790 



CHAPTEE IV. 



DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.* 



SECTION I. GENERAL ACCOUNT. 



IN the cooler parts of the temperate zone there are numerous 

 areas, frequently of large extent, characterised by an excessively 

 wet soil and a specialised flora, and generally known as peat- 

 moors or bogs. Most of these moors yield peat, sometimes 

 called turf, as in Ireland and the English fens. 



Extensive peat-bogs are found in all northern countries, but 

 not in southern countries. They are most abundant in Ireland, 

 Eussia, Scandinavia and Germany, occurring in river-valleys, 

 along the banks of lakes, on high plateaux and ridges in 

 mountainous districts (such as the Harz, Thiiringerwald, 

 Erzgebirge, Rhone-valley, Schwarzwald, Alps, etc.), also on 

 the high Swabian plateau in Bavaria bordering the northern 

 declivity of the Alps, where there are at least 500 square miles 

 of peat-bog; there are also extensive bogs in the plains of 

 North Germany. This latter district, extending northwards 

 into Denmark and westwards into Holland, is the richest peat- 

 producing tract of land in Europe, for bogs over 1,500 square 

 miles in extent, which occur in East Friesland, do not pro- 

 bably exist elsewhere. 



[There are in Ireland 1,861 square miles of peat-bog, with an 

 average depth of 25 feet, chiefly in the counties of Mayo, Galway 

 and Donegal,! but the area of bog in Great Britain is not given 

 in the agricultural returns, though peat is dug for fuel in the 

 Scotch and Welsh hills and mountains, in the Yorkshire and 

 Lincolnshire wolds and moors, and in the fens of East Anglia 

 and Somersetshire. Tr.] 



* I'.auinann, "Die Moore 11. die Moorkultur in I'>;iv<>ni." Manuel, "Die 

 Mo<r<: <lcs Kr/Li oli nye." Monoid, " Die TorllapT in Wiirt teniberi:." 



f [The :ire;i. of ihrbo^ol' Allen in Ireland is about 370 square miles. See 

 ' The Irish I Vat Hue-Lion." T. Johnson, '' Proceedings of Koyal Dublin Soeiet y/ : 

 Nov., 181)1). Tr.] 



