IMPORTANT TYPES OF PEAT MATERIAL. 3 



relatively poor peat areas are reclaimed at much less cost than was 

 formerly the experience. It is principally through the detailed colla- 

 tion of information for many years past, regarding the formation, 

 structure, and distribution of different kinds of peat deposits, and the 

 botanical, ])hysical, and chemical differences of the various types of 

 their organic contents, as well as through the systematically con- 

 ducted observations of the several field conditions to be considered, 

 that a corresponding profitable and varied development in the use of 

 these resources has been possible. 



More and more in this country the demand is becoming urgent for 

 information concerning peat materials which affect the productive- 

 ness and health of crops. Information is called for in estimating the 

 value, the supply, and the possible range of usefulness of special 

 grades of peat for specific crops or for manufactures, for that yielding 

 a satisfactory^ material as a carrier for bacterial organisms, for fer- 

 tilizer purposes, for litter, fuel, or distillation products, and for other 

 uses. Advice is needed to point out the difficulties to be avoided, espe- 

 cially when an area of peat land msij be developed for both agricul- 

 tural and teclinical purposes by communities or associations and may 

 be made increasingly profitable because of the equal, if not greater, 

 value of the underlying mineral soil for staple crops, for special 

 forms of economic plants, or for intensified methods of farming. 



There are many instances of failure of efforts based on impractical 

 and previously discarded ideas which time and again have been tried 

 on an extensive scale in Europe and in this country, only to meet the 

 same experience. The traditional disregard for facts of a qualifying 

 nature, or for drawing a plan having due regard for the existing 

 factors and needs of an undertaking ; the inability of scientific work- 

 ers to understand or to compare critically each other's researches in 

 the field of peat investigations, because the terms peat and muck are 

 not qualified and because faulty conceptions regarding them have 

 still an unchallenged place in the scientific literature of this coun- 

 tr}- — these are some of the results of the present situation, and for 

 both national and economic reasons they reflect indeed a serious con- 

 dition. 



Types of peat material, their differences in botanical composition, 

 in disintegration capacity, and in related physical and chemical 

 characteristics have been established in Europe by many years of 

 experience and scientific investigation. They form an adequate basis 

 in problems which deal with methods to be practiced in the develop- 

 ment and cultural preparation of a peat deposit, such as the well- 

 known " Veenkultur," the Rimpau cultural method, the German 

 high-moor method, and others, or in operations where the removal 

 of peat for technical uses and centralized power plants is j)rac- 

 ticable. Data such as those just mentioned, regarding the nature and 



