720 



CHAPTER IV. 



DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.''' 



Section I. — General Account. 



In the cooler parts of the temjierate 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 Europe. They are most abundant in Ireland, 

 Russia 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, &:c.), also on the high Swabian plateau in 

 Bavaria bordering the northern declivity of the Alps, where 

 there are at least 600 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 probably exist elsewhere. Germany is thus 

 provided with a supply of fuel much exceeding that of all the 

 German coal-fields. 



[Tliere are in Ireland 1861 square miles of peat-bog, chiefly in the 

 counties of Mayo, (ialway 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 York- 

 shire and Lincolnsliirc Wolds ;uk1 moors, and in the fens of East 

 Anglia. — Tit.] 



* One of the best works on this .subject is : Hausding, Industricllc Torf- 

 (jewinnuixg, Berlin, 1887, by Seydel. 



t [The area of tlie bog of Allen in Ireland Is about 370 .square miles. — Tli.] 



