REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR AND STATE GEOLOGIST 1901 r73 



The use of moss litter has been well known for a number of 

 years, specially in Sweden. In Germany the material obtained 

 from the high moors has also yielded excellent results. The 

 sphagnum predominates as long as there is a layer of living 

 plants on the surface, but when it dies, heath plants, such as 

 Cassandra, Andromeda and Kalmtia, spring up. Sphagnum litter 

 is preferable, as, on account of the great number of empty cells 

 which this plant contains, its absorptive power is high. 1 



The absorptive power of the litter decreases with an increase 

 in the degree of decomposition. 



Moss litter is being extracted at but few localities in this 

 country. Among the most important may be mentioned one 

 near Welland Ont., belonging to the Canadian Peat Fuel Co. 

 A description of the deposit and plant may be quoted from the 

 report of the Ontario Bureau of Mines, 1896, p. 186. 



The first stage of the operation is to cut the moss into blocks 

 about 18 inches square, which are piled together in rows on the 

 surface of the bog. When the moisture has sufficiently 

 evaporated, the blocks are gathered and wheeled in small cars 

 to the storing sheds. They are then passed through the picking 

 machines, two of which stand side by side. These are provided 

 with heavy revolving cylinders armed with strong teeth, which 

 act upon similar teeth set in the concave surface of the breast 

 against which they work. In the pickers the moss is torn and 

 loosened apart, the object being to separate the fibers rather 

 than to break them. The pickers discharge the moss on to mov- 

 ing carriages, three in number to each machine, ranged above 

 one another, which carry it horizontally through a drying 

 chamber or tunnel 116 feet in length, 8 feet high and 16 feet 

 wide. These carriers travel against a current of hot air drawn 

 through the tunnel by a disk fan revolving at the farther end. 

 The object is to remove the greater part of the moisture remain- 

 ing in the moss. The heat for this purpose is generated by a 

 furnace situated parallel to the tunnel, whence the hot air is 

 drawn by the suction fan into a mixing chamber. The hot blast, 

 after passing over the moss, emerges laden with moisture into a 

 wooden shaft and so into the outer air. At the end of the tun- 

 nel the moss falls into a conveyor, from which it is elevated into 

 a weighing bin or hopper situated above the bailing press or 



x Jack, E. Ontario Bureau of Mines. Rep't. 1893. p. 139. 



