PEAT. 233 



atmosphere, and lights a room better than a wood fire. 

 The smoke from peat has no irritating effect upon the 

 eyes, and does not in the shghtest degree obstruct respi- 

 ration, Hke the smoke of wood ; and it has none of that 

 dryiug, unpleasant effect of a coal fire. The ashes of 

 peat are, to be sure, more abundant, but not more 

 troublesome, and are less injurious to the furniture of 

 a room, than the ashes of coal. 



" The best peat is found in meadows which have 

 for many years been destitute of trees and brush, and 

 well drained, and where the surface has become so dry, 

 and the accumulation of decayed vegetable matter so 

 great, that but little grass or herbage of any description 

 is seen upon the surface. If the meadows are suffered 

 to remain in a miry condition, the wild grasses and 

 coarse herbage will continue to grow, and the peat be 

 of a light and chaffy texture, fixed with undecayed 

 fibrous roots. By draining they become hard, and the 

 peat becomes compact and solid, and the cutting out 

 and carrying off greatly facilitated. A rod square, cut 

 two spittings deep, each spitting of the length of 

 eighteen inches, will give three cords when dried. It 

 may be cut from May to September. If the weather 

 in autumn be very dry, the best time for cutting will 

 be from the middle of August to the middle of Septem- 

 ber. If cut the latter part of summer, or early in 

 autumn, it dries more gradually, and is not so liable to 

 crack and crumble as when cut early in summer. 

 The pieces are taken out with an instrument made for 

 the purpose, from two to three inches square ; and, 

 if of good quality, will shrink about one half in drying. 

 It is considered a day's work for a man, a boy, and a 

 horse, to cut out and spread a rod square. The man 

 cuts it out and lays it upon a hght kind of drag, made 

 for the purpose, and it is drawn off by the horse, and 

 spread by the boy as thick as the pieces can lay singly. 

 After becoming dry enough to handle without breaking, 

 it is made into piles, cob-house fashion, of from twelve 



