47 



from their high cost, binders iu fuel of this type have failed for two 

 reasons. The organic binders (as starch) burn more rapidly than the 

 fuel proper, and as a result much unburned matter falls through the grate 

 bars. On the other hand inorganic binders add so materially to the 

 resulting ash as to render their use impractical. 



The most successful process of briquetting peat will be found to be 

 the one which is the least complicated, for simplicity will tend not only 

 to economical production but to practical operation as well. 



In conclusion it is not too much to predict that the peat fuel in- 

 dustry in America will rival m magnitude the coal industry of today. It 

 is ditficult to conceive of the importance which this industry must have in 

 the development of onr great Northwest, but it is there, in a region 

 destitute of coal, though rich in every other respect, that we must expecr 

 to find the first and most extensive use of peat fuel. 



