PEAT MAKING. 



and some rhododendrons, particularly the arboreum 

 and Himalayan, simply revel in it. For the latter 

 it is better to add some brown sod loam or rotted couch 

 grass, some rotted leaf mould and old cow manure 

 that has been thrown up rough and thin and frozen 

 solid all winter. 



The preparation of peat for fuel begins in the 

 early part of June. The bogs are generally parcelled 

 out by the proprietors to the tenants nearest the peat 

 mosses, and are for the most part free of rent, the 

 only expense then being the labor of cutting, drying 

 and carriage. Six cartloads of peat are understood to 

 last as long as a ton of coal. 



The method of digging is as follows : With a 

 peculiarly shaped spade a man cuts the peats and 

 throws them to the edge of the bog, where a woman 

 receives them and places them on a wheelbarrow, an- 

 other woman wheeling away the load and spreading 

 out the peat carefully on some elevation to be sun 

 dried and hardened. 



Peat digging is hard work; but like the time 

 of harvesting cereal and other crops in Scotland, it 

 is much enjoyed by the workers. Good nature pre- 

 vails on every hand, and often the mysteries of rustic 

 courtship here first exchanged "ends in hochmagandy 

 some ither day." 



Scotch farmers and gardeners cut what are termed 

 Heather divots for covering potato and turnip pits in 

 winter. These divots are clean and warm, and at the 

 same time less air-tight than grass sods, and with drain 

 tiles enough stuck like chimneys into the pits for 

 ventilation there is no danger of the crops sweating 

 90 



