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THE
GEOLOGICAL
A 3 m
AND
NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY
OF
MINNESOTA.
Peat for Domestic Fuel
EDITED BY
S. F. PECKHAM,
STATE CHEMIST,
SUBMITTED TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY JULY 8TH, 1874.
PRINTED FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION.
COPIES MAY BE OBTAINED OF
N. H. WINCHELL, State Geologist. W. W. FOLWELL, President of the University.
J. S. PILLSBURY, President Board of Regents.
MINNEAPOLIS :
TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1874.
THE
GEOLOGICAL
AND
NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY
OF
MINNESOTA.
Peat for Domestic Fuel.
EDITED BY
S. F. PECKHAM,
STATE CHEMIST,
SUBMITTED TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY JULY STH, 1871.
PRINTED FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION.
COPIES MAY BE OBTAINED OF
N. II. WINCHELL, State Geologist. W. W. FOLWELL, President of the University.
J. S. PILLSBURY, President Board of Regents.
MINNEAPOLIS:
TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY,
1874.
To Prof. N. H. Winchell, St. Anthony Falls, Minn.:
DEAR Sir:—In accordance with your request made just
prior to your departure, that I should prepare a paper for
general distribution throughout the State, upon Peat for
Domestic Fuel," I have the pleasure of submitting the follow-
ing pages, which I trust will be found available for the pur-
pose above specified. Very truly yours,
S. F. PECKHAM,
State Chemist.
PEAT FOR DOMESTIC FUEL.
The elaborate article upon Peat, contained in the report of
the State Geologist for the year 1873, will give the reader
a very comprehensive statement of the Peat question in gen-
eral, and especially of that question as related to the interests
of the citizens of Minnesota. Therein may be found abun-
dant proof that good Peat-yes, very good Peat-has been
found in this State, and while there is no doubt very much
more that is worth very little or nothing, there is enough
that is good to warrant the supposition that many more local-
ities than have been brought to the notice of the Geological
Survey, are likely to yield peats that may prove more or less
valuable as they are more or less remote from forests or
means of communication with deposits of coal.
For this reason the object of the following pages will be to
convey information.
Firstly-Regarding the appearance and properties of the
different kinds of peat, in order that those interested in the
subject may be able to distinguish the valuable from the
worthless varieties without unnecessary expense.
Secondly-Regarding such methods of preparing peat for
domestic purposes as require but little capital and are of most
general application.
Thirdly-Regarding any peculiar conditions attending the
combustion of peat that may be necessary to render its intro-
duction successful.
Firstly: What is Peat?
The partially decomposed remains of vegetation that ac-
cumulate in localities that are at all times wet or damp, have
been called Peat. Those deposits that under this general
term have attracted attention and have served to some extent
as fuel in this State may be classified as follows:
1. Slough Peat.
2. Side Hill Peat.
3. Turf Peat.
4. Turf
The first two only are properly termed peats, yet among
many people they are all frequently embraced under that term.
1. Slough Peat, is that which is found in low grounds, oc-
4
cupying the lowest spots in old drainage courses which are
now either entirely destitute of currents of running water, or
are only filled in the wet seasons of the year, or occurring in
the depressions among the drift hills or knolls, the slow
drainage from which prevents the accumulating water from
standing for too great a length of time above the usual level.
In southwestern Minnesota such peat must be so situated also
that the slough which holds it never becomes dry, else the
prairie fires will certainly consume it. Hence, the necessity
of constant springs of water to supply the slough in the dry
months of the year. This again implies that the surface of
the country must be rolling, at least that some bluffs of drift
gravel must lie adjacent to the slough to give origin to springs
of water. These springs are very often invisible. Their ex-
istence may be known, however, by the standing of the water
of the slough at the same level, even in the dryest seasons.
In case such peat lies in an old drainage course which shows
no gteat flow of water in the dry season, the low spots con-
taining it are still supplied with water enough to preserve the
peat, by the slow, invisible, underground drainage pertaining
to the valley. These correspond to the German Weisenmoore.
The primary and essential ingredient that goes to form this
kind of peat is a fine moss that grows over the surface of the
bog, among the coarse stalks of other vegetation, such as
grasses or rnshes, making a handsome green surface.
At a
distance this moss cannot generally be seen. It is hid by the
coarser vegetation. Besides this moss, the roots and decaying
stems of the grasses and other acquatic plants that may grow
in the slough, also aid in the peaty accumulation.
