1873.] Peat. 477 



quantities in the Netherlands in the following manner, but 

 the product is not equal to that resulting where machinery 

 is employed for the purpose : — Owing to the position of 

 several peat districts in the low countries, much of the 

 peat lies under water, and, when raised by dredging, is con- 

 veyed to working places, where it is well kneaded or trodden 

 under foot, and at the same time freed by hand of any roots 

 or other substances that would interfere with bringing the 

 whole to a fairly uniform mass. The spreading ground is 

 generally strewn with some loose, dry material, such as 

 broken reeds, and in this way adhesion to the surface is pre- 

 vented, and some opportunity is given for the escape of 

 moisture from below. In the kneading operation short 

 pieces of boards are attached under the feet of the workmen, 

 and, when in this manner the mass is sufficiently levelled, 

 it is marked out lengthwise and crosswise, and is sub- 

 sequently divided by a simple tool made for the purpose, 

 after which the usual process of drying in the open air 

 proceeds. In Friesland and the district of the Haarlemmer 

 the size of dense turf made in this manner averages, when 

 dry, from 5 to 6 inches in length, and in thickness from 

 z\ to 3 inches square. In other parts it is produced of re- 

 duced thickness with a view to drying in a shorter time, and 

 made thus it has a shape not unlike flat tiles of peat, 

 varying in size from 5 to 6 inches in length by 4 inches in 

 width, and only i|- inches in thickness. The annual pro- 

 duction of dense turf in the Netherlands supplies largely 

 the place of coal for many industrial purposes, and presents 

 the most extensive development of dense turf industry at 

 present in Europe. 



For the purpose of producing dense turf of a still better 

 class than the foregoing the application of machinery is 

 required for the complete reduction of the peat fibre. This 

 process was, according to M. Bosc, first employed about 

 fifteen years ago by the Comte de Lard, in the peat-bog of 

 la Saussaye, in the department of Seine-et-Oise, near Paris. 

 The method adopted by him may be thus briefly described : 

 — The peat is extracted from the bog in the ordinary manner. 

 It is then cast into a grinding machine, and ground up with 

 an alkaline solution. The sludge passes into a large basin, 

 and by the aid of powerful pumps it is raised into a second 

 basin, 3 metres higher than the former one ; from this it is 

 permitted to flow into open wooden side frames standing on 

 a bed formed of bundles of osier, straw, or grass, through 

 which the water filters away, whilst the pulp left behind 

 attains, at the end of a few days, such a consistency as to 



vol. in. (n.s.) 3 Q 



