracy the comparative heating effect of the fuels employed; for a
+furnace, that is adapted for wood, is not necessarily suited to peat,
+and a coal grate must have a construction unlike that which is proper
+for a peat fire; nevertheless they exhibit the relative merits of wood,
+peat, and anthracite, with sufficient closeness for most practical
+purposes.
+
+Two considerations would prevent the use of ordinary cut peat in large
+works, even could two and one-fourth tons of it be afforded at the same
+price as one ton of coal. The Nassau Water Department consumes 20,000
+tons of coal yearly, the handling of which is a large expense, six
+firemen being employed to feed the furnaces. To generate the same amount
+of steam with peat of the quality experimented with, would require the
+force of firemen to be considerably increased. Again, it would be
+necessary to lay in, under cover, a large stock of fuel during the
+summer, for use in winter, when peat cannot be raised. Since a barrel of
+this peat weighed less than 100 lbs., the short ton would occupy the
+volume of 20 barrels; as is well known, a ton of anthracite can be put
+into 8 barrels. A given weight of peat therefore requires 2-1/2 times as
+much storage room, as the same weight of coal. As 2-1/4 tons of peat, in
+the case we are considering, are equivalent to but one ton of coal in
+heating effect, the winter's supply of peat fuel would occupy 5-5/8
+times the bulk of the same supply in coal, admitting that the unoccupied
+or air-space in a pile of peat is the same as in a heap of coal. In
+fact, the calculation would really turn out still more to the
+disadvantage of peat, because the air-space in a bin of peat is greater
+than in one of coal, and coal can be excavated for at least two months
+more of the year than peat.
+
+It is asserted by some, that, because peat can be condensed so as to
+approach anthracite in specific gravity, it must, in the same ratio,
+approach the latter in heating power. Its effective heating power is,
+indeed, considerably augmented by condensation, but no mechanical
+treatment can increase its percentage of carbon or otherwise alter its
+chemical composition; hence it must forever remain inferior to
+anthracite.
+
+The composition and density of the best condensed peat is compared with
+that of hard wood and anthracite in the following statement:--
+
+ _In 100    _Carbon._ _Hydrogen._ _Oxygen and  _Ash._ _Water._ _Specific
+  parts._                           Nitrogen._                  Gravity._
+ Wood,        39.6        4.8         34.8      0.8     20.0      0.75
+ Condensed
+   peat       47.2        4.9         22.9      5.0     20.0      1.20
+ Anthracite   91.3        2.9          2.8      3.0               1.40
+
+In combustion in ordinary fires, the _water_ of the fuel is a source of
+waste, since it consumes heat in acquiring the state of vapor. This is
+well seen in the comparison of the same kind of peat in different states
+of dryness. Thus, in the table of Gysser, (page 97) Weber's condensed
+peat, containing 10 _per cent._ of moisture, surpasses in heating effect
+that containing 25 _per cent._ of moisture, by nearly one-half.
+
+The _oxygen_ is a source of waste, for heat as developed from fuel, is
+chiefly a result of the chemical union of atmospheric or free oxygen,
+with the carbon and hydrogen of the combustible. The oxygen of the fuel,
+being already combined with carbon and hydrogen, not only cannot itself
+contribute to the generation of heat, but neutralizes the heating effect
+of those portions of the carbon and hydrogen of the fuel with which it
+remains in combination. The quantity of heating effect thus destroyed,
+cannot, however, be calculated with certainty, because physical changes,
+viz: the conversion of solids into gases, not to speak of secondary
+chemical transformations, whose influence cannot be estimated, enter
+into the computation.
+
+_Nitrogen_ and ash are practically indifferent in the burning process,
+and simply impair the heating value of fuel in as far as they occupy
+space in it and make a portion of its weight, to the exclusion of
+combustible matter.
+
+Again, as regards density, peat is, in general, considerably inferior to
+anthracite. The best uncondensed peat has a specific gravity of 0.90.
+Condensed peat usually does not exceed 1.1. Sometimes it is made of sp.
+gr. 1.3. Assertions to the effect of its acquiring a density of 1.8, can
+hardly be credited of pure peat, though a considerable admixture of sand
+or clay might give such a result.
+
+The comparative heating power of fuels is ascertained by burning them in
+an apparatus, so constructed, that the heat generated shall expend
+itself in evaporating or raising the temperature of a known quantity of
+water.
+
+_The amount of heat that will raise the temperature of one gramme of
+water, one degree of the centigrade thermometer, is agreed upon as the
+unit of heat._[16]
+
+In the complete combustion of carbon in the form of charcoal or
+gas-coal, there are developed 8060 units of heat. In the combustion of
+one gramme of hydrogen gas, 34,210 units of heat are generated. The
+heating effect of hydrogen is therefore 4.2 times greater than that of
+carbon. It was long supposed that the heating effect of compound
+combustibles could be calculated from their elementary composition. This
+view is proved to be erroneous, and direct experiment is the only
+satisfactory means of getting at the truth in this respect.
+
+The data of Karmarsch, Brix, and Gysser, already given, were obtained by
+the experimental method. They were, however, made mostly on a small
+scale, and, in some cases, without due regard to the peculiar
+requirements of the different kinds of fuel, as regards fire space,
+draught, etc. They can only be regarded as approximations to the truth,
+and have simply a comparative value, which is, however, sufficient for
+ordinary purposes.
+
+The general results of the investigations hitherto made on all the
+common kinds of fuel, are given in the subjoined statement. The
+comparison is made in units of heat, and refers to equal weights of the
+materials experimented with.
+
+ HEATING POWER OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF FUEL.
+
+ Air-dry Wood                               2800
+   "     Peat                           2500    3000
+ Perfectly dry Wood                         3600
+    "       "  Peat                     3000    4000
+ Air-dry Lignite or Brown Coal          3300    4200
+ Perfectly dry Lignite or Brown Coal    4000    5000
+ Bituminous Coal                        3800    7000
+ Anthracite                                 7500
+ Wood Charcoal                          6300    7500
+ Coke                                   6500    7600
+
+4.--_Modes of Burning Peat._
+
+In the employment of peat fuel, regard must be had to its shape and
+bulk. Commonly, peat is cut or moulded into blocks or sods like bricks,
+which have a length of 8 to 18 inches; a breadth of 4 to 6 inches, and a
+thickness of 1-1/2 to 3 inches. Machine peat is sometimes formed into
+circular disks of 2 to 3 inches diameter, and 1 to 2 inches thickness
+and thereabouts. It is made also in the shape of balls of 2 to 3 inches
+diameter. Another form is that of thick-walled pipes, 2 to 3 inches in
+diameter, a foot or more long, and with a bore of one-half inch.
+
+Flat blocks are apt to lie closely together in the fire, and obstruct
+the draft. A fire-place, constructed properly for burning them, should
+be shallow, not admitting of more than two or three layers being
+superposed. According to the bulkiness of the peat, the fire-place
+should be roomy, as regards length and breadth.
+
+Fibrous and easily crumbling peat is usually burned upon a hearth, _i.
+e._ without a grate, either in stoves or open fire-places. Dense peat
+burns best upon a grate, the bars of which should be thin and near
+together, so that the air have access to every part of the fuel. The
+denser and tougher the peat, and the more its shape corresponds with
+that usual to coal, the better is it adapted for use in our ordinary
+coal stoves and furnaces.
+
+5.--_Burning of broken peat._
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 1--STAIR GRATE.]
+
+Broken peat--the fragments and waste of the cut or moulded blocks, and
+peat as obtained by plowing and harrowing the surface of drained
+peat-beds--may be used to advantage in the _stair grate_, fig. 1, which
+was introduced some years ago in Austria, and is adapted exclusively for
+burning finely divided fuel. It consists of a series of thin iron bars 3
+to 4 inches wide, _a_, _a_, _a_, ... which are arranged above each other
+like steps, as shown in the figure. They are usually half as long as the
+grate is wide, and are supported at each end by two side pieces or
+walls, _l._ Below, the grate is closed by a heavy iron plate. The fuel
+is placed in the hopper _A_, which is kept filled, and from which it
+falls down the incline as rapidly as it is consumed. The air enters from
+the space _G_, and is regulated by doors, not shown in the cut, which
+open into it. The masonry is supported at _u_, by a hollow iron beam.
+Below, a lateral opening serves for clearing out the ashes. The effect
+of the fire depends upon the width of the throat of the hopper at _u_,
+which regulates the supply of fuel to the grate, and upon the
+inclination of the latter. The throat is usually from 6 to 8 inches
+wide, according to the nature of the fuel. The inclination of the grate
+is 40 to 45 deg. and, in general, should be that which is assumed by the
+sides of a pile of the fuel to be burned, when it is thrown up into a
+heap. This grate ensures complete combustion of fuel that would fall
+through ordinary grates, and that would merely smoulder upon a hearth.
+The fire admits of easy regulation, the ashes may be removed and the
+fuel may be supplied without _checking the fire_. Not only broken peat,
+but coal dust, saw dust, wood turnings and the like may be burned on
+this grate. The figure represents it as adapted to a steam boiler.
+
+6.--_Hygroscopic water of peat fuel._
+
+The quantity of water retained by air-dried peat appears to be the same
+as exists in air-dried wood, viz., about 20 _per cent._ The proportion
+will vary however according to the time of seasoning. In thoroughly
+seasoned wood or peat, it may be but 15 _per cent._; while in the poorly
+dried material it may amount to 25 or more _per cent._ When _hot-dried_,
+the proportion of water may be reduced to 10 _per cent._, or less.
+
+When peat is still moist, it gathers water rapidly from damp air, and in
+this condition has been known to burst the sheds in which it was stored,
+but after becoming dry to the eye and feel, it is but little affected by
+dampness, no more so, it appears, than seasoned wood.
+
+7.--_Shrinkage._
+
+In estimating the value and cost of peat fuel, it must be remembered
+that peat shrinks greatly in drying, so that three to five cords of
+fresh peat yield but one cord of dry peat. When the fiber of the peat is
+broken by the hand, or by machinery, the shrinkage is often much
+greater, and may sometimes amount to seven-eighths of the original
+volume.--_Dingler's Journal, Oct. 1864_, _S._ 68.
+
+The difference in weight between fresh and dry peat is even greater.
+Fibrous peat, fresh from the bog, may contain ninety _per cent._ of
+water, of which seventy _per cent._ must evaporate before it can be
+called dry. The proportion of water in earthy or pitchy peat is indeed
+less; but the quantity is always large, so that from five to nine
+hundred weight of fresh peat must be lifted in order to make one hundred
+weight of dry fuel.
+
+8.--_Time of excavation, and drying._
+
+Peat which is intended to be used after simply drying, must be excavated
+so early in the season that it shall become dry before frosty weather
+arrives: because, if frozen when wet, its coherence is destroyed, and on
+thawing it falls to a powder useless for fuel.
+
+Peat must be dried with certain precautions. If a block of fresh peat be
+exposed to hot sunshine, it dries and shrinks on the surface much more
+rapidly than within: as a consequence it cracks, loses its coherence,
+and the block is easily broken, or of itself falls to pieces. In Europe,
+it is indeed customary to dry peat without shelter, the loss by too
+rapid drying not being greater than the expense of building and
+maintaining drying sheds. There however the sun is not as intense, nor
+the air nearly so dry, as it is here. Even there, the occurrence of an
+unusually hot summer, causes great loss. In our climate, some shelter
+would be commonly essential unless the peat be dug early in the spring,
+so as to lose the larger share of its water before the hot weather; or,
+as would be best of all, in the autumn late enough to escape the heat,
+but early enough to ensure such dryness as would prevent damage by
+frost. The peculiarities of climate must decide the time of excavating
+and the question of shelter.
+
+The point in drying peat is to make it lose its water gradually and
+regularly, so that the inside of each block shall dry nearly as fast as
+the outside.
+
+Some of the methods of hot-drying peat, will be subsequently noticed.
+
+Summer or fall digging would be always advantageous on account of the
+swamps being then most free from water. In Bavaria, peat is dug mostly
+in July and the first half of August.
+
+9.--_Drainage._
+
+When it is intended to raise peat fuel _in the form of blocks_, the bog
+should be drained no more rapidly than it is excavated. Peat, which is
+to be worth cutting in the spring, must be covered with water during the
+winter, else it is pulverized by the frost. So, too, it must be
+protected against drying away and losing its coherency in summer, by
+being kept sufficiently impregnated with water.
+
+In case an extensive bog is to be drained to facilitate the cutting out
+of the peat for use as fuel, the canals that carry off the water from
+the parts which are excavating, should be so constructed, that on the
+approach of cold weather, the remaining peat may be flooded again to the
+usual height.
+
+In most of the smaller swamps, systematic draining is unnecessary, the
+water drying away in summer enough to admit of easy working.
+
+In some methods of preparing or condensing peat by machinery, it is best
+or even needful to drain and air-dry the peat, preliminary to working.
+By draining, the peat settles, especially on the borders of the ditches,
+several inches, or even feet, according to its nature and depth. It thus
+becomes capable of bearing teams and machinery, and its density is very
+considerably augmented.