The aquatic plants that accompany and hide the peat are
bnllrush, scouring rush, a short "blue-joint" grass, and oc-
casionally the cat-tail and some others.
There is, besides the typical moss peat of the sloughs, a
pulpy deposit in the bottoms of many small lakes and ponds.
derived from the coarse grasses and sedges that grow about
their margins, which consists principally of vegetable matter,
and if treated properly will make a useful fuel. It is in the
form of a fine silt, and is usually too limited in quantity, and
too impure in quality to be very valuable. It is apt to be
most abundant on the leeward side of the lake, where the pre-
vailing winds have driven it, and the waves have beaten and
broken it.
2. Side-hill Peat.-This is formed on the side of a gentle
declivity. where springs of water furnish the necessary con-
stant moisture. It is apt to accompany those springs that lie
in belts, marking the outcropping upper edges of shale beds or
5
other impervious rock. It is composed of the same materials.
as slough peat, but is more liable to be impure, from the sand.
and dust that are carried upon it by the high winds of the
plains. Such peat may accumulate to the depth of six or
eight feet. It is far less common in southwestern Minnesota
than slough peat. It requires also a rolling surface that may
give rise to unfailing springs. Many springy side hills that
in a moister climate would become peat-bearing, dry up in
summer to such an extent, in southwestern Minnesota, that
no aquatic plant can survive, and no peat can be formed on
them.
3. Turf-Peat.-This is formed of the roots and fallen stalks
and blades of the rank grasses and sedges that grow in the
shallow sloughs, or about their margins, in situations moist
enough to resist the prairie fires. It is found sometimes on a
side hill or in a narrow ravine or inclined slough through
which there is a slow seepage of water. It is always more
impure than the foregoing varieties, and becomes mixed with
sand and black mud below the depth of 12 or 18 inches, so
as to render it unfit for use. It is always fibrous and conven-
iently handled. Owing to its being so hard as to support the
weight of a man, or often of a team, in the dry months of the
year, its accessibility and the ease of taking it out by simple
means, it is probably the most useful variety of peat to the
farmers of southwestern Minnesota. It is also the most com-
mon. In very dry seasons the fires get into this turf-peat and
consume vast quantities, burning for several weeks, or even
till mid-winter. It is invariably found about the margins of
the little depressions in the general prairie which contain wa-
ter in the spring of the year, but become nearly or quite dry
in the summer. The peat itself is annually submerged for
several weeks in the spring. It lies on a hard and impervious
drift clay, which is generally very fine, and blackened to the
depth of a foot or more by the charred vegetation of many
generations.
4. Turf. This is the common sod of the prairie. It passes
into the last. It is made of the prairie grass roots, and
other vegetation that may grow there. In dry sloughs, that
furnish a fine growth of hay annually, it is sometimes fit for
fuel, but it rarely becomes thick enough to make it of much
use for that purpose. It always contains considerable sand
and clay.
There is nothing in Minnesota, so far as yet discovered,
that answers to the extensive moors or heathers of the moist
climate of Ireland, Holland, and North Germany. They oc-
cur on the northeast coast of North America, in Labrador,
6
"'*
Newfoundland, and Anticosti, where the summers are not so
excessively warm, and where frequent fogs give the atmos-
phere that state of moisture which the peat mosses require.
Along the low lands on the south coast of Anticosti “a con-
tinuous plain covered with peat extends for upwards of eighty
miles with an average breadth of two miles; thus giving a
superficies of more than a hundred and sixty square miles."
It has a thickness of three to ten feet, In the wooded por-
tions of the State the peat deposits are likely to be made up
of more or less coarse vegetation, such as deciduous leaves,
and the stems and roots of various ericaceous plants. In the
extensive peat deposits of the old world the vegetable fibre is
entirely destroyed below a depth of ten or fifteen feet, and the
peat has a compact, earthy texture, and a black or brown
color. The peat deposits of Minnesota are, so far as known,
too shallow to exhibit this perfect decomposition, and hence
they are generally distinctly fibrous from top to bottom. In
the lower portions of the deep peat bogs of Ireland the per
cent. of ash is much greater than near the surface, reaching
sometimes as high as nineteen per cent., those portions near
the surface, which contain the vegetable matter but little
altered, affording but one and a half per cent. Thus, while
the density of peat, and hence its usefulness for domestic
fuel, are enhanced by the greater depth, its combustibility and
its purity are diminished. The superficial layers have nearly
the same composition as wood. The foreign substances, that
constitute the ash of the lower portions, are lime, silica, iron
and clay.
