772 
Teat aiid its Products. 
used for raising crops. But for the last thirty or forty years 
increasing attention has been paid to the profits derivable from 
peat bogs, both as regards their cultivation and as regards the 
fuel to be obtained from them for use iu dwellings and in manu- 
factories. During the last ten years increasing interest has also 
been evinced in the supply of peat litter. 
To show the possibilities of their amelioration, it is mentioned 
that over 000,000 acres of bog have been brought into cultiva- 
tion in the southern and central provinces during recent years. 
Iu these same provinces, turf for burning is now cut out in 
enormous quantities every year by most of the ironworks and 
other industrial establishments situated inland, and possessing 
bogs of their owe. 
There are numerous ways of treating the turf by machinery, 
different machines being employed for disintegrating, rolling, 
and pressing it, and making it hard after drying. The actual 
drying generally takes place on a levelled area of the bog 
itself, either by spreading the peat out or by putting it up on 
frames. Besides this air-drying of the turf, several ironworks 
have of late years established ovens of various sorts for the 
further desiccation of the product, and these have in general 
given very good results. They are heated by the surplus heat 
of the furnaces, which thus costs nothing, and yet the turf gains 
from 25 to 30 per cent, in value from the process. 
The ordinary turf for burning in dwelling-houses in the 
southern provinces, where wood is scarce, is chiefly cut brick- 
shape by spades made for the purpose, and then dried at the 
place where it is cut, by simply spreading it out in small heaps. 
It costs very little to cut, but is rather loose, owing to its being 
treated in so primitive a fashion. Such turf as is intended for 
industrial purposes is always worked up or disintegrated in one 
way or another, so as to be hard and solid when dried, and thus 
give more heat when burnt. 
In the case of ironworks turf is used in the furnaces either 
by itself, or else mixed with coal and fir cones. At wood-pulp 
factories it is used for drying the pulp. Turf is also burnt in 
glass-works, brick-works, and as fuel for steam-engines. 
It is only in the south of Sweden, and even there in but few 
cases, that factories exist for the preparation of turf for sale as 
fuel. No exact figures are obtainable as to the amount of prepared 
turf yearly produced in Sweden for burning. Its use, however, 
is increasing year by year, owing to its being a cheaper fuel thar 
coal. About 25,000 to 30,000 tons a year may be said to be 
employed in metallurgical works of different kinds. 
The cost of producing well-made turf for fuel is given as 
