PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 51 



Moss Litter. By Thomas W. Gibson, Esy., Bureau of Mines. 



(Read January 30th, 1897.) 



Agriculture and mining are the chief members of a group of art's which lie at 

 the base of all others — without which, indeed, none others could exist. Agriculture 

 supplies the primal necessities of man by giving him food and clothing, and both 

 together furnish him with the raw materials for that wonderful and complex series 

 of manufactures, with which his ingenuity strives to gratify his tastes or satisfy his 

 wants— tastes and wants which enlarge with his expanding civilization. They have 

 both the same arena— the capacious bosom of Mother Earth — and both strive tp 

 turn to advantage the substances which nature there has placed. One enlists in her 

 service those vital forces which draw the atoms of inorganic matter from air and 

 soil, and which raise them from the mineral into the vegetable, and from the vege- 

 table into the animal kingdom ; the other deals directly with the mineral substances 

 themselves, and by the mere act of changing their situation and separating them 

 from one another, rescues them from inutility and makes them subservient to the 

 wants of man. One may be called an adaptive industry, whose processes, if rightly 

 conducted, move in a circle, and appear capable of being carried on for all time ; 

 the other may be termed a destructive industry, concerned with large, yet strictly 

 limited quantities of material, which, once brought into play, are forthwith made 

 subject to decay and waste, and are scarcely, if at all, capable of being restored to 

 their original condition. Agriculture and mining touch each other at many points. 

 The farmer feeds and clothes the miner ; the miner warms the farmer, supplies 'him 

 with fertilizers, keeps him in ploughs and harrows, and puts gold and silver into 

 his purse. No market is worth so much to the tiller of the soil as a mining camp 

 in full blast. Miners usually want the best, and are quite willing to pay for it. 



There are processes performed on the surface of the ground which, in their 

 nature, seem intermediate between agriculture and mining, and to partake of the 

 character of both. One of these is the reclamation of peat bogs, and the utilization 

 of the material of which such bogs are composed. As agricultural operations, such 

 processes restore to cultivation considerable areas of land, previously lying waste 

 and barren, while, viewed as incidents of mining, they convert to man's use actual 

 portions of the earth's crust unchanged except by a certain amount of manipu- 

 lation. 



The origin of peat bogs is well understood. They are found chiefly in the colder 

 parts of the globe, where evaporation goes on less actively than in the more tropical 

 regions, and occur in low situations, or where some natural or artificial obstacle 

 impedes the drainage. The abundant moisture favors the growth of a low order of 

 plants, such as the sphagnum mosses, of which some fifty or sixty varieties are 

 known. This plant is distinguished above all others by its capacity for absorbing and 

 storing water, for which its peculiar structure eminently fits it. The epidermis of 

 the stalk and the leaves of the plant are mainly composed of large, empty cells, 

 into which the water is drawn through a number of small holes. The cells are pro- 

 vided with ring or spiral-formed thickenings on their inner sides, which keeii 

 them from collapsing. They are consequently always distended, and always ready 

 for nse. Smaller cells occur betv/een the larger ones, which contain chlorophyl aii.l 

 supply the plant with nourishment, but these occupy comparatively little space. 

 The whole arrangement is that of an aggregation of reservoirs in successive layers, 

 which are kept filled by the force of capillary attraction, even when the plant 

 itself is above the water level. 



It is curious to note that the properties of the sphagnum moss, which render 

 it so well adapted for living in a low and moist situation, tend also to bring its 

 existence to an end. It requires a constant supply of moisture, yet it is continually 