A great diversity exists in the qualities of the samples of
peat found in Minnesota, but they compare favorably with
peats analyzed from Iowa, Connecticut, or even the famous
Irish peat.
If
The method adopted for testing for peat is very simple. A
common augur, of about one and a half inch bore, is supplied
with a jointed rod eight or ten feet in length. The handle
and all of the joints are removable, and can be transported in
one package. The thread of the augur will bring out the ma-
terial passed through, from any desired depth, the sample being
preserved if necessary. This will answer for most cases.
the peat prove too pulpy or too wet to be brought out on the
thread of the augur, other means must be adopted. When it
is too fibrous and loose to be penetrated by the augur, the
desired sample can be taken out by the hand, as the loose and
fibrous parts are always near the surface. The best way to
*Geology of Canada, 1863.
7
illustrate the contents of a peat marsh, is to take out and dry
a full section from the surface to the bottom, cutting the fibre
with the slane or spade, and exposing the variations in com-
position and color without disarranging their superposition.
When apparently dry the pieces may be burned, care being
taken to break them as little as possible, and also that the
draft, in case a stove is used, is not too strong. If the ashes
amounts to more than twenty-five per cent. the peat is only
of fair quality; if they amount to more than forty per cent.,
the peat is worth very little.
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 propor-
portion 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.
In estimating the value and cost of peat fuel, it must be rc-
membered that peat shrinks greatly in drying, so that three
to five cords of fresh peat yield but one cord of dry peat.
When the fibre of the peat is broken by the hand, or by ma-
chinery, the shrinkage is often much greater, and may some-
times amount to seven-eighths of the original volume.
The difference in weight between fresh and dry peat is even
greater. Fibrous peat, fresh from the bog, may contain 90 per
cent. of water, of which 70 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.
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 great 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
8
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 occur-
rence of an unusually hot summer, causes great loss. In our
climate, some cover 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 gradu-
ally and regularly, so that the inside of each block shall dry
nearly as fast as the outside.
In
Summer or fall digging would be always advantageous on
account of the swamps being then most free from water.
Bavaria, peat is dug mostly in July and the first half of Au-
gust.
Experience in the different localities in which peat is found
in this State, can alone demonstrate the best time for cutting.
But I hazzard the opinion that the best time will be found to
be as soon as the frost is out; giving from four to six weeks
of admirable drying weather before the June season of rains.
set in.
2.-How is Peat Prepared?
In
It is intended in this connection to describe only those pro-
cesses of cutting and preparing peat that may be carried on
without machinery, and by hand tools such as almost every
owner of land has already on hand or can easily procure.
case the tools hereafter described are not procurable, a com-
mon spade, well ground to a thin sharp edge will be found
to answer very well, especially if the handle is long and nearly
straight.
When it is intended to raise peat 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 re-
maining peat may be flooded again to the usual height.
In most of the smaller swamps, systematic draining is un-
9
necessary; the water drying away in summer enough to admit
of easy working.
In some methods of preparing or condensing peat by ma-
chinery, it is best or even needful to drain and air-dry the peat,
preliminary to working. By draining, the peat settles, es-
pecially on the borders of the ditches, several inches, or even
feet, according to its nature and depth. It thus becomes ca-
pable of bearing teams and machinery, and its density is very
considerably augmented,
In preparing to raise peat fuel from the bog, the surface
material which, from the action of frost and sun, has been pul-
verized to "muck," or which otherwise is full of roots and
undecomposed matter, must be removed usually to the depth
of 12 or 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 mass-
es of such size and shape as to adapt them to use in our com-
mon 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 co-
herence. Sometimes it is needful to take away the surplus
water from the bog, and alow the peat to settle and drain
awhile 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 im-
portant 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.
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 peat 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 in-
ches. The sods as lifted, are placed on a light barrow or up-
on a board or rack, and are carried off to a drying ground,
near at hand, where they are laid down flatwise to drain and
10
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
succeded by "clamping," which is building the sods up into
stacks of about twelve or 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.
Other modes of lifting peat, require tools of particular con-
struction. In Germany it is common to excavate by vertical
thrusts of the tool. 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 stands 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 long, narrow and
sharp spade, 20 inches by six, with a wing at right angles to
the blade.
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 of layers, the sods are likely to
break apart where these join. Horizontal cutting is there-
fore 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 in East Friesland, is worthy of particular description.