+
+10.--_The Cutting of Peat._--a. _Preparations._
+
+In preparing to raise peat fuel from the bog, the surface material,
+which from the action of frost and sun has been pulverized to "muck," or
+which otherwise is full of roots and undecomposed matters, must be
+removed usually to the depth of 12 to 18 inches. It is only those
+portions of the peat which have never frozen nor become dry, and are
+free from coarse fibers of recent vegetation, that can be cut for fuel.
+
+Peat fuel must be brought into the form of blocks or masses of such size
+and shape as to adapt them to use in our common stoves and furnaces.
+Commonly, the peat is of such consistence in its native bed, that it may
+be cut out with a spade or appropriate tool into blocks having more or
+less coherence. Sometimes it is needful to take away the surplus water
+from the bog, and allow the peat to settle and drain a while before it
+can be cut to advantage.
+
+When a bog is to be opened, a deep ditch is run from an outlet or lowest
+point a short distance into the peat bed, and the working goes on from
+the banks of this ditch. It is important that system be followed in
+raising the peat, or there will be great waste of fuel and of labor.
+
+If, as often happens, the peat is so soft in the wet season as to break
+on the vertical walls of a ditch and fill it, at the same time
+dislocating the mass and spoiling it for cutting, it is best to carry
+down the ditch in terraces, making it wide above and narrow at the
+bottom.
+
+b. _Cutting by hand._
+
+The simplest mode of procedure, consists in laying off a "field" or plot
+of, say 20 feet square, and making vertical cuts with a sharp spade
+three or four inches deep from end to end in parallel lines, as far
+apart as it is proposed to make the breadth of the peats or sods,
+usually four to five inches. Then, the field is cut in a similar manner
+in lines at right angles to the first, and at a distance that shall be
+the length of the peats, say 18 to 20 inches. Finally, the workman lifts
+the peats by horizontal thrusts of his spade, made at a depth of three
+inches. The sods as lifted, are placed on a light barrow or upon a board
+or rack, and are carried off to a drying ground, near at hand, where
+they are laid down flatwise to drain and dry. In Ireland, it is the
+custom, after the peats have lain thus for a fortnight or so, to "foot"
+them, i. e. to place them on end close together; after further drying
+the "footing" is succeeded by "clamping," which is building the sods up
+into stacks of about twelve to fifteen feet long, four feet wide at
+bottom, narrowing to one foot at top, with a height of four to five
+feet. The outer turfs are inclined so as to shed the rain. The peat
+often remains in these clamps on the bog until wanted for use, though in
+rainy seasons the loss by crumbling is considerable.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 2.--GERMAN PEAT-KNIFE.]
+
+Other modes of lifting peat, require tools of particular construction....
+In Germany it is common to excavate by _vertical_ thrusts of the tool,
+the cutting part of which is represented above, fig. 2. This tool is
+pressed down into the peat to a depth corresponding to the thickness of
+the required block: its three edges cut as many sides of the block, and
+the bottom is then broken or torn out by a prying motion.
+
+In other cases, this or a similar tool is forced down by help of the
+foot as deeply into the peat as possible by a workman standing above,
+while a second man in the ditch cuts out the blocks of proper thickness
+by means of a sharp spade thrust horizontally. When the peats are taken
+out to the depth of the first vertical cutting, the knife is used again
+from above, and the process is thus continued as before, until the
+bottom of the peat or the desired depth is reached.
+
+In Ireland, is employed the "slane," a common form of which is shown in
+fig. 3, it being a long, narrow and sharp spade, 20 inches by six, with
+a wing at right angles to the blade.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 3.--IRISH SLANE.]
+
+The peats are cut by one thrust of this instrument which is worked by
+the arms alone. After a vertical cut is made by a spade, in a line at
+right angles to a bank of peat, the slane cuts the bottom and other side
+of the block; while at the end the latter is simply lifted or broken
+away.
+
+Peat is most easily cut in a vertical direction, but when, as often
+happens, it is made up of layers, the sods are likely to break apart
+where these join. Horizontal cutting is therefore best for stratified
+peat.
+
+_System employed in East Friesland._--In raising peat, great waste both
+of labor and of fuel may easily occur as the result of random and
+unsystematic methods of working. For this reason, the mode of cutting
+peat, followed in the extensive moors of East Friesland, is worthy of
+particular description. There, the business is pursued systematically on
+a plan, which, it is claimed, long experience[17] has developed to such
+perfection that the utmost economy of time and labor is attained. The
+cost of producing marketable peat in East Friesland in 1860, was one
+silver groschen=about 2-1/2 cents, per hundred weight; while at that
+time, in Bavaria, the hundred weight cost three times as much when fit
+for market; and this, notwithstanding living and labor are much cheaper
+in the latter country.
+
+The method to be described, presupposes that the workmen are not
+hindered by water, which, in most cases, can be easily removed from the
+high-moors of the region. The peat is worked in long stretches of 10
+feet in width, and 100 to 1000 paces in length: each stretch or plot is
+excavated at once to a considerable depth and to its full width. Each
+successive year the excavation is widened by 10 feet, its length
+remaining the same. Sometimes, unusual demand leads to more rapid
+working; but the width of 10 feet is adhered to for each cutting, and,
+on account of the labor of carrying the peats, it is preferred to extend
+the length rather than the width.
+
+Assuming that the peat bed has been opened by a previous cutting, to the
+depth of 5-1/2 feet, and the surface muck and light peat, 1-1/2 feet
+thick, have been thrown into the excavation of the year before--a new
+plot is worked by five men as follows.
+
+One man, the "Bunker," removes from the surface, about two inches of
+peat, disintegrated by the winter's frost, throwing it into last year's
+ditch.
+
+Following him, come two "Diggers," of whom one stands on the surface of
+the peat, and with a heavy, long handled tool, cuts out the sides and
+end of the blocks, which are about seventeen by five inches; while the
+other stands in the ditch, and by horizontal thrusts of a light, sharp
+spade, removes the sods, each of five and a half inches thickness, and
+places them on a small board near by. Each block of peat has the
+dimensions of one fourth of a cubic foot, and weighs about 13 pounds.
+Two good workmen will raise 25 such peats, or 6-1/4 cubic feet, per
+minute.
+
+A fourth man, the "Loader," puts the sods upon a wheel-barrow, always
+two rows of six each, one upon the other, and--
+
+A fifth, the "Wheeler," removes the load to the drying ground, and with
+some help from the Bunker, disposes them flatwise in rows of 16 sods
+wide, which run at right angles to the ditch, and, beginning at a little
+more than 10 feet from the latter, extend 50 feet.
+
+The space of 10 feet between the plot that is excavating, and the drying
+ground, is, at the same time, cleared of the useless surface muck by the
+Bunker, in preparation for the next year's work.
+
+With moderate activity, the five men will lift and lay out 12,000 sods
+(3000 cubic feet,) daily, and it is not uncommon that five first-rate
+hands get out 16,800 peats (4200 cubic feet,) in this time.
+
+A gang of five men, working as described, suffices for cutting out a bed
+of four feet of solid peat. When the excavation is to be made deeper, a
+sixth man, the "Hanker," is needful for economical work; and with his
+help the cutting may be extended down to nine and a half feet; i. e.
+through eight feet of solid peat. The cutting is carried down at first,
+four feet as before, but the peats are carried 50 feet further, in order
+to leave room for those to be subsequently lifted. The "Hanker" aids
+here, with a second wheel-barrow. In taking out the lower peat, the
+"Hanker" stands on the bottom of the first excavation, receives the
+blocks from the Diggers, on a broad wooden shovel, and hands them up to
+the Loader; while the Wheeler, having only the usual distance to carry
+them, lays them out in the drying rows without difficulty.
+
+After a little drying in the rows, the peats are gradually built up into
+narrow piles, like a brick wall of one and a half bricks thickness.
+These piles are usually raised by women. They are made in the spaces
+between the rows, and are laid up one course at a time, so that each
+block may dry considerably, before it is covered by another. A woman can
+lay up 12,000 peats daily--the number lifted by 5 men--and as it
+requires about a month of good weather to give each course time (two
+days) to dry, she is able to pile for 30 gangs of workmen. If the
+weather be very favorable, the peats may be stacked or put into sheds,
+in a few days after the piling is finished. Stacking is usually
+practised. The stacks are carefully laid up in cylindrical form, and
+contain 200 to 500 cubic feet. When the stacks are properly built, the
+peat suffers but little from the weather.
+
+According to Schroeder, from whose account (Dingler's Polytechnisches
+Journal, Bd. 156, S. 128) the above statements are derived, the peats
+excavated under his direction, in drying thoroughly, shrank to about
+one-fourth of their original bulk (became 12 inches x 3 inches x 3
+inches,) and to one-seventh or one-eighth of their original weight.
+
+c. _Machines for Cutting Peat._
+
+In North Prussia, the Peat Cutting Machine of Brosowsky, see fig. 4, is
+extensively employed. It consists of a cutter, made like the four sides
+of a box, but with oblique edges, _a_, which by its own weight, and by
+means of a crank and rack-work, operated by men, is forced down into the
+peat to a depth that may reach 20 feet. It can cut only at the edge of a
+ditch or excavation, and when it has penetrated sufficiently, a spade
+like blade, _d_, is driven under the cutter by means of levers _c_, and
+thus a mass is loosened, having a vertical length of 10 feet or more,
+and whose other dimensions are about 24 x 28 inches. This is lifted by
+reversing the crank motion, and is then cut up by the spade into blocks
+of 14 inches x 6 inches x 5 inches. Each parallelopipedon of peat, cut
+to a depth of 10 feet, makes 144 sods, and this number can be cut in
+less than 10 minutes. Four hands will cut and lay out to dry, 12,000 to
+14,000 peats daily, or 3100 cubic feet. One great advantage of this
+machine consists in the circumstance that it can be used to raise peat
+from below the surface of water, rendering drainage in many cases
+unnecessary. Independently of this, it appears to be highly labor
+saving, since 1300 machines were put to use in Mecklenburg and Pomerania
+in about 5 years from its introduction. The Mecklenburg moors are now
+traversed by canals, cut by this machine, which are used for the
+transportation of the peat to market.[18]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 4.--BROSOWSKY'S PEAT CUTTER.]
+
+Lepreux in Paris, has invented a similar but more complicated machine,
+which is said to be very effective in its operation. According to Herve
+Mangon, this machine, when worked by two men, raises and cuts 40,000
+peats daily, of which seven make one cubic foot, equal to 5600
+cubic feet. The saving in expense by using this machine[19] is said to
+be 70 _per cent._, when the peat to be raised is under water.
+
+11.--_The Dredging of Peat._
+
+When peat exists, not as a coherent more or less fibrous mass, but as a
+paste or mud, saturated with water, it cannot be raised and formed by
+the methods above described.
+
+In such cases the peat is dredged from the bottom of the bog by means of
+an iron scoop, like a pail with sharp upper edges, which is fastened to
+a long handle. The bottom is made of coarse sacking, so that the water
+may run off. Sometimes, a stout ring of iron with a bag attached, is
+employed in the same way. The fine peat is emptied from the dredge upon
+the ground, where it remains, until the water has been absorbed or has
+evaporated, so far as to leave the mass somewhat firm and plastic. In
+the mean time, a drying bed is prepared by smoothing, and, if needful,
+stamping a sufficient space of ground, and enclosing it in boards 14
+inches wide, set on edge. Into this bed the partially dried peat is
+thrown, and, as it cracks on the surface by drying, it is compressed by
+blows with a heavy mallet or flail, or by treading it with flat boards,
+attached to the feet, somewhat like snow shoes. By this treatment the
+mass is reduced to a continuous sheet of less than one-half its first
+thickness, and becomes so firm, that a man's step gives little
+impression in it. The boards are now removed, and it is cut into blocks
+by means of a very thin, sharp spade. Every other block being lifted out
+and placed crosswise upon those remaining, air is admitted to the whole
+and the drying goes on rapidly. This kind of peat is usually of
+excellent quality. In North Germany it is called "Baggertorf," i. e.
+mud-peat.
+
+Peat is sometimes dredged by machinery, as will be noticed hereafter.
+
+12.--_The Moulding of Peat._
+
+When black, earthy or pitchy peat cannot be cut, and is not so saturated
+with water as to make a mud; it is, after raking or picking out roots,
+etc., often worked into a paste by the hands or feet, with addition of
+water, until it can be formed into blocks which, by slow drying, acquire
+great firmness. In Ireland this product is termed "hand-peat." In
+Germany it is called "Formtorf," _i. e._ moulded peat, or "Backtorf,"
+_i. e._ baked peat.
+
+The shaping is sometimes accomplished by plastering the soft mass into
+wooden moulds, as in making bricks.
+
+13.--_Preparation of Peat Fuel by Machinery, etc._
+
+Within the last 15 years, numerous inventions have been made with a view
+to improving the quality of peat fuel, as well as to expedite its
+production. These inventions are directed to the following points, viz.:
+1. _Condensation_ of the peat, so as bring more fuel into a given space,
+thus making it capable of giving out an intenser heat; at the same time
+increasing its hardness and toughness, and rendering it easier and more
+economical of transportation. 2. _Drying_ by artificial heat or reducing
+the amount of water from 20 or 25 _per cent._ to half that quantity or
+less. This exalts the heating power in no inconsiderable degree. 3.
