442 On the Reclamation of Peat-Land in the Netherlands. 
makes the best fuel when extracted in the usual way by hand- 
labour. The modus operandi is as follows : — The top-soil and 
the upper layer of peat are both thrown on one side, and then 
the turves of good peat are cut into brick-shaped pieces by 
means of a kind of spade. The workings are arranged as a 
series of steps, so that the back cut is made when each step is 
formed. The workman then cuts the peat at the proper dis- 
tances, vertically and transversely, and afterwards the turves are 
separated from the subjacent peat by horizontal thrusts of the 
spade, after which they are removed by the man working in con- 
cert with the cutter. The drying is done by placing the turves 
in the open, with intervals between them. After a time the 
alternate ones are taken out and stacked crosswise upon the 
others, and thus by turning once or twice, the turves become 
dried all round. Two men, or sometimes a man and a boy, 
will earn from 5s. to 7s. 6c?. per diem between them in cutting 
and stacking from 2000 to 3000 turves, or from 2s. Id. to 2s. Qd. 
per lUOO. 
Machinery. — Several machines are also used on this estate for 
the preparation of the turf for market, and in these cases the 
different layers of turf are mixed together, so that there is no 
waste, the top soil, of course, being always put aside. Each 
machine consists of a vertical cylinder, in which is a rotating 
shaft, carrying four horizontal arms fitted with vertical spikes. 
Two sets of arms are fixed at right angles to the other two, their 
positions on the shaft being alternate. By this arrangement, 
actuated by a steam-engine, the wet peat of all qualities (dug at 
random, as regards shape, by men using spades) is mixed 
together into one uniform mass. The peat is thrown into 
the top of the cylinder and eventually finds its way, when 
thoroughly mixed, to the bottom. It is then propelled along 
a smaller and horizontal cylinder by an Archimedean screw, 
which brings it, more or less in a state of pulp, to the orifice, 
which is fitted with a quadrangular opening in which two 
knives work longitudinally. The knives, therefore, cut the 
outgoing pulped turf into three strips, which are afterwards cut 
transversely into required lengths, on a movable plate, as they 
are projected a sufficient distance from the mouth of the machine, 
by a boy in attendance for the purpose. The plates bear on 
them the name of the owners, and the turves take the impres- 
sion very readily. The turves are thus made in batches of 
three, imperfectly separated from one another, but as they dry 
the separation becomes complete. Girls take on barrows three 
groups of three turves each to the drying-ground, and the 
further process of drying is the same as for hand-cut peat. 
Although the good and the indifferent qualities of turf are 
