468 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. 



[Peat. 



bricks was three and one. Bricks of the same color have been made also at several other places 

 near the river in its next three or four miles below, with poor or sometimes fair results. The 

 best have been from the recert alluvium of the bottomlands. Nothing has been done here 

 in this business during the last few years, excepting the kiln just mentioned. 



RiJ bricks of inferior quality, m Htly somewhat cracked by particles of limestone, but other- 

 wise durable, were made from 1870 to 1872, at the north line of section 8, Clark, abont a quarter 

 of a mile west of Wells, where they are seen in brick buildings. The material used was probably 

 the obscurely stratified gravelly clay that often forms the upper part of the glacial drift upon 

 this area which was covered by a lake while the ice-sheet was retreating across Faribault and 

 Blue Earth counties. 



Peat. In the second annual report of this survey, Prof. Winchell has treated of the peat 

 of this state, the following details being given in respect to Faribault county. 



Near Wells a slough on land of Clark W. Thomi son was found to have from four to six feet 

 of peat, in part watery and fibrous, but mostly of good quality, underlain by a bed, six inches to 

 one foot thick, of peaty mud and clay with shells and some sand. An analysis, by Dr. P B. Hose, 

 of Ann Arbor, Michigan, of this peat, after drying in the air, gave in 100 parts, 16 of hygroscopic 

 water; 18 of ash; and 66 of organic matter. The ash, or inorganic matter, contained of silica 

 61.32 per cent.; lime, 12.44; carbonic acid, 10.69; iron and alumina. 9.71 ; magnesia, 2.43; sulphuric 

 acid, 2.37: potassa, 0.55; soda, 0.23; and a trace of chlorine. The organic matter was made up 

 of carbon, 51.94 per cent.; of hydrogen, 6.17; and of oxygen and nitrogen, 41.89. The heating 

 power of a hundred pounds of this air-dried peat appears to be equal to that of ninety pounds of 

 dry oak wood. The residue of ashes from peat is fifteen to twenty-five times greater than from 

 an equal weight of wood. 



Without some process of manufacture, or preparation for use by condensing its volume and 

 forming it into blocks, peat is too soft and friable, and makes a slow, smoldering fire. In 1871 

 Mr. W. Z. llaight prepared peat for fuel at Wells, and it was considerably used by the locomo- 

 tives of the Southern Minnesota railroad. This work was described by the Wells Atlas: "A 

 bold bank is selected, in order to secure a good drying yard close to the bog, on which the engine 

 and machinery are located, where a frame is erected 12x16 feet and eight feet high, from the top 

 of which a wooden car-track, supported by a light trestle-work, descends to the surface of the 

 bog, a distance of 150 feet, with a fall of 25 feet. From that point the track is made in sections 

 of 14 feet each, which are portable, thrown down on the surface of the bog; and with the use of 

 a few curved sections, the track can be shifted in any direction so as to excavate the entire bog 

 that is in reach. This track can be extended many hundred feet out across the surface of the bog, 

 if desired, giving access to several acres. On this track one car plies, which is loaded by three 

 men who stand by the edge of the excavation (water being lowered about six inches from the sur- 

 face to insure dry feet). The sod is cut up into chunks, with sharp, diamond-pointed, spade- like 

 tools, from two to four feet deep, according to depth of the peat, and left submerged in the water 

 until the car is at the proper place, when the chunks are pitched from the water into the car, 

 with common four-tiued forks, and when the regular amount, about two tons, is loaded into the 

 car, it is hauled by the power of the engine up the incline, over the large platform under which 

 the mill is situated; and by a simple contrivance the car is made to dump its load, also to unship 

 the windlass from the power that hauled it up, being no trouble to the feeder, who at will starts 

 the car back, which, in going down the inclined plane gains momentum that carries it out hun- 

 dreds of feet along the level track. Meanwhile the men in the bog do the necessary work, cut- 

 ting chunks for another load, so there is no time lost in the absence of the car. The feeder, who 

 stands on the platform, then feeds the turfy mass into the mill, which is an ingeniously con- 

 structed machine, though simple, very durable, so arranged with knives cutting through grates, 

 pickers, conveyers, &c., that it will treat the most fibrous mass or sod peat that can be produced 

 and reduce it to a pulp or jelly at once, and that too without clogging or winding in the ma- 

 chine. Owing to its perfectness it renders it unnecessary to strip off the top sod from the bog, 

 all that is necessary being to mow off the grass or other vegetation, if there is any growing there- 

 on, thereby saving considerable expense in labor, also a good part of the fuel, when ground up 

 with the lower or more decomposed peat. By the conveyers, the peat, as fast as pulped, is forced 

 through a pipe into a vat with dump bottom, which holds one cart load. Here the cartmsn re- 

 ceives it by driving his cart under and dumping a load into it from the vat, adjusts the vat hot- 