+_Charring._ Peat-charcoal is as much better than peat, for use where
+intense heat is required, as wood charcoal is better than wood. 4.
+_Purifying from useless matters._ Separation of earthy admixtures which
+are incombustible and hinder draught.
+
+A.--_Condensation by Pressure._
+
+_Pressing Wet Peat._--The condensation of peat was first attempted by
+subjecting the fresh, wet material, to severe pressure. As long ago as
+the year 1821, Pernitzsch, in Saxony, prepared peat by this method, and
+shortly afterwards Lord Willoughby d'Eresby, in Scotland, and others,
+adopted the same principle. Simple pressure will, indeed, bring fresh
+peat at once into much smaller bulk; but, if the peat be fibrous and
+light, and for this reason require condensation, it is also elastic,
+and, when the pressure is relieved, it acquires again much of its
+original volume.
+
+Furthermore, although pressure will squeeze out much water from a
+saturated well-ripened peat, the complete drying of the pressed blocks
+usually requires as much or more time than that of the unpressed
+material, on account of the closeness of texture of the surface produced
+by the pressure.
+
+The advantages of subjecting fresh peat to pressure in the ordinary
+presses, it is found, are more than offset by the expense of the
+operation, and it is therefore unnecessary to give the subject further
+attention.
+
+Fresh peat appears however to have been advantageously pressed by other
+mechanical means. Two methods require notice.
+
+_Mannhardt's Method_, invented about the year 1858, has been practically
+applied on the large scale at _Schleissheim_, Bavaria. Mannhardt's
+machine consists of two colossal iron rolls, each of 15 feet diameter,
+and 6-1/2 feet length, geared into each other so as to revolve
+horizontally in opposite directions and with equal velocity. These rolls
+are hollow, their circumference consists of stout iron plate perforated
+with numerous small holes, and is supported by iron bars which connect
+the ends of the roll, having intervals between them of about one inch.
+Each roll is covered by an endless band of hair cloth, stretched over
+and kept in place by rollers. The rolls are operated by a steam engine
+of 12 horse power. The fresh peat is thrown into a hopper, and passing
+between the rolls, loses a considerable share of its water, issuing as a
+broad continuous sheet, which is divided into blocks by an arrangement
+presently to be described. The cloth, covering the rolls, must have
+great strength, sufficient porosity to allow water to pass it freely,
+and such closeness of texture as to retain the fine particles of peat.
+Many trials have led to the use of a fabric, specially made for the
+purpose, of goat's hair. The cloth for each pair of rolls, costs $160.
+
+The peat at Schleissheim is about 5 feet in depth, and consists of a
+dark-brown mud or paste, free from stones and sticks, and penetrated
+only by fine fibers. The peat is thrown up on the edge of a ditch, and
+after draining, is moved on a tram-way to the machine. It is there
+thrown upon a chain of buckets, which deliver it at the hopper above the
+rolls. The rolls revolve once in 7-1/3 minutes and at each revolution
+turn out a sheet of peat, which cuts into 528 blocks. Each block has,
+when moist, a length of about 12 inches, by 5 inches of width and 1-1/4
+inches of thickness, and weighs on the average 1-1/2 lbs. The water that
+is pressed out of the peat, falls within the rolls and is conducted
+away; it is but slightly turbid from suspended particles. The band of
+pressed peat is divided in one direction as it is formed, by narrow
+slats which are secured horizontally to the press-cloth, at about 5
+inches distance from each other. The further division of the peat is
+accomplished by a series of six circular saws, under which the peat is
+carried as it is released from the rolls, by a system of endless cords
+strung over rollers. These cords run parallel until the peat passes the
+saws; thenceforth they radiate, so that the peat-blocks are separated
+somewhat from each other. They are carried on until they reach a roll,
+over which they are delivered upon drying lattices. The latter move
+regularly under the roll; the peats arrange themselves upon them
+edgewise, one leaning against the other, so as to admit of free
+circulation of air. The lattices are loaded upon cars, and moved on a
+tram-way to the drying ground, where they are set up in frames.
+
+The peat-cake separates well from the press-cloths; but the pores of the
+latter become somewhat choked by fine particles that penetrate them.
+They are therefore washed at each revolution by passing before a pipe
+from which issue, against them, a number of jets of water under high
+pressure. The blocks, after leaving the machine, are soft, and require 5
+or 6 days to become air-dry. When dry they are dense and of good
+quality, but not better than the same raw material yields by simple
+moulding. The capacity of the rolls, which easily turn out 100,000 peats
+in 24 hours, greatly exceeds at present that of the drying arrangements,
+and for this reason the works are not, as yet, remunerative. The rolls
+are, in reality, a simple forming machine. The pressure they exert on
+the peat, is but inconsiderable, owing to its soft pasty character; and
+since the pair of rolls costs $8000 and can only be worked 3 to 4
+months, this method must be regarded rather as an ingenious and
+instructive essay in the art of making peat-fuel, than as a practical
+success. The persevering efforts of the inventor may yet overcome all
+difficulties and prove the complete efficacy of the method. It is
+especially important, that blocks of greater thickness should be
+produced, since those now made, pack together too closely in the fire.
+
+_Neustadt Method._--At Neustadt, in Hanover, a loose-textured fibrous
+peat was prepared for metallurgical use in 1860, by passing through iron
+rolls of ordinary construction. The peat was thereby reduced two-thirds
+in bulk, burned more regularly, gave a coherent coal, and withstood
+carriage better. The peat was, however, first cut into sods of regular
+size, and these were fed into the rollers by boys.
+
+b. _Pressing Air-dried Peat._
+
+Some kinds of peat, when in the air-dry and pulverized state, yield by
+great pressure very firm, excellent, and economical fuel.
+
+_Lithuanian Process._--In Lithuania, according to Leo,[20] the following
+method is extensively adopted. The bog is drained, the surface moss or
+grass-turf and roots are removed, and then the peat is broken up by a
+simple spade-plow, in furrows 2 inches wide and 8 or 10 inches deep. The
+broken peat is repeatedly traversed with wooden harrows, and is thus
+pulverized and dried. When suitably dry, it is carried to a magazine,
+where it is rammed into moulds by a simple stamp of two hundred pounds
+weight. The broken peat is reduced to two-fifths its first bulk, and the
+blocks thus formed are so hard, as to admit of cutting with a saw or ax
+without fracture. They require no further drying, are of a deep-brown
+color, with lustrous surfaces, and their preparation may go on in winter
+with the stock of broken peat, which is accumulated in the favorable
+weather of summer. In this manufacture there is no waste of material.
+
+The peat is dry enough for pressing when, after forming in the hands to
+a ball, it will not firmly retain this shape, but on being let fall to
+the ground, breaks to powder. The entire cost of preparing 1000 peats
+for use, or market, was 2 Thalers, or $1.40. Thirty peats, or "stones"
+as they are called from their hardness, have the bulk of two cubic feet,
+and weigh 160 lbs. The cost of preparing a hundred weight, was
+therefore, (in 1859,) four Silver-groschen, or about 10 cents.
+
+The stamp is of simple construction, somewhat like a pile driver, the
+mould and face of the ram being made of cast iron. The above process is
+not applicable to _fibrous peat_.
+
+c. _Pressing Hot-dried Peat._
+
+The two methods to be next described, are similar to the last mentioned,
+save that the peat is _hot-pressed_.
+
+_Gwynne's Method._--In 1853, Gwynne of London, patented machinery and a
+method for condensing peat for fuel. His process consisted, first, in
+rapidly drying and pulverizing the fresh peat by a centrifugal machine,
+or by passing between rollers, and subsequent exposure to heat in
+revolving cylinders; and, second, in compressing the dry peat-powder in
+a powerful press at a high temperature, about 180 deg. F. By this heat it is
+claimed, that the peat is not only thoroughly dried, but is likewise
+partially decomposed; _bituminous matters being developed, which cement
+the particles to a hard dense mass_. Gwynne's machinery was expensive
+and complicated, and although an excellent fuel was produced, the
+process appears not to have been carried put on the large scale with
+pecuniary success.
+
+A specimen of so-called "Peat coal" in the author's possession, made in
+Massachusetts some years ago, under Gwynne's patent, appears to consist
+of pulverized peat, prepared as above described; but contains an
+admixture of rosin. It must have been an excellent fuel, but could not
+at that time compete with coal in this country.
+
+_Exter's Method._[21]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 5.--EXTER'S DRYING OVEN.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 6.--EXTER'S DRYING OVEN.]
+
+In 1856, Exter, of Bavaria, carried into operation on an extensive
+scale, a plan of preparing peat-fuel in some respects not unlike the
+last mentioned method. Exter's works, belonging to the Bavarian
+Government, are on the Haspelmoor, situated between Augsburg and Munich.
+According to Ruehlmann, who examined them at the command of the
+Hanoverian Government in 1857, the method is as follows:--1. The bog is
+laid dry by drains and the surface is cleared of bushes, roots, and
+grass-turf, down to good peat. 2. The peat is broken up superficially to
+the depth of about one inch, by a gang of three plows, propelled by a
+portable steam engine. 3. The peat is further pulverized by a harrow,
+drawn by a yoke of oxen. 4. In two or three days after harrowing, the
+peat is turned by an implement like our cultivator, this process being
+repeated at suitable intervals. 5. The fine and air-dry peat is gathered
+together by scrapers, and loaded into wagons; then drawn by rope
+connected with the engine, to the press or magazine. 6. If needful, the
+peat, thus collected, is further pulverized by passing it through
+toothed rollers. 7. The fine peat is now introduced into a complicated
+drying oven, see figures 5 and 6. It falls through the opening _T_, and
+is moved by means of the spirals along the horizontal floors _O_, _O_,
+falling from one to another until it emerges at _Q_. The floors, _O_,
+_O_, are made by wide and thin iron chambers, through which passes waste
+steam from an engine. The oven is heated further by hot air, which
+circulates through the canals _K_, _K_. The peat occupies about one hour
+in its passage through the oven and falls from _Q_, into the press,
+having a temperature of from 120 deg. to 140 deg.Fahrenheit. The press employed
+at Staltach is essentially the same as that now used at the Kolbermoor,
+and figured on p. 125. It is a powerful eccentric of simple
+construction, and turns out continuously 40 finished peats per minute.
+These occupy about one-fourth the space of the peat before pressing, the
+cubic foot weighing about 72 lbs. The peats are 7 inches long, 3 inches
+wide, and one half to three quarters of an inch thick, each weighing
+three quarters of a pound. Three presses furnish annually 180,000 cwt.
+of condensed peat, which is used exclusively for firing locomotives. Its
+specific gravity is 1.14, and its quality as fuel is excellent.
+Ruehlmann estimated its cost, at Haspelmoor in 1857, at 8-1/2 Kreuzers,
+or a little more than 6 cents per cwt., and calculated that by adopting
+certain obvious improvements, and substituting steam power for the labor
+of men and cattle, the cost might be reduced to 6-1/2 Kreuzers, or a
+little more than 4 cents per cwt.
+
+Exter's method has been adopted with some modifications at Kolbermoor,
+near Munich, in Bavaria, at Miskolz, in Hungary, and also at the
+Neustadt Smelting Works, in Hanover. At the latter place, however, it
+appears to have been abandoned for the reasons that it could be applied
+only to the better kinds of peat; and the expense was there so great,
+that the finished article could not compete with other fuel in the
+Hanoverian markets.
+
+Details of the mechanical arrangements at present employed on the
+Kolbermoor, are as follows: After the bog is drained, and the surface
+cleared of dwarf pines, etc., and suitably leveled, the peat is plowed
+by steam. This is accomplished in a way which the annexed cut serves to
+illustrate. The plot to be plowed, is traversed through the middle by
+the railway _x_, _y_. A locomotive _a_, sets in motion an endless
+wire-rope, which moves upon large horizontal pulleys _o_, _o_, stationed
+at either border of the land. Four gang plows _b_, _b_, are attached to
+the rope, and as the latter is set in motion, they break up the strip of
+peat they pass over, completely. The locomotive and the pulleys are then
+moved back, and the process is repeated until the whole field has been
+plowed. The plows are square frames, carrying six to eight shares and as
+many coulters.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 7.]
+
+The press employed at Kolbermoor, is shown in figs. 8 and 9. The hot
+peat falls into the hopper, _b_, _c_. The plunger _d_, worked in the
+cavity _e_, by an eccentric, allows the latter to fill with peat as it
+is withdrawn, and by its advance compresses it into a block. The blocks
+_m_, once formed, by their friction in the channel _e_, oppose enough
+resistance to the peat to effect its compression. In order to regulate
+this resistance according to the varying quality of the peat, the piece
+of metal _g_, which hangs on a pivot at _o_, is depressed or raised, by
+the screw _i_, so as to contract or enlarge the channel. At each stroke
+of the plunger a block is formed, and when the channel _e_ is once
+filled, the peats fall continuously from its extremity. Their dimensions
+are 7 inches long, 3-1/2 wide, and 1-1/2 thick.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 8.--EXTER'S PEAT PRESS.]
