History and uses of Peat. 250 



ihe peat upon a scaffold, or a bank that has been left for the 

 purpose, from which another workman can throw it out of 

 the bed ; or it may be hauled out by the drag ; or it is raised 

 in boxes or tubs which are hoisted by machinery. 



A common sweep with a weight on the farther end, like a 

 well sweep, is the ordinary apparatus which is employed for 

 raising the peat or the water from the deep pits. In these 

 cases, the peat is often broken into shapeless masses, and it is 

 frequently brought into form again, by putting it into a mould 

 similar to one for making brick, from which the peat is de- 

 posited in a place for drying. 



In Holland, a box or a large tub without a bottom, is 

 often forced down into the bed, in the manner of a curb in 

 digging some wells, by means of which the external water is 

 kept out, and the peat within the box is removed in the com- 

 mon way. Other means are used in different countries. 



10. Drying the Peat. 



After the peat is thrown out of the pit, another set of la- 

 borers, called hrouetteurs^ (porters,) who are frequently wo- 

 men and children, lay it upon wheel-barrows, and remove it 

 for drying. Not more than fifteen pieces, ox peats ^ as they 

 are called, should be carried at a time, and great caution is 

 necessary to keep them in proper shape, and not to break 

 them. 



The pieces of peat are spread or dried in different man- 

 ners, though more generally in small parcels or piles of fifteen 

 each, laid much in the same manner as bricks are piled, with 

 spaces between them for drying. In the course of the sea- 

 son, every individual pea:t should be exposed to the sun, 

 which requires them to be handled several times. When 

 these small parcels have lain a sufficient time, the surface of 

 each peat is hardened into a kind of rind. It is now time to 

 overhaul the heaps, and lay them again. The hardest are 

 put to the bottom, and the number of each heap is increased 

 to twenty-one peats, so laid as to admit the air to circulate 

 freely. After this process has been followed so long that the 

 rind or outside of the peats has become thoroughly harden- 

 ed, they are removed again to give them their last drying. 

 It is sufficient to observe, that the pieces of peat are now 

 repiled in different ways, crevices being left to admit the air, 

 very much in the manner that unburned bricks are disposed 

 of and dried before putting fire to the kilns. 



