47§ Peat. [October, 



allow of its being cut into blocks, and after a further period 

 of fifteen days, the latter are sufficiently dry for stacking. 

 A system of maceration and precipitation, accompanied by 

 filtering, is adopted in the factory of Montanger, near 

 Corbeil ; and at a factory near Munich the maceration is 

 followed by compression. 



About six or seven years ago works and machinery were 

 erected in the province of Drenthe, in the Netherlands, for 

 the production of dense turf. Here the macerating mill is 

 a vertical cylinder, about 6 feet high and 3 feet in diameter, 

 in which a vertical iron shaft revolves. Upon this shaft 

 several arms are fixed, which tear up the raw peat, after 

 which the pulp is forced by a screw through a pipe at one 

 side. This pipe terminates in a mouthpiece with three 

 orifices, through which the disintegrated peat finally issues 

 forth, and as it issues is cut off when about 12 or 13 inches 

 long, and the pieces are removed for drying in the open air. 

 The dense turf produced by this arrangement is of very good 

 quality; the pieces when dry have an average size of 9 inches 

 long by 2j inches square, and each piece weighs nearly a 

 pound and a half. 



The manufacture of peat has for some years past been 

 extensively carried on in Canada, by a process invented by 

 Mr. James Hodges. The whole of the machinery employed 

 in this manufacture is carried on vessels, which float in 

 canals cut by themselves through the peat bogs. A pair of 

 large screws, with cutting blades, are placed at the front end 

 of the boat, and driven through gearing by an engine in the 

 stern of the vessel. These screws cut their way through 

 the bog, forming a channel 19 feet wide, and from 4 feet to 

 6 feet deep, and as the water flows in as fast as the peat is 

 taken out, the vessel floats and moves onwards as the screws 

 advance, generally at the rate of about 15 feet per hour. 

 The peat is cut and driven by the screws into a well in the 

 bow of the boat, it being first cleared of any pieces of wood, 

 roots, or other extraneous matter. From the well the peat 

 is lifted by an elevator, and discharged into a hopper, and 

 thence into a part of the machinery which arrests all roots, 

 &c, which have not been previously removed. After this it 

 is pulped, and from the pulping machinery it passes, with a 

 consistency of thick mortar, through a distributing shoot 

 projecting at right angles to the vessel, whence it falls on to 

 a space of ground, specially prepared, on either side of the 

 canal, over which it is spread evenly to a thickness of about 

 9 inches. In a couple of days or so the pulp is sufficiently 

 dry for the next operation, namely, that of cutting the peat 