+
+Several presses are worked by the same engine at the Kolbermoor, each of
+which turns out daily 200 to 300 cwt. of peats, which, in 1863, were
+sold at 24 Kreuzers (16 cents), per cwt.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 9.--EXTER'S PEAT PRESS.]
+
+C. Hodgson has patented in Great Britain a compressing-ram similar to
+Exter's, and works were put up at Derrylea, in Ireland, some years ago,
+in which Exter's process of manufacturing peat fuel appears to have been
+adopted.
+
+_Elsberg's Process._
+
+Dr. Louis Elsberg, of New York City, has invented a modification of
+Exter's method, which appears to be of great importance. His
+experimental machine, which is in operation near Belleville, N. J.,
+consists of a cylindrical pug-mill, in which the peat, air-dried as in
+Exter's method, is further broken, and at the same time is subjected to
+a current of steam admitted through a pipe and jacket surrounding the
+cylinder. The steamed peat is then condensed by a pair of presses
+similar to that just described, which are fed directly from the mill. In
+this way the complicated drying oven of Exter is dispensed with. Elsberg
+& Co. are still engaged in perfecting their arrangements. Some samples
+of their making are of very excellent quality, having a density of 1.2
+to 1.3.
+
+The pressing of air-dry peat only succeeds when it is made warm, and is,
+at the same time, moist. In Exter's original process the peat is
+considerably dried in the ovens, but on leaving them, is so moist as to
+bedew the hand that is immersed in it. It is, in fact, steamed by the
+vaporization of its own water. In Elsberg's process, the air-dry peat is
+not further desiccated, but is made moist and warm by the admission of
+hot steam. The latter method is the more ready and doubtless the more
+economical of the two. Whether the former gives a dryer product or not,
+the author cannot decide. Elsberg's peat occurs in cylindrical cakes 2
+inches broad, and one inch in thickness. The cakes are somewhat cracked
+upon the edges, as if by contraction, in drying. When wet, the surface
+of the cakes swells up, and exfoliates as far as the water has
+penetrated. In the fire, a similar breaking away of the surface takes
+place, and when coked, the coal is but moderately coherent.
+
+The reasons why steamed peat admits of solidification by pressure, are
+simply that the air, ordinarily adhering to the fibres and particles, is
+removed, and the fibres themselves become softened and more plastic, so
+that pressure brings them into intimate contact. The idea that the heat
+develops bituminous matters, or fuses the resins which exist in peat,
+and that these cement the particles, does not harmonize with the fact
+that the peat, thus condensed, flakes to pieces by a short immersion in
+water.
+
+The great advantage of Exter's and Elsberg's method consists in avoiding
+what most of the others require, viz.: the expensive transportation and
+handling of fresh peat, which contains 80 to 90 _per cent._ of water,
+and the rapid removal of this excess of water before the manufacture. In
+the other methods the surplus water must be slowly removed during or
+after condensation.
+
+Again, enough peat may be air-dried and stored during summer weather, to
+supply a machine with work during the whole year.
+
+Its disadvantages are, that it requires a large outlay of capital and
+great expenditure of mechanical force. Its product is, moreover, not
+adapted for coking.
+
+
+B.--_Condensation without Pressure._
+
+The methods of condensing peat, that remain to be described, are based
+upon radically different principles from those already noticed. In
+these, little or no pressure is employed in the operations; but
+advantage is taken of the important fact that when wet or moist peat is
+ground, cut or in any way reduced to a pulpy or pasty consistence, with
+destruction of the elastic fibres, it will, on drying, shrink together
+to a coherent mass, that may acquire a density and toughness much
+greater than it is possible to obtain by any amount of mere pressure.
+
+The various processes that remain to notice are essentially reducible to
+two types, of which the French method, invented by Challeton, and the
+German, invented it appears by Weber, are the original representatives.
+The former method is only applicable to earthy, well-decomposed peat,
+containing little fibre. The latter was originally applied to fibrous
+moss-peat, but has since been adapted to all kinds. Other inventors,
+English, German, and American, have modified these methods in their
+details, or in the construction of the requisite machinery, rendering
+them more perfect in their execution and perhaps more profitable in
+their results; but, as regards the essential principles of production,
+or the quality of product, no advance appears to have been made beyond
+the original inventors.
+
+a. _Condensation of Earthy Peat._
+
+_Challeton's Method_ consists essentially in destroying the fibres, and
+reducing the peat by cutting and grinding with water to a pulp; then
+slowly removing the liquid, until the peat dries away to a hard coherent
+mass. It provides also for the purification of the peat from earthy
+matters. It is, in many respects, an imitation of the old Dutch and
+Irish mode of making "hand peat" (_Baggertorf_), and is very like the
+paper manufacture in its operations. Challeton's Works, situated near
+Paris, at Mennecy, near Montanges, were visited in 1856 by a Commission
+of the Agricultural Society of Holstein, consisting of Drs. Meyn and
+Luetkens, and also by Dr. Ruehlmann, in the interest of the Hanoverian
+Government. From their account[22] the following statements are derived.
+
+The peat at Mennecy comes from the decay of grasses, is black, well
+decomposed, and occasionally intermingled with shells and sand. The moor
+is traversed by canals, which serve for the transport of the excavated
+peat in boats. The peat, when brought to the manufactory, is emptied
+into a cistern, which, by communicating with the adjacent canal,
+maintains a constant level of water. From this cistern the peat is
+carried up by a chain of buckets and emptied into a hopper, where it is
+caught by toothed cylinders in rapid revolution, and cut or torn to
+pieces. Thence it passes into a chamber where the fine parts are
+separated from unbroken roots and fibres by revolving brushes, which
+force the former through small holes in the walls of the chamber, while
+the latter are swept out through a larger passage. The pulverized peat
+finally falls into a cistern, in which it is agitated by revolving arms.
+A stream of water constantly enters this vessel from beneath, while a
+chain of buckets as rapidly carries off the peat pulp. All sand, shells,
+and other heavy matters, remain at the bottom of this cistern.
+
+The peat pulp, thus purified, flows through wooden troughs into a series
+of basins, in which the peat is formed and dried. These basins are made
+upon the ground by putting up a square frame (of boards on edge,) about
+one foot deep, and placing at the bottom old matting or a layer of flags
+or reeds. Each basin is about a rod square, and 800 of them are
+employed. They are filled with the peat pulp to the top. In a few days
+the water either filters away into the ground, or evaporates, so that a
+soft stratum of peat, about 3 inches in thickness, remains. Before it
+begins to crack from drying, it is divided into blocks, by pressing into
+it a light trellis-like framework, having thin partitions that serve to
+indent the peat in lines corresponding to the intended divisions. On
+further drying, the mass separates into blocks at the lines thus
+impressed, and in a few days, they are ready to remove and arrange for
+further desiccation.
+
+The finished peats from Challeton's works, as well as those made by the
+same method near Neuchatel, Switzerland, by the Messrs. Roy, were of
+excellent quality, and in the opinion of the Commission from Holstein,
+the method is admirably adapted for the purification and concentration
+of the heavy kinds of peat.
+
+In Holstein, a French company constructed, and in 1857 worked
+successfully a portable machine for preparing peat on this plan, but
+were shortly restrained by legal proceedings. Of their later operations
+we have no information.
+
+No data are at hand regarding the cost of producing fuel by Challeton's
+machinery. It is believed, however, that his own works were
+unremunerative, and several manufactories on his pattern, erected in
+Germany, have likewise proved unprofitable. The principle is, however, a
+good one, though his machinery is only applicable to earthy or pitchy,
+and not to very fibrous peat. It has been elsewhere applied with
+satisfactory results.
+
+_Simplified machinery_ for applying Challeton's method is in operation
+at Langenberg, near Stettin, in Prussia.[23] The moss-meadows along the
+river Oder, near which Langenberg is situated, are but a foot or so
+higher at the surface than the medium level of this river, and are
+subject to frequent and sudden inundations, so that draining and partial
+drying of the peat are out of the question. The character of the peat is
+unadapted to cutting by hand, since portions of it are pitchy and
+crumble too easily to form good sods; and others, usually the lower
+layers, at a depth of seven feet or more, are made up to a considerable
+extent of quite firm reeds and flags, having the consistence of half
+decayed straw. The earthy peat is manufactured after Challeton's method.
+It is raised with a steam dredger of 20 horse power, and emptied into
+flat boats, seven in number, which are drawn to the works by an endless
+rope operated by horse power. The works themselves are situated on a
+small sand hill in the middle of the moor, and communicate by canal with
+the dredger and with the drying ground. A chain of buckets, working in
+a frame 45 feet long, attached by a horizontal hinge to the top of the
+machine house, reaches over the dock where the boats haul up, into the
+rear end of the latter; and, as the buckets begin to raise the peat, the
+boat itself is moved under the frame towards the house, until, with a
+man's assistance, its entire load is taken up. The contents of one boat
+are six square yards, with a depth of one foot, and a boat is emptied in
+20 minutes time. Forty to forty-four boatloads are thus passed into the
+pulverizing machine daily, by two chains of buckets.
+
+The peat-mud falls from the buckets into a large wooden trough, which
+branches into two channels, conducting to two large tubs standing side
+by side. These tubs are 10 feet in diameter and 2 feet deep, and are
+made of 2-inch plank. Within each tub is placed concentrically a
+cylindrical sieve, or colander, 8 feet in diameter and 2 feet high, made
+of 3/8 round iron, and it is within this that the peat is emptied. The
+peat is stirred and forced through the meshes of the sieve by four arms
+of a shaft that revolves 20 times per minute, the arms carrying at their
+extremities stiff vertical brooms, which rub the inside of the sieve.
+
+In these four tubs the peat is pulverized under addition of water; the
+fine parts pass the sieves, while the latter retain the coarse fibres,
+roots, etc. The peat-mud flows from the tubs into mills, made like a
+flour mill, but the "stones" constructed of hard wood. The "stones" have
+a diameter of 8 feet 6 inches; the lower is 8 inches; the upper 21
+inches thick. The pressure of the upper "stone" is regulated by
+adjusting the level of the discharging channel, so that the "stone" may
+be more or less buoyed, or even fully floated by the water with which it
+is surrounded.
+
+The peat-substance, which is thus finely ground, gathers from the four
+mills into a common reservoir whence it is lifted by a centrifugal pump
+into a trough, which distributes it over the drying ground.
+
+The drying ground consists of the surface formed by grading the sand
+hill, on which the works are built, and includes about 30 English acres.
+This is divided into small plots, each of which is enclosed on three
+sides with a wall of earth, and on the fourth side by boards set on
+edge. Each plot is surrounded by a ditch to carry off water, and by
+means of portable troughs, the peat is let on from the main channel. The
+peat-slime is run into these beds to the depth of 20 to 22 inches, an
+acre being covered daily. After 4 to 8 days, according to the weather,
+the peat has lost so much water, which, rapidly soaks off through the
+sand, that its surface begins to crack. It is then thoroughly trodden by
+men, shod with boards 5 inches by 10 inches, and after 6 to 8 days more,
+it is cut with sharp spades into sods. The peats are dried in the usual
+manner.
+
+The works at Langenberg yielded, in 1863, as the result of the
+operations of 60 days of 12 hours each, 125,000 cwt. of marketable peat.
+It is chiefly employed for metallurgical purposes, and sells at 3-1/3
+Silver-groschen, or nearly 8 cents per cwt. The specific gravity of the
+peat ranges from 0.73 to 0.90.
+
+
+_Roberts' Process._
+
+In this country attempts have been made to apply Challeton's method. In
+1865, Mr. S. Roberts, of Pekin, N. Y., erected machinery at that place,
+which was described in the "Buffalo Express," of Nov. 17, 1865, as
+follows:--
+
+"In outward form, the machine was like a small frame house on wheels,
+supposing the smoke-stack to be a chimney. The engine and boiler are of
+locomotive style; the engine being of thirteen horse power. The
+principal features of the machine are a revolving elevator and a
+conveyer. The elevator is seventy-five feet long, and runs from the top
+of the machine to the ground, where the peat is dug up, placed on the
+elevator, carried to the top of the machine, and dropped into a
+revolving wheel that cuts it up; separates from it all the coarse
+particles, bits of sticks, stones, etc.; and throws them to one side.
+The peat is next dropped into a box below, where water is passed in,
+sufficient to bring it to the consistency of mortar. By means of a slide
+under the control of the engineer, it is next sent to the rear of the
+machine, where the conveyer, one hundred feet long, takes it, and
+carries it within two rods of the end; at which point the peat begins to
+drop through to the ground to the depth of about four or five inches.
