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The Use of Peat as Fuel. 



By Benjamin W. Douglass. 



Peat is that product of vegetable decay which we find composing the 

 soil of most of the swamps of temperate zones. We may expect to find 

 it any place where bog conditions exist. Europe, Asia and America con- 

 tain extensive bogs and it is estimated that the total area covered by peat 

 is many times greater than the total area of all known coal fields. 



The peat bogs which occupy over 15 per cent, of the area of Ireland 

 have for centuries been the main source of fuel in that island. In fact 

 the term "peat" has become so intimately connected with Ireland that 

 popular fancy has imagined it to be characteristically and exclusively 

 an Irish product. As a matter of fact, a most incomplete survey indicates 

 that the peat fields of America exceed not only those of Ireland, but are 

 larger by nearly a hundred times than the combined bogs of all Europe. 

 Thousands of square miles of peat of the finest quality exist throughout 

 the Northern States and Canada. New England has whole counties of it. 

 The Great Dismal Swamp of Virginia is one continuous peat bed. New 

 York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and the Great Northwest contain deposits 

 of peat, the value of which is as yet almost unsuspected. In the bogs 

 where it occurs it is a closely matted, felt-like substance, very fibrous 

 and usually very wet. 



Just as coal and wood exist in many varieties, we find similar varia- 

 tions in peat. In general all peat may be classed under one of two 

 varieties: The black peats, which are composed of the bodies of grasses, 

 sedges, and other large plants, and the brown peats, formed from sphag- 

 num and other mosses. It is the latter variety which forms the immense 

 beds of North America, and for the purposes of this paper it will be 

 understood that we refer only to this brown form. 



In its pure state peat contains only such inorganic matter as was 

 present in the bodies of the plants from which it was formed. Impure 

 peat may contain other inorganic matter, as sand, clay, silt which has 

 been washed in from adjacent hills, or deposited by the overflow of 

 streams, as the location of the swamp would indicate. 



