328 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



a pitchfork into squares, diamonds, or parallelograms of suitable 

 size. Although the marks are made quite shallow, the exposure 

 of a very few drying days, causes the peats to separate upon all 

 the lines marked by the fork with great regularity, and, in this 

 state they are piled into little ricks (in the same manner as the 

 moulded peats,) so as best to receive the influence of the sun 

 and wind. In about a week of good weather, peat prepared in 

 the manner described above, may be piled in larger oblong 

 heaps, and left to season upon the drained meadow or upland, 

 until such time in the autumn as it may be convenient to house 

 or cart it to market. Peat prepared in this way is considerably 

 more expensive than the slane peat, but by reason of its greater 

 density and non-liability to waste and crumble in handling, it is 

 far more valuable. From some experiments made in compar- 

 ison with wood of various kinds, it is found that a cord of such 

 peat possesses the calorific value of about the same quantity of 

 seasoned oak or maple wood ; and it has found a ready sale in 

 various localities where it has been prepared in this way gener- 

 ally at the same price and seldom with less than a dollar a cord 

 of difference. 



In both of the processes of hand-made peat which we have 

 described, the loss in bulk and weight is very considerable, and 

 it is safe to estimate that the average of peats are in these 

 particulars diminished about seventy-five per cent. We are 

 informed that at the extensive wire manufactory of Messrs. I 

 Washburn and Moen, at Worcester, peat, prepared by both of 

 these crude and laborious processes, has been found a cheap and 

 valuable fuel, and it seems to possess properties so especially 

 adapted to the annealing of wire, that those gentlemen have, 

 during the last seven years, prepared not less than fourteen 

 thousand tons for their own use, at a cost of about three dollars 

 per ton. 



PEAT MACHINES. 



The utility of peat as a fuel, and its great importance in those 

 localities in which it abounds, and where wood and coal arc 

 scarce and dear, have stimulated human ingenuity and mechan- 

 ical skill to the utmost, in order to contrive a process of improv- 

 ing the quality and reducing the cost of its production. In 

 Great Britain the nobility and gentry have vied with each other 