+When sufficient has passed through to cover the ground to the end of the
+conveyer,--two rods,--the conveyer is swung around about two feet, and
+the same process gone through, as fast as the ground under the elevator,
+for the distance of two rods in length and two feet in width gets
+covered, the elevator being moved. At each swing of the elevator, the
+peat just spread is cut into blocks (soft ones, however) by knives
+attached to the elevator. It generally takes from three to four weeks
+before it is ready for use. It has to lie a week before it is touched,
+after the knives pass through it; when it is turned over, and allowed to
+lie another week. It has then to be taken up, and put in a shed, and
+within a week or ten days can be used, although it is better to let it
+remain a little longer time. The machine can spread the peat over
+eighteen square rods of ground--taking out one square rod of
+peat--without being moved. After the eighteen rods are covered, the
+machine is moved two rods ahead, enabling it to again spread a
+semicircular space of some thirty-two feet in width by eighteen rods in
+length. The same power, which drives the engine, moves the machine. It
+is estimated by Mr. Roberts, that, by the use of this machine, from
+twenty to thirty tons of peat can be turned out in a day."
+
+Mr. Roberts informs us that he is making (April 1866,) some
+modifications of his machinery. He employs a revolving digger to take up
+the peat from the bed, and carry it to the machine. At the time of going
+to press, we do not learn whether he regards his experiments as leading
+to a satisfactory conclusion, or otherwise.
+
+
+_Siemens' method._
+
+Siemens, Professor of Technology, in the Agricultural Academy, at
+Hohenheim, successfully applied the following mode of preparing peat for
+the Beet Sugar Manufactory at Boeblingen, near Hohenheim, in the year
+1857. Much of the peat there is simply cut and dried in the usual
+manner. There is great waste, however, in this process, owing to the
+frequent occurrence of shells and clay, which destroy the coherence of
+the peat. Besides, a large quantity of material accumulates in the
+colder months, from the ditches which are then dug, that cannot be
+worked in the usual manner at that time of the year. It was to economize
+this otherwise useless material that the following process was devised,
+after a failure to employ Challeton's method with profit.
+
+In the first place, the peat was dumped into a boarded cistern, where it
+was soaked and worked with water, until it could be raised by a chain of
+buckets into the pulverizer.
+
+The pulverization of the peat was next effected by passing it through a
+machine invented by Siemens, for pulping potatoes and beets. This
+machine, (the same we suppose as that described and figured in Otto's
+Landwirthschaftliche Gewerbe), perfectly breaks up and grates the peat
+to a fine pulp, delivers it in the consistency of mortar into the
+moulds, made of wooden frames, with divisions to form the peats. The
+peat-paste is plastered by hand into these moulds, which are immediately
+emptied to fill again, while the blocks are carried away to the drying
+ground where they are cured in the ordinary style without cover.
+
+In this simple manner 8 men were able to make 10,000 peats daily, which,
+on drying, were considerably denser and harder than the cut peat.
+
+The peat thus prepared, cost about one-third more than the cut peat.
+Siemens reckoned, this greater cost would be covered by its better
+heating effect, and its ability to withstand transportation without
+waste by crumbling.
+
+b. _Condensation of fibrous peat._
+
+_Weber's method._
+
+At Staltach, in Southern Bavaria, Weber has established an extensive
+peat works, of which Vogel has given a circumstantial account.[24] The
+peat at Staltach is very light and fibrous, but remarkably free from
+mineral matters, containing less than 2 _per cent._ of ash in the
+perfectly dry substance. The moor is large, (475 acres), and the peat is
+from 12 to 20 feet in depth. The preparation consists in converting the
+fresh peat into pulp or paste, forming it into moulds and drying it; at
+first by exposure to the air at ordinary temperature, and finally, by
+artificial heat, in a drying house constructed for the purpose.
+
+The peat is cut out by a gang of men, in large masses, cleared of coarse
+roots and sticks, and pushed on tram wagons to the works, which, are
+situated lower than the surface of the bog. Arrived at the works, the
+peat is carried upon an inclined endless apron, up to a platform 10 feet
+high, where a workman pushes it into the pulverizing mill, the
+construction of which is seen from the accompanying cut. The vertical
+shaft _b_ is armed with sickle-shaped knives, _d_, which revolve between
+and cut contrary to similar knives _c_, fixed to the interior of the
+vessel. The latter is made of iron, is 3-1/2 feet high, 2 feet across at
+top and 1-1/2 feet wide at the bottom. From the base of the machine at
+_g_, the perfectly pulverized or minced peat issues as a stiff paste. If
+the peat is dry, a little water is added. Vogel found the fresh peat to
+contain 90 _per cent._, of water, the pulp 92 _per cent._ Weber's
+machine, operated by an engine of 10 horse power, working usually to
+half its capacity only, reduced 400 cubic feet of peat per hour, to the
+proper consistency for moulding.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 10.--WEBER'S PEAT MILL.]
+
+Three modes of forming the paste into blocks have been practiced. One
+was in imitation of that employed with mud-peat. The paste was carried
+by railway to sheds, where it was filled by hand into moulds 17 inches
+by 7-1/4 by 5-1/2 inches, and put upon frames to dry. These sheds
+occupied together 52,000 square feet, and contained at once 200,000
+peats. The peats remained here 8 to 14 days or more, according to the
+weather, when they were either removed to the drying house, or piled in
+large stacks to dry slowly out-of-doors. The sheds could be filled and
+emptied at least 12 times each season, and since they protected from
+light frosts, the season began in April and lasted until November.
+
+The second mode of forming the peat was to run off the pulp into large
+and deep pits, excavated in the ground, and provided with drains for
+carrying off water. The water soaked away into the soil, and in a few
+weeks of good weather, the peat was stiff enough to cut out into blocks
+by the spade, having lost 20 to 25 _per cent._ of its water, and 15 _per
+cent._ of its bulk. The blocks were removed to the drying sheds, and set
+upon edge in the spaces left by the shrinking of the peats made by the
+other method. The working of the peat for the pits could go on, except
+in the coldest weather, as a slight covering usually sufficed to protect
+them from frost.
+
+Both of these methods have been given up as too expensive, and are
+replaced, at present, by the following:
+
+In the third method the peat-mass falls from the mill into a hopper,
+which directs it between the rolls _A B_ of fig. 11, (see next page).
+The roll _A_ has a series of boxes on its periphery _m m_, with movable
+bottoms which serve as moulds. The peat is carried into these boxes by
+the rolls _c c_. The iron projections _n n_ of the large roll _B_, which
+work cog-like into the boxes, compress the peat gently and, at last, the
+eccentric p acting upon the pin _z_, forces up the movable bottom of the
+box and throws out the peat-block upon an endless band of cloth, which
+carries it to the drying place.
+
+The peats which are dried at first under cover and therefore slowly,
+shrink more evenly and to a greater extent than those which are allowed
+to dry rapidly. The latter become cracked upon the surface and have
+cavities internally, which the former do not. This fact is of great
+importance for the density of the peat, for its usefulness in producing
+intense heat, and its power to withstand carriage.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 11--WEBER'S PEAT MOULDING MACHINE.]
+
+The _complete drying_ is, on the other hand, by this method, a much
+slower process, since the dense, fissureless exterior of the peats
+hinders the escape of water from within. It requires, in fact, several
+months of ordinary drying for the removal of the greater share of the
+water, and at the expiration of this time they are still often moist in
+the interior.
+
+Artificial drying is therefore employed to produce the most compact,
+driest, and best fuel.
+
+Weber's _Drying house_ is 120 feet long and 46 feet wide. Four large
+flues traverse the whole length of it, and are heated with the pine
+roots and stumps which abound in the moor. These flues are enclosed in
+brick-work, leaving a narrow space for the passage of air from without,
+which is heated by the flues, and is discharged at various openings in
+the brick-work into the house itself, where the peat is arranged on
+frames. The warm air being light, ascends through the peat, charges
+itself with moisture, thereby becomes heavier and falls to the floor,
+whence it is drawn off by flues of sheet zinc that pass up through the
+roof. This house holds at once 300,000 peats, which are heated to 130 deg.
+to 145 deg. F., and require 10 to 14 days for drying.
+
+The effect of the hot air upon the peat is, in the first place, to
+soften and cause it to swell; it, however, shortly begins to shrink
+again and dries away to masses of great solidity. It becomes almost
+horny in its character, can be broken only by a heavy blow, and endures
+the roughest handling without detriment. Its quality as fuel is
+correspondingly excellent.
+
+The effects of the mechanical treatment and drying on the Staltach peat,
+are seen from the subjoined figures:
+
+                                                    _Lbs.
+                                     _Specific    per Cubic  _Per cent of
+                                      Gravity._      Foot._      Water._
+
+ Peat, raised and dried in usual way,  0.24          15        18 to 20
+ Machine-worked and hot-dried          0.65          35           12
+
+Vogel estimates the cost of peat made by Weber's method at 5 Kreuzers
+per (Bavarian) hundred weight, while that of ordinary peat is 13-1/2
+Kreuzers. Schroeder, in his comparison of machine-wrought and ordinary
+peat, demonstrates that the latter can be produced much cheaper than was
+customary in Bavaria, in 1859, by a better system of labor.
+
+Weber's method was adopted with some improvements in an extensive works
+built in 1860, by the Government of Baden, at Willaringen, for the
+purpose of raising as much fuel as possible, during the course of a
+lease that expired with the year 1865.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 12.--GEYSSER'S PEAT MACHINE.]
+
+_Gysser's method._[25]--Rudolph Gysser, of Freiburg, who was charged
+with the erection of the works at Willaringen just alluded to, invented
+a portable hand-machine on the general plan of Weber, but with
+important improvements; and likewise omitted and varied some details of
+the manufacture, bringing it within the reach of parties of small means.
+
+In the accompanying cuts, (figs. 12, 13, and 14), are given an elevation
+of Gysser's machine, together with a bird's-eye view and vertical
+section of the interior mechanism.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 13.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 14.]
+
+It consists of a cast iron funnel _c d i_ of the elevation, (fig. 12),
+having above a sheet iron hopper _a b_ to receive the peat, and within a
+series of six knives fastened in a spiral, and curving outwards and
+downwards, (figs. 13 and 14); another series of three similar knives is
+affixed to a vertical shaft, which is geared to a crank and turned by a
+man standing on the platform _j k_; these revolving knives curve upwards
+and cut between and in a direction contrary to the fixed knives; below
+the knives, and affixed to the shaft a spiral plate of iron and a
+scraper _m_, (fig. 13), serve to force the peat, which has been at once
+minced and carried downwards by the knives, as a somewhat compressed
+mass through the lateral opening at the bottom of the funnel, whence it
+issues as a continuous hollow cylinder like drain-tile, having a
+diameter of four inches. The iron cone _i_, held in the axis of the
+opening by the thin and sharp-edged support _g h_, forms the bore of the
+tube of peat as it issues. Two men operate the machine; one turning the
+crank, which, by suitable gearing, works the shaft, and the other
+digging and throwing in the peat. The mass, as it issues from the
+machine, is received by two boys alternately, who hold below the opening
+a semi-cylindrical tin-plate shovel, (fig. 15), of the width and length
+of the required peats, and break or rather wipe them off, when they
+reach the length of 14 inches.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 15.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 16.]
+
+The formed peats are dried in light, cheap and portable houses, Fig. 17,
+each of which consists of six rectangular frames supported one above
+another, and covered by a light roof. The frames, Fig. 16, have square
+posts at each corner like a bedstead, and are made by nailing light
+strips to these posts. The tops of these posts are obtusely beveled to
+an edge, and at the bottom they are notched to correspond. The direction
+of the edges and of the notches in two diagonally opposite posts, is at
+right angles to that of the other two. By this construction the frames,
+being of the same size, when placed above each other, fit together by
+the edges and notches of their posts into a structure that cannot be
+readily overturned. The upper frame has a light shingled roof, which
+completes the house. Each frame has transverse slats, cast in plaster of
+Paris, 20 in number, which support the peats. The latter being tubular,
+dry more readily, uniformly, and to a denser consistence than they could
+otherwise.
+
+The machine being readily set up where the peat is excavated, the labor
+of transporting the fresh and water-soaked material is greatly reduced.
+The drying-frames are built up into houses as fast as they are filled
+from the machine. They can be set up anywhere without difficulty,
+require no leveling of the ground, and, once filled, no labor in turning
+or stacking the peats is necessary; while the latter are insured against
+damage from rain. These advantages, Gysser claims, more than cover their
+cost.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 17.]
+
+The daily production of a machine operated by two men with the
+assistance of one or two boys, is 2500 to 3000 peats, which, on drying,
+have 9-1/2 to 10 inches of length, and 2-1/2 in diameter, and weigh, on
+the average, one pound each.
+
+c.--_Condensation of peat of all kinds._--_Weber's method with modified
+machinery._
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 18.--SCHLICKEYSEN'S PEAT MILL.]
+
+_Schlickeysen's Machine._[26]--This machine has been in use in Germany
+since 1860, in the preparation of peat. It appears to have been
+originally constructed for the working and moulding of clay for making
+bricks. The principle of its operation is identical with that of Weber's
+process. The peat is finely pulverized, worked into a homogenous mass,
+and moulded into suitable forms. Like Gysser's machine, it forces the
+peat under some pressure through a nozzle, or, in the larger kinds
+through several nozzles, whence it issues in a continuous block or pipe
+that is cut off in proper lengths, either by hand or by mechanism It
+consists of a vertical cylinder, through the axis of which revolves a
+shaft, whereon are fastened the blades, whose edges cut and whose
+winding figure forces down the peat. The blades are arranged nearly, but
+not exactly, in a true spiral; the effect is therefore that they act
+unequally upon the mass, and thus mix and divide it more perfectly. No
+blades or projections are affixed to the interior of the cylinder.