There, the business is pursued systematically on a plan, which
it is claimed, long experience 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 1½ cents per hundred weight;
11
while at the same time, in Bavaria, the hundred weight cost
three times as much when fit for market; and this notwith-
standing 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 with, 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 remain-
ing the same. Sometimes, unusual demand leads to more
rapid working; but the width of 10 feet is adhered to for
cach 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 51% feet, and the surface muck and
light peat, 1½ feet thick, have been thrown in the excavation
of the year before-a new plot is worked by five men as fol-
lows.
One man, the "Bunker," removes from the surface, about
two inches of peat, disintegrated by the winter's frost, throw-
ing 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 raisé 25 such peats, or
614 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 is 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,
12
With moderate activity, the five men will lift and lay out
12,000 sods (3,000 cubic feet,) daily, and it is not uncommon
that five first-rate hands get out 16,800 peats (4,200 cubic
feet,) in this time.
A gang of five men, working as described, suffices for cut-
ting out a bed of four feet of solid peat. When the excava-
tion 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 con-
siderably, 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 care-
fully laid up in cylindrical form, and contains 200 to 500
cubic feet. When the stacks are properly built, the peat
sufferes but little from the weather.
According to Schroeder, from whose account (Dingler's
Polytechnishes 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+3 inches+ 3 inches,) and to one-seventh
or one-eighth of their original weight.
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. Some-
13
times, a stout ring of iron with a bag attached, is employed in
the same way. The fine peat is emptied from the dredge up-
on the ground, where it remains, until the water has been ab-
sorbed or has evaporated, so far as to leave the mass some-
what firm and plastic. In the mean time, a drying bed is pre-
pared 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
of excellent quality. In North Germany it is called "Bag-
gertorf,” i. e. mud-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 hands
or feet, with addition of water, until it can be formed into
blocks, which, by slow drying, acquire great firmness. In Ire-
land this product is termed "hand-peat." In Germany it
is called "Formtorf," i, e. moulded peat, or " Backtorf," i. e.
baked peat.
"The method of cutting peat in the Highlands of Scotland
is very different from that adopted for cutting from bogs.
After removing the surface-sod, the peat-cutter, with a pecu-
liar shaped tool, digs out the peat in slices of about a foot
square, and three or four inches thick. When mountain-
peat is cut in slices, as I have described, and spread out on
the ground during dry weather, the drying goes on rapidly;
the surface of the pieces acquires a kind of skin, which is not
wetted again by rain; and the peat in the course of a week is
sufficiently hardened to be handled. The pieces are then set
up on edge, so that the air may play on both sides; and, in
the course of six weeks or two months, they are dry enough
to be stacked or heaped up. In the Highlands of Scotland
and the Hebrides, on the average, there is rain four days out
of six; and it is only during the months of May, June and July
that any continuance of weather favorable for drying peat can
be expected. It is necessary, therefore, to obtain the utmost
advantage of that period for drying: and to do so the peat
14
must all be cut before the end of May, at latest. On the other
hand, if the peat is cut during frosty weather, and becomes
frozen, it crumbles to powder when the thaw comes; and for
this reason it is not safe to commence the cutting at all before
April, or even May. As a rule, it may be said that the
month of May is the only time available for cutting peat in
the Highlands of Scotland, and more especially in the He-
brides, so as, on the one hand, to avoid the destruction of the
peat by frost, and on the other hand, to insure the best possi-
ble chance of getting it dried.
"Two men working together, one cutting and one casting
the peat, will, in good weather, get through what is equiva-
lant to ten tons of dry peat; so that, if they were able to work
every day during May, they would cut from two hondred to
three hundred tons of peat; and, get ten thousand tons cut
and spread, one hundred men would be required for the
whole month."
3rd. How is Peat Used?
As with every other kind of fuel. The value of peat for
service depends as much or more upon the manner in which
it is used, and the methods and appliances for using it, as
upon the peculiar qualities and characteristics of the peat
itself.
It can be burned in open grates, close stoves, furnaces,
ranges, and all the ordinary variety of heating apparatus in
use in dwelling-houses. As regards open grates, ranges and
furnaces, it will be found that the fire-pot, or receptacle for
fuel, should be smaller in area and of less depth than are at
present in use for coal. It requires to be renewed somewhat
more frepuently than coal, and should be burned with very
much less draft, indeed so soon as the fuel is once well ig-
nited, it will generally be found desirable to close the draft
almost entirely.
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 1½ to
3 inches. Machine peat is sometimes formed into circular
disks of 2 to 3 inches diameter, and 1 to 2 inches thickness
or thereabouts. It is made also in the shape of balls 2 or 3
inches in diameter. Another form is that of thick-walled pipes,
2 or 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
15
two or three layers being superposed. According to the bulk-
iness 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.
