HAND PEAT. 325 



system of labor ; and each owner of a bog has cut into his 

 deposit with little regard to the economy of the proceeding, or 

 the saving of material. But at Worcester, where the prepara- 

 tion of this kind of peat was entered upon about ten years ago, 

 and where it has been successfully carried on up to the present 

 time, the laborers have followed very closely the old country 

 system which long experience had approved. 



A description of this process would possess little value to any 

 one at this time, for the reason that human ingenuity has in the 

 application of cheap and effective labor-saving machinery to this 

 object, demonstrated a better way. Another method of prepar- 

 ing peat fuel which we have seen adopted at Worcester, Nan- 

 tucket and other places, and by which an article of greater 

 density, and one in all respects superior to " slane " peat is 

 produced, deserves a passing notice. We refer to what is known 

 as " hand peat." In the preparation of this, no attention is paid 

 to the form or size of the peats, and but few tools are requisite ; 

 the object being to reduce and mingle all the material thrown 

 out into a pasty, incongruous mass. To facilitate the operation, 

 water is bailed or pumped up from the neighboring ditches and 

 freely distributed upon the freshly dug peat ; while at the same 

 time, a portion of the hands are trampling it with their feet and 

 beating it with shovels. In this way, the solid, compact peat, 

 and that also which is light and fibrous, are blended together, 

 and when the whole is reduced to the consistency of mortar as 

 used by brick-layers, the mass is permitted to remain a few 

 hours until partially drained. It is then moulded by hand into 

 loaves, about a foot in length, and six inches in width ; the 

 whole, presenting the appearance, except in color, of the loaves 

 upon the floor of a baker's oven. In good weather the shrinkage 

 caused by the evaporation of the water is such, that in forty- 

 eight hours, these peats readily separate and may be piled up 

 into small ricks, in which state the drying process goes forward 

 with great rapidity. Sometimes this process is varied by draw- 

 ing a harrow across the bed of freshly dug peat ; the teeth of 

 which, together with the trampling of the oxen or horses, serve 

 the same purpose of disintegration and admixture as the feet of 

 men and the blows of the shovel. Instead of the tedious process 

 of moulding the peats by hand, the bed, after being made as 

 smooth as possible, is sometimes marked off with the " tines " of 



