No. 21 ] FIFTH BIENNIAL REPORT 19 



uses as a fuel and as a fertilizer, and being capable also incidentally 

 of employment for various other purposes. Attention has recently 

 been called to the economic value of peat by the investigations of 

 the United States Geological Survey, which have shown its 

 special fitness for use in the gas-producer. It was, therefore, 

 deemed desirable to make a special investigation of the peat de- 

 posits of Connecticut, and this was rendered practicable by the 

 generous cooperation of the United States Geological Survey. 

 During the summer of 1907 the field work of the investigation 

 was substantially finished. The localities of all the important 

 peat bogs of the state were visited, the area of those bogs was 

 noted, their depth was determined by a sounding apparatus, 

 and samples for analysis were collected from various depths. 

 This work was accomplished by E. C. Miller, A.B., and T. T. 

 Giffen, A.B., of Yale University. Professor C. A. Davis, of 

 the United States Bureau of Mines, who was employed by the 

 United States Geological Survey in the summer of 1907 for a 

 reconnoissance of the peat deposits of the Atlantic border of the 

 country from Maine to Florida, was permitted by the courtesy of 

 the United States Geological Survey to spend a few days in 

 Connecticut at the beginning of the season of field work. He 

 was able, therefore, to give Messrs. Miller and GifTen the neces- 

 sary instruction in regard to methods of work. The bulletin 

 which is now nearly ready for publication, will contain a general 

 paper on the scientific and economic relations of peat, by Professor 

 Davis, who has made himself eminently an authority on the sub- 

 ject. It will also contain a digest of the notes of Messrs. Miller 

 and Giffen in regard to their field work. A selection of samples 

 collected by Messrs. Miller and Giffen have been analyzed in the 

 laboratory of the United States Geological Survey, and reports 

 of those analyses will be included in the bulletin. The State 

 Survey is very greatly indebted to the liberality of the United 

 States Geological Survey for the all-important assistance of Pro- 

 fessor Davis at the beginning of the investigation, and for the 

 analyses made in the laboratory of the United States Geological 

 Survey. The attention which has recently been given to the 

 scientific and economic relations of peat has brought into notice 

 the valuable work on peat from the chemical standpoint done 

 many years ago by Professor S. W. Johnson, of Yale University, 

 the pioneer in agricultural chemistry in this country. Professor 

 Johnson's book is out of print, and his work on peat had been 

 almost forgotten. The forthcoming bulletin will render his im- 

 portant work once more accessible by the republication of the 

 important parts of his book, edited and revised by his friend and 

 pupil, Dr. E. H. Jenkins, Director of the Connecticut Agricultural 

 Experiment Station. 