As a general thing peat-fuel should be burned in smaller
area and bulk than coal, but renewed in small quantities some-
what more frequently, and with very much less draft. A com-
mon coal or wood stove, preferably the former, can be readily
adapted to the use of peat by covering a part of the grate,
and by constantly keeping a portion of the drafts closed.
Stoves used for this purpose become foul with ashes some-
what sooner than when coal is used, and therefore need
more frequent clearing out.
Stoves especially adapted to the combustion of peat have
been manufactured in certain localities, but their introduction
is not yet as general even as the use of peat. Such stoves
can without doubt be procured through the dealers in any of
our large cities. Soapstone stoves are very highly recom-
mended by some persons for the combustion of peat.
In conclusion I would add,
I. There is not so much real peat in the State of Minnesota
as has been supposed. There is a great abundance of turf,
made of grass roots, containing a large per cent. of ash, not
properly called peat, that will furnish, in any exigency, a fuel
that will keep a family from suffering. This, however, is not
thought the object of the survey to investigate, nor to locate,
as it exists, as is often stated in the public press, on almost
every square mile.
2. While a good fuel, almost equal to the Iowa coal, can
be produced by the manufacture of peat by a process of con-
densaton and evaporation, it is far from certain that it will not
cost as much, or more than wood or coal at the present prices.
3. If in any part of the Northwest peat can be made useful
as fuel by manufacture, it is the woodless and coalless region
of Southern and Western Minnesota.
4. Cautious experimentation should be carried on by those
interested in the subject, with the view to protect the compar-
ative cost of peat, wood and coal, at the prices current in dif-
ferent localities.
16
5. The farmers, and others who need fuel, but do not have
means to produce a condensed peat, can take out in mid-sum-
mer a winter's supply, from the turf peat found on many farms
in the prairie region, but they will generally not find it pos-
sible to utilize the real peat deposits without some method of
manufacture. They will be too apt to crumble, and thus
make a slow, smoldering fire.
It is, however, advised that each person who thinks he has
found peat upon his premises should cut a few loads in square
blocks and after drying it test its qualities as fuel under the
conditions above specified. Those persons coming from
North European countries, where peat has long been used
and with which they have been familiar from infancy, need
no advice upon the subject, but they can render good service.
and that of a most practical character by teaching their inex-
perienced neighbors who may need such instruction.
6. There is no known instance of the existence of peat in
Minnesota along river valleys, on the bottom lands, where
the surface is subject, at the present time, to inundation by
spring freshets.
7. There are old river channels, or valleys of excavation,
both in the drift and between rocky bluffs, that no longer ex-
ist as rivers, which contain considerable deposits of peat.
8. There are depressions in the rolling drift surface, in some
localities, which, fed by invisible springs, maintain a nearly
uniform stage of water throughout the year; and may hold
peat of the best quality.
9. But a small portion of the State has been examined.
In that a much smaller amount of peat was found than had
been anticipated. Other portions, and especially the central
southern counties, are believed to promise more peat than the
counties examined. According to Dr. C. A. White, State
Geologist of Iowa, a peat bearing belt enters Minnesota from
the south, bounded, in general, by the Des Moines on the
west, and the Cedar on the east.
10. Large quantities of peat are believed to exist in the
northern part of the State, many of the cranberry marshes be-
ing peat bogs of great purity.
II. The facts mentioned in these pages have been derived
from the most reliable sources, chiefly the report of Prof. Win-
chell, before mentioned, and a little book entitled "Peat and
its Uses as Fertilizer and Fuel," by Prof. S. W. Johnson, of
New Haven, a little book which every farmer at all interested
in peat would do well to peruse, S. F. PECKHAM,
State Chemist.

THE
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA,
MINNEAPOLIS, E. D.
The folllowing departments are now open:
The Collegiate Department.
The College of Science, Literature and the Arts.
The College of Agriculture.
The College of the Mechanic Arts.
TUITION FREE.
YEAR 1874-5 BEGINS SEPTEMBER 15TH, 1874.
Examinations the day following.
For information address
PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY,
Minneapolis.
SPECIAL NOTICE.
All specimens illustrating the Geology, Mineralogy, Botany or Zoology of
the State, that may be sent to the State Geologist for the museum of the Univer-
sity, will be carefully preserved and credited to the donors, and any information
regarding persons or localities that may lead to the acquisition of such specimens
will receive prompt attention from the same.
N. H. WINCHELL,
State Geologist.