81 



factuting and tratisporting freights and pags«ngers are moved by st6aQi, and 

 fhe cheaper the price of fuel, the cheaper must be the manufactured arti^ 

 cles, freights and tranaportationb. Stationery machinery may be moTed in 

 some instances by water po*cr, at cheap rates ; btft water is not always 

 where such machinery is required, nerer where a locomotive power is re-' 

 quired. In such a situation steam alone seems adapted to the purpose ; asid 

 the generation of steam requires the Consumption of fuel. 



1'here is no coal in Wisconsin, and we may never expect it will be cheapei' 

 than at present, when the nearest coal bed is 300 miles distant. Such a dis- 

 tance over Which so bulky au article is to be transported must keep the price 

 of coal as fuel beyond the reach of the poor man, and the general manufac." 

 turer as a motive power. Bitumenous coal as it is deliveied in its wet state, 

 contains less heating properties, pound for pound, than dry wood, and is far* 

 less pleasant and cleanly for use< Therefore even black jack oak, which 

 when dry weighs about 3,500 pound to the cord, when this can be obtained 

 at $8.00 per cord, is cheaper than coal at $5.00 per ton — a good deal lower 

 than it can be bought. The people, therefore, will not look to coal for fuel ; 

 neither will railroads or manufacturers. 



If we turn to the peat bogs and expeet to find cheap fuel in them, almost 

 innumerable difficulties and obstructions will present themselves, in mining 

 and preparing the article for fuel, all of which must enter into its cost ; and 

 thus tend to keep the prices up as compared with wood. Moreover, the peat 

 bogs are far from inexhaustable. Nations are not men, whose life is less than 

 four decades. Nations live for centuries, and the multiplying generations 

 out-live the nations themselves on the earth's surface. On this question of 

 fuel, we are to calculate by ages of the earth, and not by the life of man. 

 Fuel will be required so long as man shall inhabit the earth, for his comfort 

 and for his existence. Without fuel humanity would cease to exist. Viewed 

 in this light, the deposits laid up during uncounted periods of time, and cre^ 

 ation's rounds, in the shape of coal, petroleum, and peat, and which man is 

 now drawing out and using for fuel or wasting, must be exhausted. 



An acre of land contains a superficial measure of 1,636^ cords. But peat 

 raised from its bed and manufactured shrinks one-half in bulk, in manufactur- 

 ing and drying. Now suppose that S solid feet of peat are equal to 4 solid 

 feet of wood in weight, and heat giving properties ; then a bed of peat must 

 be 6 feet deep to equal a pile of wood 4 feet high which would cover the 

 same ground; or an acre of peat 6 feet deep is equal to 1,636| cords of 

 wood. Although some of the peat beds arc much more than that depth, it is 

 doubtful if they will average more. Such beds where they can be drained 

 easily, are readily worked out. After which the peat will not again be re- 

 produced on it, any more than the coal will again return to fill the cavities of 

 the earth ; at least not in the probable period of a nation's existence. The 

 quantity which any bed wUl produce may be easily calculated, by allowing 

 for every six feet in depth an equivalent of one cord of dry hickory wood, 