+Above, where the peat enters into a flaring hopper, is a scraper, that
+prevents adhesion to the sides and gives downward propulsion to the
+peat. The blades are, by this construction, very strong, and not liable
+to injury from small stones or roots, and effectually reduce the
+toughest and most compact peat.
+
+Furthermore, addition of water is not only unnecessary in any case, but
+the peat may be advantageously air-dried to a considerable extent before
+it enters the machine. Wet peat is, indeed, worked with less expenditure
+of power; but the moulded peats are then so soft as to require much care
+in the handling, and must be spread out in single courses, as they will
+not bear to be placed one upon another. Peat, that is somewhat dry,
+though requiring more power to work, leaves the machine in blocks that
+can be piled up on edge and upon each other, six or eight high, without
+difficulty, and require, of course, less time for curing.
+
+The cut, (fig. 18), represents one of Schlickeysen's portable
+peat-mills, with elevator for feeding, from which an idea of the
+pulverizing arrangements may be gathered.
+
+In Livonia, near Pernan, according to Leo, two of Schlickeysen's
+machines, No. 6, were put in operation upon a purely fibrous peat. They
+were driven by an engine of 12 horse-power. The peat was plowed, once
+harrowed, then carted directly to the hopper of the machine. These two
+machines, with 26 men and 4 horses, produced daily 60,000 peats = 7500
+cubic feet. 100 cubic feet of these peats were equal in heating effect
+to 130 cubic feet of fir-wood, and cost but two-thirds as much. The
+peats were extremely hard, and dried in a few days sufficiently for use.
+In 1864, five large Schlickeysen machines were in operation at one
+establishment at St. Miskolz, in Hungary.
+
+The smaller sizes of Schlickeysen's machine are easily-portable, and
+adapted for horse or hand-power.
+
+_Leavitt's Peat-condensing and Moulding Mill._[27]--In this country, Mr.
+T. H. Leavitt, of Boston, has patented machinery, which is in operation
+at East Lexington, Mass., at the works of the Boston Peat Company. The
+process is essentially identical with that of Weber, the hot-drying
+omitted. The fresh peat is pulverized or cut fine, moulded into blocks,
+and dried on light frames in the open air. The results claimed by Mr.
+Leavitt, indicate, that his machine is very efficacious.
+
+It consists, principally, of a strong box or cistern, three feet in
+diameter, and six feet high, the exterior of which, with its gearing, is
+shown in figure 19. The mill is adapted to be driven by a four
+horse-power engine.
+
+"The upper portion of the box is divided by a series of horizontal
+partitions, the upper ones being open latticework, and the lower ones
+perforated with numerous holes. The upright shaft, which rotates in the
+centre of the box, carries a series of arms or blades, extending
+alternately on opposite sides, and as these revolve, they cut the peat,
+and force it through the openings in the diaphragms. The lower portion
+of the box, in place of complete partitions, has a series of corrugated
+shelves extending alternately from opposite sides, and the peat is
+pressed and scraped from these by a series of arms adapted to the work.
+By this series of severe operations the air-bubbles are expelled from
+the peat, and it is reduced to a homogeneous paste. When it arrives at
+the bottom of the box, it is still further compressed by the converging
+sides of the hopper, and it is received in light moulds which are
+carried on an endless belt." Mr. Leavitt has patented the use of
+powdered peat for the purpose of preventing the prepared peat from
+adhering to the moulds.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 19.--LEAVITT'S PEAT MILL.]
+
+This mill, it is asserted, will condense 40 tons of crude peat daily,
+which, at Lexington, is estimated to yield 10 to 14 tons of dry
+merchantable fuel. The cost of producing the latter is asserted to be
+less than $2.00 per ton; while its present value, in Boston, is $10 per
+ton. It requires seven men, three boys, and two horses to dig, cart,
+mill, and spread the peat. The machine costs $600, the needful
+buildings, engine, etc., from $2000 to $3000. The samples of peat,
+manufactured by this machine, are of excellent quality. The drying in
+the open air is said to proceed with great rapidity, eight or ten days
+being ordinarily sufficient in the summer season. The dry peat, at
+Lexington, occupies one-fourth the bulk, and has one-fourth to one-third
+the weight of the raw material; the latter, as we gather, being by no
+means saturated with water, but well drained, and considerably dry,
+before milling.
+
+
+_Ashcroft & Betteley's Machinery._
+
+The American Peat Company, of Boston, are the owners of five patents,
+taken out by Messrs. Ashcroft & Betteley, for peat machinery. They claim
+to "make fuel equal to the best English Cannel coal," and really do make
+a very good peat, though with a rather complicated apparatus. The
+following statement is derived from the circular issued by the company.
+The machinery consists of the following parts:--
+
+_First._--TRITURATING MACHINE--36 inches diameter, 4 feet 6 inches high,
+with arms both on the inside of this cylinder and on the upright
+revolving shaft. In the bottom of the cylinder or tub a large slide gate
+is fitted to work with a lever, so that the peat may be discharged, at
+pleasure, into the Combing Machine, which is placed directly under this
+Triturator.
+
+_Second._--COMBING MACHINE--Semi-circular vessel 6 feet long and 3 feet
+6 inches in diameter. Inside, a shaft is placed, which is provided with
+fingers, placed one inch apart; the fingers to be 20 inches long, so as
+to reach within 2 inches of the bottom and sides of this vessel. Another
+shaft, of the same size and dimensions, is placed at an angle of 45 deg., 26
+inches from the first shaft, with arms of the same dimensions placed
+upon this shaft, with the same spaces, and so placed that this set of
+arms pass between the first set, both shafts revolving in the same
+direction; the second shaft mentioned being driven at double the speed
+of the first. At the bottom of this Combing Machine is to be fixed a
+gate, to be operated by a lever, to deliver, at pleasure, the cleansed
+peat into the Manipulator or Kneading Machine.
+
+_Third._--MANIPULATOR.--A Tube of iron 7 feet long and 16 inches
+diameter, fitted with a shaft, with flanges upon it, to gain 6 inches in
+each revolution.
+
+_Fourth._--CONVEYOR.--This Conveyor, to be made with two endless chains
+and buckets of iron, with a driving shaft. The hopper, to receive the
+peat when first taken from the bog, to be placed below the surface of
+the ground, so that the top edge of the hopper may be level with the
+surface, that the peat may be dumped from the car by which it is taken
+from the bog, and carried to the hopper without hand labor; and this
+conveyor to be so arranged that the peat will be delivered into the
+Triturator without hand labor.
+
+_Fifth._--CONVEYOR.--Another conveyor, precisely like the one above
+described, is to be placed so as to convey the peat from the Manipulator
+into the Tank without hand labor.
+
+_Sixth._--TANK.--A tank 35 feet high and 15 feet in diameter; the bottom
+of this tank is made sloping towards the sides, at an angle of 65 deg., and
+is covered with sole tile or drain tile, and the entire inside of this
+tank is also ribbed with these tile; the ends of these pipes of tile
+being left open, so that the water which percolates through the pores of
+the tile, by the pressure of the column of peat, will pass out at the
+bottom, through the false floor of the tank into the drain, and the
+solid peat is retained in the tank. A worm is fixed in the bottom of
+this tank, which is driven by machinery, which forces out the peat in
+the form of brick, which are cut to any length, and stacked up in sheds,
+for fuel, after it is fully dried by the air.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 20.--VERSMANN'S PEAT PULVERIZER.]
+
+_Versmann's Machine_[28]--This machine, see Fig. 20, was invented by a
+German engineer, in London, and was patented there in Sept., 1861. It
+consists of a funnel or hollow cone _b_, of boiler-plate, from one to
+two feet in diameter at top, and perforated with 200 to 300 small holes
+per square foot of surface, within which rapidly revolves an iron cone
+_a_, carrying on its circumference two spiral knives. The peat thrown in
+at the top of the funnel is carried down by the knives, and at once cut
+or broken and forced in a state of fine division through the holes of
+the funnel, as through a colander. The fine peat collects on the
+inclined bottom of the chamber _d_, whence it is carried by means of
+Archimedean screws to a moulding machine. The coarse stuff that escapes
+pulverization falls through _e_ into the cavity _c_. It may be employed
+as fuel for the engine, or again put through the machine.
+
+This machine effects a more perfect pulverization of the peat, than any
+other hitherto described. This extreme division is, however, unnecessary
+to the perfection of the product, and is secured at great expense of
+power. Through the opening at the bottom of the funnel, much
+unpulverized peat finds its way, which must be continually returned to
+the machine. Again, stones, entering the funnel, are likely to break or
+damage the spiral knives, which bear close to the walls of the funnel.
+
+The pulverized peat must be moulded by hand, or by a separate
+instrument.
+
+_Buckland's Machine_[29] is identical in principle with Versmann's, and
+in construction differs simply in the fact of the interior cone having
+spiral grooves instead of spiral knives. This gives greater simplicity
+and durability to the machine. It appears, however, to require too much
+power to work it, and can hardly equal other machines in the quantity of
+product it will deliver for a given expenditure. The ground peat yielded
+by it, must be moulded by hand, or by other machinery. This machine, we
+understand, has been tried near Boston, and abandoned as uneconomical.
+
+The machines we have described are by no means all that have been
+proposed and patented. They include, however, so the author believes,
+all that have been put into actual operation, at the date of this
+writing, or that present important peculiarities of construction.
+
+The account that has been given of them will serve to illustrate what
+mechanism has accomplished hitherto in the manufacture of peat-fuel, and
+may save the talent of the American inventor from wasting itself on what
+is already in use, or having been tried, has been found wanting. At
+present, very considerable attention is devoted to the subject.
+Scarcely a week passes without placing one or more Peat-mill patents on
+record. In this treatise our business is with what has been before the
+public in a more or less practical way, and it would, therefore, be
+useless to copy the specifications of new, and for the most part untried
+patents, which can be found in the files of our mechanical Journals.
+
+14. _Artificial Drying of Peat._
+
+As we have seen, air-dry peat contains 20 to 30 and may easily contain
+50 _per cent._ of water, and the best hot-made machine peat contains 15
+_per cent._ When peat is used as fuel in ordinary furnaces, this water
+must be evaporated, and in this process a large amount of heat is
+consumed, as is well understood. It is calculated, that the temperature
+which can be produced in perfectly burning full-dried peat, compares
+with that developed in the combustion of peat containing water, as
+follows:--
+
+ Pyrometric effect of perfectly dry peat                   4000 deg.  F.
+    "         "       peat with 30 _per cent._ of water    3240 deg.  "
+    "         "         "       50        "         "      2848 deg.  "
+
+But, furthermore, moist or air-dried peat does not burn in ordinary
+furnaces, except with considerable waste, as is evident from the
+smokiness of its flame. When air-dried peat is distilled in a retort, a
+heavy yellow vapor escapes for some time after the distillation begins,
+which, obviously, contains much inflammable matter, but which is so
+mixed and diluted with steam that it will not burn at all, or but
+imperfectly. It is obvious then, that when a high temperature is to be
+attained, anhydrous or full-dried peat is vastly superior to that which
+has simply been cured in the open air.
+
+Notice has already been made of Weber's drying-house, the use of which
+is an essential part of his system of producing peat-fuel. Various other
+arrangements have been proposed from time to time, for accomplishing
+the same object. It appears, however, that in most cases the
+anticipations regarding their economy have not been fully realized. It
+is hardly probable, that artificially dried peat can be employed to
+advantage except where waste heat is utilized in the operation.
+
+A point of the utmost importance in reference to the question of drying
+peat by artificial warmth is this, viz.: Although the drying may be
+carried so far as to remove the whole of the water, and produce an
+absolutely dry fuel, the peat absorbs moisture from the air again on
+exposure; so that drying to less than 15 _per cent._ of water is of no
+advantage, unless the peat is to be used immediately, or within a few
+days. The employment of highly dried peat is consequently practicable
+only for smelting-works, locomotives, and manufacturing establishments,
+where it may be consumed as fast as it is produced.
+
+A fact likewise to be regarded is, that artificial drying is usually
+inapplicable to fresh peat. The precautions needful in curing peat have
+already been detailed. Above all, slow drying is necessary, in order
+that the blocks shrink uniformly, without cracking and warping in such a
+way as to seriously injure their solidity and usefulness. In general,
+peat must be air-dried to a considerable extent before it can be
+kiln-dried to advantage. If exposed to dry artificial heat, when
+comparatively moist, a hard crust is formed externally, which greatly
+hinders subsequent desiccation. At the same time this crust, contracting
+around the moist interior, becomes so rifted and broken, that the
+ultimate shrinkage and condensation of the mass is considerably less
+than it would have been had the drying proceeded more slowly.
+
+Besides Weber's drying oven, the fuel for firing which is derived
+without cost from the stumps and roots of trees that are abundant on the
+moor, at Staltach, and which are thus conveniently disposed of, we have
+briefly to notice several other drying kilns with regard to all of
+which, however, it must be remarked, that they can only be employed with
+profit, by the use of waste heat, or, as at Staltach, of fuel that is
+comparatively worthless for other purposes.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 21.--CARINTHIAN PEAT DRYING-KILN.]
