38 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOIL 



mated to consume annually about 10,000,000 tons 

 of peat, while each year Russia produces 4,000,000 

 tons, Germany 2,000,000 tons, and Holland and 

 Sweden each 1,000,000 tons. 



These may seem brave figures, but despite them 

 peat is a world product little in demand. Many men 

 have tried to utilize it for various purposes. Great 

 works have time and again been set up by the side 

 of peat bogs ; there has been abundant activity and 

 enthusiasm, but the wheels of the machinery have 

 slackened more often than not and stopped, and the 

 attempt to utilize peat has in the majority of cases 

 been written down a failure. The fact is the more 

 curious when one knows the many uses to which 

 peat may be put, and, under certain conditions, has 

 been put successfully. As in humogen it is probable 

 that there will be a considerable demand for the raw 

 material, it will perhaps be of interest to consider 

 some of the present uses against which this new use 

 will have to come into competition. 



The use of peat as a fuel in the districts from which 

 it is cut goes back to the earliest times. In the 

 minds of English readers it is associated chiefly with 

 Ireland, and the peat fire, like the jaunting-car, is 

 the novelty that impresses itself most obviously on 

 the mind of the tourist as a feature of the typically 

 Irish environment. In Ireland peat really does 

 enter into the life of the people. It has given the 

 peculiar acrid taste of its smoke to the whisky of the 

 country; it is burnt in the tumbledown cottages 

 scattered far away from civilization ; and when the 

 tourist wishes to carry away with him a memento of 



