290 DR. ANGUS SMITH OX PEAT. 



cases where the peat has not harl its share of the floods, or 

 by manuring, and so hastening its increase. 



Notwithstanding the limited sphere which seems assigned 

 to peat, there is to be found in books new and old a great 

 hope of using up the peat-bogs when coal is done, and of 

 having an almost equal supply. The present supply, if 

 depended on for the whole community, would be neces- 

 sarily expensive and short in duration. 



If we cut a ten -foot bog, we may allow by shrinkage one 

 fifth to remain dry, and much less than this for its equi- 

 valent in bulk of coal — five times according to Prof. John- 

 son. Half a foot of coal at the surface would certainly be 

 more valuable than 10 feet of wet peat. 



The district, including as much as a man can walk over 

 to his daily work, would soon be cleared, and a migratory 

 population would continually demand new arrangements 

 for living and for carriage of products. 



Whilst, therefore, I speak of the value of peat, it is only 

 under limited conditions, as well as in limited districts, so far 

 as the country during its coal-using period is concerned. 



I was told in Argyleshire that about 50 years was a good 

 time for recutting ; and I was told the same thing in Kin- 

 cardineshire. This looks like knowledge which has been 

 gained by experience; at any rate it is a wide-spread 

 theory not spread by books. The working people of the 

 east and west of Scotland, north of the Clyde, have had 

 little communication with each other, and are different in 

 habits, in race, and in language. 



In working a moss on the Dee, the peats are first 

 taken away in barrows holding 18 peats. When these are 

 dried, 40 of the barrows are a load for a horse ; a load, then, 

 is 720 peats. A family fire used all the year requires 24 

 of these loads, or 1 7,280 peats. The peat is 1 foot by 4 x 4 

 inches ; or, generally, there are 9 in a cubic foot. The 

 total required per annum is, then, 21 60 cubic feet calculated 