+
+The _Peat Kilns_ employed at Lippitzbach, in Carinthia, and at Neustadt,
+in Hanover, are of the kind shown in fig. 21. The peat with which the
+main chamber is filled, is heated directly by the hot gases that arise
+from a fire made in the fire-place at the left. These gases first enter
+a vault, where they intermingle and cool down somewhat; thence they
+ascend through the openings of the brick grating, and through the mass
+of peat to the top of the chamber. On their way they become charged
+with vapor, and falling, pass off through the chimney, as is indicated
+by the arrows. The draught is regulated by the damper on the top of the
+chimney. To manage the fire, so that on the one hand the chimney is
+sufficiently heated to create a draught, and on the other waste of fuel,
+or even ignition of the peat itself is prevented, requires some care.
+
+In _Welkner's Peat Kiln_[30] (fig. 22) the peat, previously air-dried,
+is exposed to a stream of hot air, until it is completely desiccated,
+and the arrangement is such, that air-dried peat may be thrown in at the
+top, and the hot-dried fuel be removed at the bottom, continuously.
+
+In the cut, _A_ represents the section of a wooden cylinder about 10
+feet wide and 6-1/2 feet deep, which surmounts a funnel of iron plate
+_A'_. The mouth of the funnel is closed by a door _n_; about 20 inches
+above the door the pipe _B_, which conducts hot air, terminates in the
+ring _a a_, through the holes in which, _e e_, it is distributed into
+the funnel filled with peat. The air is driven in by a blower, and is
+heated by circulating through a system of pipes, which are disposed in
+the chimney of a steam boiler. From time to time a quantity of dried
+peat is drawn off into the wagon _D_, which runs on rails, and a similar
+amount of undried peat is thrown in above.
+
+According to Welkner, a kiln of the dimensions stated, which cost, about
+$1800 gold, is capable of desiccating daily ten tons of peat with 20
+_per cent._ of water, using thereby 2000 cubic feet of air of a
+temperature of 212 deg. F. When the air is heated by a fire kept up
+exclusively for that purpose, 10 _per cent._ of the dried peat, or its
+equivalent, is consumed in the operation. At the Alexis Smelting Works,
+near Lingen, in Hanover, this peat kiln furnishes about half the fuel
+for a high furnace, in which bog iron ore is smelted. The drying costs
+but little, since half the requisite heat is obtained from the waste
+heat of the furnace itself.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 22.--WELKNER'S PEAT DRYING KILN.]
+
+The advantages of this drying kiln are, that it is cheap in construction
+and working; dries gradually and uniformly; occupies little ground, and
+runs without intermission.
+
+Other drying ovens are described in Knapp's _Lehrbuch_ der _Chemischen
+Technologie_, 3. Aufl. Bd. 1, Theil 1, pp. 178-9; _Jahrbuch der
+Bergakademien Schemnitz_ und _Leoben_, 1860, p. 108, 1861, p. 55;
+Wagner's _Jahresbericht der Chemischen Technologie_, 1863, p. 748;
+Zerrenner's _Metallurgische Gasfeuerung in Oesterreich_; Tunner's
+_Stabeisen- und Stahlbereitung_, 2. Auflage, Bd. I, pp. 23-25.
+
+15. _Peat Coal, or Coke._
+
+When peat is charred, it yields a coal or coke which, being richer in
+carbon, is capable of giving an intenser heat than peat itself, in the
+same way that charcoal emits an intenser heat in its combustion than the
+wood from which it is made.
+
+Peat coal has been and is employed to some extent in metallurgical
+processes, as a substitute for charcoal, and when properly prepared from
+good peat, is in no way inferior to the latter; is, in fact, better.
+
+It is only, however, from peat which naturally dries to a hard and dense
+consistency, or which has been solidified on the principles of
+Challeton's and Weber's methods, that a coal can be made possessing the
+firmness necessary for furnace use. Fibrous peat, or that condensed by
+pressure, as in Exter's, Elsberg's, and the Lithuanian process, yields
+by coking or charring, a friable coal comparatively unsuited for heating
+purposes.
+
+A peat which is dense as the result of proper mechanical treatment and
+slow drying, yields a very homogeneous and compact coal, superior to any
+wood charcoal, the best qualities weighing nearly twice as much per
+bushel.
+
+Peat is either charred in pits and heaps, or in kilns. From the
+regularity of the rectangular blocks into which peat is usually formed,
+it may be charred more easily in pits than wood, since the blocks admit
+of closer packing in the heap, and because the peat coal is less
+inflammable than wood coal. The heaps may likewise be made much smaller
+than is needful in case of wood, viz.: six to eight feet in diameter,
+and four feet high. The pit is arranged as follows: The ground is
+selected and prepared as for charcoal burning, and should be elevated,
+dry and compact. Three stout poles are firmly driven into the ground, so
+as to stand vertically and equi-distant from each other, leaving within
+them a space of six or eight inches. Around these poles the peats are
+placed endwise, in concentric rows to the required width and height,
+leaving at the bottom a number of air-channels of the width of one peat,
+radiating from the centre outwards. The upper layers of peat are
+narrowed in so as to round off the heap, which is first covered with dry
+leaves, sods, or moss, over which a layer of soil is thrown. Dry, light
+wood being placed at the bottom of the central shaft, it is kindled from
+one of the canals at the bottom, and the charring is conducted as is
+usual in making wood coal. The yield of coal ranges from 25 to 35 _per
+cent._ of the peat by weight, and from 30 to 50 _per cent._ by volume.
+
+Gysser recommends to mould the peat for charring in the form of
+cylinders of 3 to 4 feet long, which, when dry, may be built up into a
+heap like wood.
+
+A great variety of ovens or kilns have been constructed for coking peat.
+
+At the Gun Factory of Oberndorf, in Wirtemberg, peat is charred in the
+kiln represented in the accompanying figure. The chamber is 9 feet high,
+and 5-1/2 feet in diameter. The oven proper, _b b_, is surrounded by a
+mantle of brick _a a_, and the space between, _c c_, is filled with
+sand. Each wall, as well as the space, is 15 inches in thickness, and
+the walls are connected by stones _d d_, at intervals of three feet.
+Above the sole of the kiln, are three series of air holes, made by
+imbedding old gun barrels in the walls. The door, which serves to empty
+the kiln, is a plate of cast iron, the sides of its frame are wider than
+the thickness of the wall, and by means of a board _e_, a box _m_ can be
+made in front of the door, which is filled with sand to prevent access
+of air. The peat is filled in through _i_, a channel being arranged
+across the bottom of the kiln, from the door _f_, for kindling. When the
+firing begins, the lowest air-holes and _i_ are open. When, through the
+lower gun barrels, the peat is seen to be ignited, these are corked, and
+those above are opened. When the smoke ceases to escape above, all the
+openings are closed, _m_, is filled with sand, _i_ is covered over with
+it, and the whole is left to cool. It requires about 8 to 9 days to
+finish the charring of a charge. Several kilns are kept in operation, so
+that the work proceeds uninterruptedly.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 23.--OBERNDORFER PEAT CHARRING KILN.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 24.--WEBER'S CHARRING FURNACE.--TRANSVERSE SECTION.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 25.--WEBER'S CHARRING FURNACE.--LONGITUDINAL
+SECTION.]
+
+At Staltach, Weber prepares peat coal in a cylinder of sheet iron, which
+is surrounded by masonry. Below, it rests on a grating of stout wire.
+Above, it has a cover, that may be raised by a pulley and on one side is
+attached a small furnace, figure 24, the draught of which is kept up by
+means of a blower, or an exhauster, and the flame and hot gases from
+it, _which contain no excess of oxygen_, play upon the peat and
+decompose it, expelling its volatile portions without burning or wasting
+it in the slightest degree. The construction of the furnace, see fig.
+24, is such, that the sticks of wood, which are employed for fuel, are
+supported at their ends on shoulders in the brick-work, and the draught
+enters the fire above instead of below. The wood is hereby completely
+consumed, and by regulating the supply of air at _a_ (fig. 25) by a
+sliding cover, and at _b_ by a register, the flame and current of air
+which enters the cylinder containing the peat, is intensely hot and
+accomplishes a rapid carbonization of the peat, but as before stated,
+does not burn it. In this furnace the wood, which is cut of uniform
+length, is itself the grate, since iron would melt or rapidly burn out;
+and the coals that fall are consumed by the air admitted through c. The
+hot gases which enter the cylinder filled with peat near its top, are
+distributed by pipes, and, passing off through the grating at the
+bottom, enter the surrounding brick mantle. Before reaching the
+exhaustor, however, they pass through a cooler in which a quantity of
+tar and pyroligneous acid is collected.
+
+Weber's oven is 15 feet in diameter, and 3-1/2 feet high; 528 cubic feet
+of peat may be coked in it in the space of 15 hours. The wood furnace is
+2 feet in section, and consumes for the above amount of peat 3-1/2 cwt.
+of wood. So perfectly are the contents of the iron cylinder protected
+from contact of oxygen, that a rabbit placed within it, has been
+converted into coal without the singeing of a hair; and a bouquet of
+flowers has been carbonized, perfectly retaining its shape. The yield of
+coal in Weber's oven is nearly 50 _per cent._ of the peat by weight.
+
+Whenever possible, charring of peat should be carried on, or aided by
+waste heat, or the heat necessary to coking should be itself economized.
+In manufacturing and metallurgical establishments, a considerable
+economy in both the drying and coking may often be effected in this
+manner.
+
+On the bog of Allen, in Ireland, we have an example of this kind. Peat
+is placed in iron ovens in the form of truncated pyramids, the bottoms
+of which consist of movable and perforated iron plates. The ovens are
+mounted on wheels, and run on a rail track.
+
+Five ovens filled with peat are run into a pit in a drying house, in
+which blocks of fresh peat are arranged for drying. Each oven is
+connected with a flue, and fire is applied. The peat burns below, and
+the heat generated in the coking, warms the air of the drying house.
+When the escaping smoke becomes transparent, the pit in which the ovens
+stand is filled with water slightly above their lower edges, whereby
+access of air to the burning peat is at once cut off. When cool, the
+ovens are run out and replaced by others filled with peat. Each oven
+holds about 600 lbs. of peat, and the yield of coal is 25 _per cent._ by
+weight. The small yield compared with that obtained by Weber's method,
+is due to the burning of the peat and the coal itself, in the draught of
+air that passes through the ovens.
+
+The author has carbonized, in an iron retort, specimens of peat prepared
+by Elsberg's, Leavitt's, and Aschcroft and Betteley's processes.
+Elsberg's gave 35, the others 37 _per cent._ of coal. The coal from
+Elsberg's peat was greatly fissured, and could be crushed in the fingers
+to small fragments. That from the other peats was more firm, and
+required considerable exertion to break it. All had a decided metallic
+brilliancy of surface.
+
+16.--_Metallurgical Uses of Peat._
+
+In Austria, more than any other country, peat has been employed in the
+manufacture of iron. In Bavaria, Prussia, Wirtemberg, Hanover, and
+Sweden, and latterly in Great Britain, peat has been put to the same
+use. The general results of experience, are as follows:--
+
+Peat can only be employed to advantage, when wood and mineral coal are
+expensive, or of poor quality.
+
+Peat can be used in furnaces adapted for charcoal, but not in those
+built for mineral coal.
+
+Good air-dry peat, containing 20 to 30 _per cent._ of water, in some
+cases may replace a share of charcoal in the high furnace.
+
+At Pillersee, in Austria, spathic iron ore has been reduced by a mixture
+of fir-wood charcoal, and air-dry peat in the proportions of three
+parts by bulk of the former to one of the latter. The use of peat was
+found to effect a considerable saving in the outlay for fuel, and
+enabled the production to be somewhat increased, while the excellence of
+the iron was in no way impaired. The peat was of the best quality, and
+was worked and moulded by hand.
+
+When the ore is refractory and contains impurities that must be fluxed
+and worked off in slag, a large proportion of air-dry peat cannot be
+used to advantage, because the evaporation of the water in it consumes
+so much heat, that the requisite temperature is not easily attained.
+
+At Achthal, in Bavaria, air-dry peat was employed in 1860, to replace a
+portion of the fir wood charcoal, which had been used for smelting an
+impure clay-iron-stone: the latter fuel having become so dear, that peat
+was resorted to as a make shift. Instead of one "sack," or 33 cubic feet
+of charcoal, 24 cubic feet of charcoal and 15 cubic feet of peat were
+employed in each charge, and the quantity of ore had to be diminished
+thereby, so that the yield of pig was reduced, on the average, by about
+17 _per cent._ In this case the quality of the iron, when worked into
+bar, was injured by the use of peat, obviously from an increase of its
+content of phosphorus. The exclusive use of air-dry peat as fuel in the
+high furnace, appears to be out of the question.
+
+At Ransko, in Bohemia, _kiln-dried peat_, nearly altogether free from
+water, has been employed in a high furnace, mixed with but one-third its
+bulk of charcoal, and in cupola furnaces for re-melting pig, full-dried
+peat has been used alone, answering the purpose perfectly.
