822 



DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT. 



heating the soil has been shown clearly in vineyards. The air 

 in stables in which peat-litter is used is free from ammonia 

 and is thus made healthy ; the beasts have a dry, soft bedding, 

 the litter is also preferable to other kinds for horses, cattle, 

 sheep, pigs or poultry. Peat also is used in the dry-earth closet 

 system. Only loose-textured, mossy or fibrous peat, forming 

 the superficial layer of bogs, is used for litter. In some bogs 

 layers of the fibrous peat and amorphous black peat alternate ; 

 preparation of peat for fuel and litter should then proceed 



Fig. 401. Mill for tearing 

 up peat. 



Fig. 102. Mill for preparing 

 peat-litter. 



simultaneously. The peat should be dried and then finely 

 subdivided in a peat-mill (Fig. 401) and pressed into a rectan- 

 gular bales weighing 2 to 3 cwt. each. [Such bales of peat- 

 litter are now imported largely from Holland into London, for 

 omnibus and tramway stables. Tr.] 



Machines have been constructed for subdividing peat, the 

 commonest of which are represented in Figs. 401, 402, the latter 

 being termed the peat-mill. The subdivided peat falls from the 

 machines on to a wire sieve, which separates the powdery from 

 the fibrous peat. The former is used in dry-earth closets. In 



