812 DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT. 



Peat-pulp is cut into shape in Holland, Friesland or 

 Hanover, being spread out in layers, often half an acre in 

 extent, and beaten flat with flat wooden shoes, planks or 

 shovels. The pulp is allowed to lie for several days, and when 

 sufficiently dry and consolidated it is cut with sabre-like 

 blades, or sharp spades, in parallel strips as broad as the 

 turves are long. After a few more days' exposure, these strips 

 are cut into turves. 



When on account of its watery condition, the peat-pulp is 

 collected in perforated bins, in which it is worked up, it is 

 moulded into turves by means of wooden frames without 

 bases ; these are placed on the ground or on a bench, and the 

 pulp poured into them. Its surface is levelled by means of a 

 board which is also pressed down on the pulp in the frame to 

 expel the water. 



Moulds of several compartments are composed of rect- 

 angular wooden frames open above and below, and divided 

 into 16, 28, 36 or more compartments, each the size of a turf. 

 A mould is then placed on a bench, or on a substratum of 

 straw, reeds, etc. ; the peat-pulp is poured into its compart- 

 ments with a shovel, pressed down, and the mould is then 

 removed. In order that the turves may not stick to the sides 

 of the compartments, they are lined with tin, or their bases 

 are somewhat wider than their tops. 



Simple moulds resembling those used in brickmaking are 

 used by a workman standing before a bench, often made of 

 cast-iron, on which the mould is placed. The mould is of 

 wood, open at top and base, its interior the size of a turf and 

 generally lined with tin. The workman from a heap of peat- 

 pulp on his bench, takes sufficient with both hands to fill the 

 mould, strikes off the superflous peat with a board, the size of 

 the base of the mould ; he then places the board over the 

 mould, turns the latter over, raises it and leaves the turf 

 resting on the board. A second workman takes the board 

 and turf to the drying-ground, and brings back the board. In 

 the meantime the former workman continues to make turves 

 with the mould and other boards. 



Experience shows that a simple mould is at least as 

 expeditious as a multiple one, a man, with a boy to remove the 