+
+The most important metallurgical application of peat is in the refining
+of iron.
+
+Dried peat is extensively used in puddling furnaces, especially in the
+so-called gas puddling furnaces, in Carinthia, Steyermark, Silesia,
+Bavaria, Wirtemberg, Sweden, and other parts of Europe. In Steyermark,
+peat has been thus employed for 25 years.
+
+Air-dry peat is, indeed, also employed, but is not so well adapted for
+puddling, as its water burns away a notable quantity of iron. It is one
+of the best known facts in chemistry, that ignited iron is rapidly
+oxidized in a stream of water-vapor, free hydrogen being at the same
+time evolved.
+
+In the high furnace, _peat-coal_, when compact and firm (not crumbly)
+may replace charcoal perfectly, but its cost is usually too great.
+
+When peat or peat-coal is employed in smelting, it must be as free as
+possible from ash, because the ash usually consists largely of silica,
+and this must be worked off by flux. If the ash be carbonate of lime, it
+will, in most cases, serve itself usefully as flux. In hearth puddling,
+it is important not only that the peat or peat-coal contain little ash,
+but especially that the ash be as free as possible from sulphates and
+phosphates, which act so deleteriously on the metal. The notion that, in
+general, peat and peat charcoal are peculiarly adapted for the iron
+manufacture, because they are free from sulphur and phosphorus, is
+extremely erroneous. Not infrequently they contain these bodies in such
+quantity, as to forbid their use in smelting.
+
+In the gas-puddling furnace, or in the ordinary reverberatory, impure
+peat may, however, be employed, since the ashes do not come in contact
+with the metal. The only disadvantage in the use of peat in these
+furnaces is, that the grates require cleaning more frequently, which
+interrupts the fire, and, according to Tunner, increases the consumption
+of fuel 8 to 10 _per cent._, and diminishes the amount of metal that can
+be turned out in a given time by the same quantity.
+
+Notwithstanding the interruption of work, it has been found, at
+Rothburga, in Austria, that by substitution of machine-made and
+kiln-dried peat for wood in the gas-puddling furnace, a saving of 50
+_per cent._ in the cost of bar iron was effected, in 1860. What is to
+the point, in estimating the economy of peat, is the fact that while 6.2
+cubic feet of dry fir-wood were required to produce 100 lbs. of crude
+bar, this quantity of iron could be puddled with 4.3 cubic feet of peat.
+
+In the gas furnace, a second blast of air is thrown into the flame,
+effecting its complete combustion; Dellvik asserts, that at Lesjoeforss,
+in Sweden, 100 lbs. of kiln-dried peat are equal to 197 lbs. of
+kiln-dried wood in heavy forging. In an ordinary fire, the peat would be
+less effective from the escape of unburned carbon in the smoke.
+
+In other metallurgical and manufacturing operations where flame is
+required, as well as in those which are not inconvenienced by the
+ingredients of its ash, it is obvious that peat can be employed when
+circumstances conspire to render its use economical.
+
+17.--_Peat as a source of illuminating gas._
+
+Prof Pettenkofer, of Munich, was the first to succeed in making
+illuminating gas from wood; and peat, when operated according to his
+method, furnishes also a gas of good quality, though somewhat inferior
+to wood-gas in illuminating power.
+
+It is essential, that well-dried peat be employed, and the waste heat
+from the retorts may serve in part, at least, for the drying.
+
+The retorts must be of a good conducting material; therefore cast iron
+is better than clay. They are made of the [symbol: D] form, and must be
+relatively larger than those used for coal. A retort of two feet width,
+one foot depth, and 8 to 9 feet length, must receive but 100 lbs. of
+peat at a charge.
+
+The quantity of gas yielded in a given time, is much greater than from
+bituminous coal. From retorts of the size just named, 8000 to 9000 cubic
+feet of gas are delivered in 24 hours. The exit pipes must, therefore,
+be large, not less than 5 to 6 inches, and the coolers must be much more
+effective than is needful for coal gas, in order to separate from it the
+tarry matters.
+
+The number of retorts requisite to furnish a given volume of gas, is
+much less than in the manufacture from coal. On the other hand, the
+dimensions of the furnace are considerably greater, because the
+consumption of fuel must be more rapid, in order to supply the heat,
+which is carried off by the copious formation of gas.
+
+Gas may be made from peat at a comparatively low temperature, but its
+illuminating power is then trifling. At a red heat alone can we procure
+a gas of good quality.
+
+The chief impurity of peat-gas is carbonic acid: this amounts to 25 to
+30 _per cent._ of the gas before purification, and if the peat be
+insufficiently dried, it is considerably more. The quantity of slaked
+lime that is consumed in purifying, is therefore much greater than is
+needed for coal-gas, and is an expensive item in the making of peat-gas.
+
+While wood-gas is practically free from sulphur compounds and ammonia,
+peat-gas may contain them both, especially the latter, in quantity that
+depends upon the composition of the peat, which, as regards sulphur and
+nitrogen, is very variable.
+
+Peat-gas is denser than coal-gas, and therefore cannot be burned to
+advantage except from considerably wider orifices than answer for the
+latter, and under slight pressure.
+
+The above statements show the absurdity of judging of the value of peat
+as a source of gas, by the results of trials made in gas works arranged
+for bituminous coal.
+
+As to the yield of gas we have the following data, weights and measures
+being English:--
+
+ 100 lbs. of peat of medium quality from Munich, gave REISSIG   303 cub. ft.
+      "   air-dry peat from Biermoos, Salzburg, gave RIEDINGER  305    "
+      "   very light fibrous peat, gave REISSIG          379 to 430    "
+      "   Exter's machine-peat, from Haspelmoor, gave           367    "
+
+Thenius states, that, to produce 1000 English cubic feet of purified
+peat-gas, in the works at Kempten, Bavaria, there are required in the
+retorts 292 lbs of peat. To distil this, 138-1/2 lbs. of peat are
+consumed in the fire; and to purify the gas from carbonic acid, 91-1/2
+lbs. of lime are used. In the retorts remain 117 lbs. of peat coal, and
+nearly 6 lbs. of tar are collected in the operation, besides smaller
+quantities of acetic acid and ammonia.
+
+According to Stammer, 4 cwt. of dry peat are required for 1000 cubic
+feet of purified gas.
+
+The quality of the gas is somewhat better than that made from bituminous
+coal.
+
+18.--_The examination of Peat as to its value for Fuel_, begins with and
+refers to the air-dry substance, in which:
+
+1.--Water is estimated, by drying the pulverized peat, at 212 deg., as long
+as any diminution of weight occurs. Well-dried peat-fuel should not
+contain more than 20 _per cent._ of water. On the other hand it cannot
+contain less than 15 _per cent._, except it has been artificially dried
+at a high temperature, or kept for a long time in a heated apartment.
+
+2.--_Ash_ is estimated by carefully burning the dry residue in 1. In
+first-rate fuel, it should amount to less than 3 _per cent._ If more
+than 8 _per cent._, the peat is thereby rendered of inferior quality,
+though peat is employed which contains considerably more.
+
+3.--_Sulphur_ and _phosphorus_ are estimated by processes, which it
+would be useless to describe here. Only in case of vitriol peats is so
+much sulphur present, that it is recognizable by the suffocating fumes
+of sulphuric acid or of sulphurous acid, which escape in the burning.
+When peat is to be employed for iron manufacture, or under steam
+boilers, its phosphorus, and especially its sulphur, should be
+estimated, as they injure the quality of iron when their quantity
+exceeds a certain small amount, and have a destructive effect on
+grate-bars and boilers. For common uses it is unnecessary to regard
+these substances.
+
+4.--The quantity of _coal_ or _coke_ yielded by peat, is determined by
+heating a weighed quantity of the peat to redness in an iron retort, or
+in a large platinum crucible, until gases cease to escape. The neck of
+the retort is corked, and when the vessel is cool, the coal is removed
+and weighed. In case a platinum crucible is employed, it should have a
+tight-fitting cover, and when gases cease to escape, the crucible is
+quickly cooled by placing it in cold water.
+
+Coal, or coke, includes of course the ash of the peat. This, being
+variable, should be deducted, and the _ash-free coal_ be considered in
+comparing fuels.
+
+5.--The _density_ of peat-fuel may be ascertained by cutting out a block
+that will admit of accurate measurement, calculating its cubic contents,
+and comparing its weight with that of an equal bulk of water. To avoid
+calculation, the block may be made accurately one or several cubic
+inches in dimensions and weighed. The cubic inch of water at 60 deg. F.,
+weighs 252-1/2 grains.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[10] The apparent specific gravity here means the weight of the
+mass,--the air-filled cavities and pores included--as compared with an
+equal bulk of water. The real specific gravity of the _peat itself_ is
+always greater than that of water, and all kinds of peat will sink in
+water when they soak long enough, or are otherwise treated so that all
+air is removed.
+
+[11] The "full" cubic foot implies a cubic foot having no cavities or
+waste space, such as exist in a pile, made up of numerous blocks. If a
+number of peat blocks be put into a box and shaken together, the empty
+space between the more or less irregular blocks, may amount to 46 _per
+cent._ of the whole; and when closely packed, the cavities amount to 30
+_per cent._, according to the observations of _Wasserzieher_.
+(_Dingler's Journal_, Oct., 1864, p. 118.) Some confusion exists in the
+statements of writers in regard to this matter, and want of attention to
+it, has led to grave errors in estimating the weight of fuel.
+
+[12] The _waste space_ in peat and wood as commonly piled, is probably
+included here in the statement, and is usually about the same in both;
+viz.: not far from 40 _per cent._
+
+[13] See note on the preceding page.
+
+[14] _Der Torf, etc._, S. 43.
+
+[15] See page 00.
+
+[16] On account of the great convenience of the decimal weights and
+measures, and their nearly universal recognition by scientific men, we
+have adopted them here. The gramme = 15 grains; 5 degrees centigrade = 9
+degrees Fahrenheit.
+
+[17] Pliny, Hist. Nat. (Lib. XVI, 1) expresses his pity for the
+"miserable people" living in East Friesland and vicinity in his day, who
+"dug out with the hands a moor earth, which, dried more by wind than
+sun, they used for preparing their food and warming their bodies:"
+_captum manibus lutum ventis magis quam sole siccantis, terra cibos et
+rigentia septembrione viscera sua urunt_.
+
+As regards the "_misera gens_," it should be said that rich grain fields
+and numerous flourishing villages have occupied for several centuries
+large portions of the Duevel moor near Bremen.
+
+[18] For further account and plans of this machine see Dingler's
+Polytechnisches Journal, Bd. 176, S. 336.
+
+[19] Described and figured in Bulletin de la Societe d'Encouragement,
+August 1857, p. 513; also Dingler's Polytechnisches Journal, Bd. 146, S.
+252.
+
+[20] Berg- und Huettenmaennische Zeitung, 1859, Nr. 26.
+
+[21] Henneberg's Journal fuer Landwirthschaft, 1858, S. 42.
+
+[22] Henneberg's Journal fuer Landwirthschaft, 1858, p.p. 42 and 83.
+
+[23] Dingler's Journal, Oct., 1864.
+
+[24] Dingler's Polytechnisches Journal, Bd. 152, S. 272. See also,
+Knapp, Lehrbuch der Chemischen Technologie, 3te Auflage, 1., 167.
+
+[25] Der Torf; seine Bildung und Bereitungsweise, von Rudolph Gysser,
+Weimar, 1864.
+
+[26] Dingler's Journal, Bd. 165, S. 184.; und Bd. 172, S, 333.
+
+[27] Scientific American, Feb. 10, 1866; also, Facts about Peat as Fuel,
+by T. H. Leavitt, 2d Ed., Boston, p. 23.
+
+[28] Dingler's Journal, Bd. 168, S. 306, und Bd. 172, S. 332.
+
+[29] Described in Journal of the Society of Arts, 1860, p. 437.
+
+[30] Bernemann & Kerl's Berg und Huettenmaennische Zeitung, 1862, 221.
+
+
+
+
+     +-------------------------------------------+
+     |            Transcriber's Note:            |
+     |                                           |
+     | Typographical errors corrected in text:   |
+     |                                           |
+     | Page   6  Robert's changed to Roberts'    |
+     | Page  24  Jaeckel changed to Jaeckel       |
+     | Page  47  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock |
+     | Page  49  connexion changed to connection |
+     | Page  51  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock |
+     | Page  53  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock |
+     | Page  53  Russel changed to Russell       |
+     | Page  62  subtances changed to substances |
+     | Page  67  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock |
+     | Page  89  5 changed to 4                  |
+     | Page  89  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock |
+     | Page  90  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock |
+     | Page  91  Poquonnock changed to Poquonock |
+     | Page 116  artifical changed to artificial |
+     | Page 127  developes changed to develops   |
+     | Page 149  Kneeding changed to Kneading    |
+     | Page 165  The symbol looks like a D       |
+     |           lying on its back.              |
+     |                                           |
+     +-------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and
+Fuel, by Samuel William Johnson
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