DR. ANGUS SMITH ON PEAT. 321 



" In combustion in ordinary fires, the water of the fuel is 

 a source of waste, since it consumes heat in acquiring the 

 state of vapour. 



" This is well seen in the comparison of the same kind of 

 peat in different states of dryness. Thus, in the table of 

 Gysser (page 97), Weber's condensed peat, containing 10 

 per cent, of moisture, surpasses in heating-effect that con- 

 taining 25 per cent, of moisture, by nearly one half." 



Composition of Peat — Analyses. 



Prof. Johnson says, p. 43, "The average amount (of 

 nitrogen) in thirty specimens, including peat- and swamp- 

 mucks of all grades of quality, is equivalent to if per 

 cent, of the air-dried substance or more than twice as 

 much as exists in ordinary stable- or yard-manure. In 

 several peats the amount is as high as 2*4 per cent.; and in 

 one case 2*9 per cent, was found. 



11 The great part of the nitrogen exists in an insoluble 

 or inert form ; but, by the action of the atmosphere upon 

 it, especially when mixed with and divided by the soil, it 

 gradually becomes available to vegetation to as great an 

 extent as the nitrogen of ordinary fertilizers. 



" Under certain conditions, the free nitrogen of the air 

 which cannot be directly appropriated by vegetation is 

 oxidized in the pores of the soil to nitric acid ; and thus, 

 free of expense to the farmer, his crops are daily dressed 

 with the most precious of all fertilizers. - " On p. 68 he 

 says "When the night-soil falls into a vault it maybe 

 composted by simply sprinkling fine peat over its surface 

 once or twice weekly, as the case may require, i. e. as often 

 as a bad odour prevails." 



1 find it almost useless to make many ultimate analyses 

 of peat, as I find that so many have been made ; I shall 

 give a collection of some. 



In the Giessen Jahresbericht, vol. for 1871, p. 1089, we 



