294 DR. ANGUS SMITH ON PEAT. 



during seasons of neglect to make it up to us by the growing 

 of peat ; and now let us see how rapidly it is grown com- 

 pared with wood. 



In some places you will be told by gentlemen, by the 

 ministers of the parish and some of the farmers, that the 

 peat is almost as dear as the coal. This of course depends 

 partly, sometimes entirely, on the carriage ; but there are 

 other cases where, I believe, the population would starve 

 without peat, or be reduced to the state of the dwellers in 

 Terra del Fuego, civilization becoming impossible. Many 

 persons who have to pay high wages to have their peat cut, 

 take the readiest combustible — coals, as they are conve- 

 nient, if a little dearer ; but by many, and by all the poor, 

 the fuel can be dug economically, the latter using their o\\ n 

 hands in districts where the people, as a rule, have a good 

 deal of time at their disposal. This quality of being within 

 easy reach is never found with coal, and is not to be 

 forgotten. The idea of buying peat or coal, with many 

 would be preposterous. They have certain rights to a peat- 

 moss; and all I advocate is the systematic protection of 

 these mosses, these rights, and the cultivation of the fuel 

 as carefully as they would cultivate the oats, although the 

 crop may be slower sometimes, and to be reaped only by 

 the succeeding generations ; and my reason for doing so is, 

 that I find fuel becoming dear in some parts of the High- 

 lands, and a hitherto abundant supply of nature is turning 

 into a serious expense. 



In estimating the growth of wood, Liebig, as said, gives 

 about a ton and a quarter to an acre annually. As it was 

 better to obtain the numbers from a northern climate more 

 allied to that on which the peat was grown, I have con- 

 sulted Mr. John Begg, Junior, at Durris, Deeside, and ob- 

 tained the following information : — 



" I take on the Durris estate a wood 35 years old, 

 and composed of Scotch firs and larch. (My reason for 



