UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1419 
Washington, D. C. ▼ October, 1926 
FACTORS AND PROBLEMS IN THE SELECTION OF PEAT LANDS FOR 
DIFFERENT USES 
By Alfred P. Dachnowski, Associate Physiologist, Office of Soil Bacteriology, 
Bureau of Plant Industry 
CONTENTS 
Page 
Introduction. __ 1 
Examination of peat lands 2 
Selection of peat lands for economic uses 6 
Chief differences between layers of peat 6 
Effect of structural features of peat lands 11 
Page 
The water table and its effects 15 
Effects of the mineral substratum 18 
Summary 21 
Literature cited __ 23 
INTRODUCTION 
It is estimated that approximately 79,000,000 of the 113,537,000 
acres of wet land in the tfnited States are of potential economic 
importance. 1 The question whether the utilization of these peat 
lands is economically practicable is of special interest in the States 
bordering the Great Lakes and those on the Gulf Coastal Plain, and 
the rest of the country, concerned with the growing needs of a grow- 
ing population, is showing an increasing interest in the problem. 
For an economically sound solution of the problem, agriculture and 
other industry must have a fuller knowledge of the nature of the peat 
lands and must deal with them according to that knowledge. It is 
essential that the problem be seen as a whole, or at least broadly, so 
that the relationship among the various conditions and factors which 
must be coordinated and controlled in the future utilization of the 
peat lands may be understood. 
Just what type of peat area shall be used is often more important 
than the choice of the surface material. It is equally clear that in 
any particular case the selection depends upon several factors, among 
which the general economic considerations taken int. . ccount are 
frequently only the more obvious ones. On the oih»i hand, the 
profile features of the peat area, the stage of disim< ^ration of the 
1 The acreage of peat land was much larger at an earlier time, but with the settlement of the States 
many extensive areas of shallow peat that were long under cultivation have now disappeared Only black- 
colored mineral soils with a high humus content remain to-day to suggest the former locations of such 
areas. 
95731—26 1 1 
