760 
Peat and its Products. 
of enterprises for developing the new trade were started, mostly 
in Hanover, and some even in England. 
According to an Official Report of the Hanoverian and 
Oldenburg Railway Administration, about 21,878 tons of moss 
litter were sent from stations on that railway during the year 
1882. A large portion, if not the greater part, of this produc- 
tion, was exported to England and America, where the advan- 
tages of moss litter for city stabling were appreciated much 
sooner than was the case in Germany. 
Over-production, however, soon set in, and this, together 
with good straw harvests, and a prejudice against moss litter, 
induced by the inferior quality of the product supplied by some 
of the new manufactories, produced a reaction from which the 
trade hardly appears to have recovered even at the present day. 
With regard to the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, for instance, it 
is estimated that during the earlier part of the last decade the 
quantity of moss litter manufactured reached 15,000 to 20,000 
tons per annum, but the output has been decreasing year by 
year, and now barely attains 5,000 tons, of which about one- 
quarter is said to be exported to the United Kingdom. 
The subjoined table shows the quantity and value of moss 
litter exported from Germany to the United Kingdom from 
1885 to 1891 : — 
Year 
Tons 
Value 
Year 
Tons 
Value 
1885 
9,182 
£ 
12,050 
1889 
4,678 
£ 
6,100 
188G 
10,155 
11,400 
1890 
Not mentioned 
1887 
9,484 
10,700 
189 L 
3,076 
— 
1888 
9,245 
10,400 
A great difficulty is encountered in the wet summers which 
are not infrequent in the North of Germany. The loose, stringy 
moss turf takes some time to dry thoroughly, and, unlike black 
peat, absorbs on damp days a great deal of moisture, so that in 
some years it proved almost impossible to obtain a sufficiently 
dry material for the manufacture of moss litter without applying 
artificial heat, which, again, is much too dear. Hence, imper- 
fectly dried moss litter was sometimes placed on the market, 
and damaged the reputation which the article had already 
attained. 
The best material for the production of moss litter is formed 
by the upper strata of the high bogs (“ Hochmoore ”), which 
cover considerable areas in Hanover, Oldenburg, East and West 
Prussia, and Pomerania. The natural vegetation of these bogs 
consists of moss, together with various grasses and heather 
