Peat and its Products. 
773 
from 4s. 4 d. to 5s. 5 d. per ton, according to the price of labour 
in different places. Good turf for fuel is expected to contain 
from 30 to 40 per cent, of heating material, and not above 7 to 
10 per cent, of ash, and there is a vast quantity of such turf in 
Sweden. 
Of late years large quantities of peat litter have been 
prepared in Southern and Central Sweden, partly by twenty 
peat-litter factories which produce it for sale, and partly by 
private owners of peat bogs who take it for their own use. 
It is of the very best quality, far excelling that produced in 
other countries. This peat litter is made from pure 
sphagnum, or immature moss turf, unmixed with other sorts of 
moss. 
Each peat-litter factory makes from 15,000 to 30,000 bales 
(200 lb. each), sold in Sweden at about Is. 8d. per bale. A 
much finer quality (called £< Torfmull ”) sells at from Is, 11c?. 
to 2s. 2 d. per bale. 
The subjoined details are taken from a lecture on turf litter 
by Herr L. F. Nilson : — 
Ilerr Samuelson, of Marieberg, in Vermland, has for many years past 
found it a good plan to cut out the turf in the autumn or winter, or in the 
spring before the night frosts have ceased. Not only is the work done at a 
comparatively idle time of the year, but the turf — having once been frozen 
— afterwards, when the warm weather comes, dries much more quickly and 
thoroughly than it would do if it had not been frozen. 
Peat litter keeps cows cleaner than straw litter does, and the same is tho 
case with pigs, but not with sheep, as the fine dust gets into their wool. 
Even if straw be preferred for the stalls, it is recommended that peat litter 
be used in the drain behind the animals. 
Owing to the retention of heat by peat litter, and to its acting as a check 
upon putrefaction, as well as to its property of retaining moisture, it is 
excellent for propagating-beds, whether for seedlings of vegetables, for 
mushrooms, or for many hothouse plants. 
Experiments were made near Stockholm, from 1887 to 1890, as to tho 
comparative excellence of turf poudrette and other manures, the turf 
poudrette being prepared at the municipal works. Barley, clover, potatoes, 
and mixed seeds (for green fodder) were planted on plots of clay soil of from 
250 to 350 square yards each. The mixed seeds were barley, oats, and 
vetches. 
The values of the manures used were per acre, 21. 2s. in 1887 and 1888 ; 
11. 16s. in 1889; and 31. 4s. in 1890. 
Farmyard manure was reckoned as worth 3d. per 100 quarts (say Id. per 
bushel), turf poudrette as worth 7 %d. per 100 quarts (2 \d. per bushel), and 
Peruvian guano and fish guano at the market prices of the day. 
Out of many experiments the following table gives the result in five 
cases. The figures showing the number of kilogrammes (1 kilog. = 2'2 lb.) 
produced per hectare (2£ acres) are only given to illustrate the comparative 
results of the different manures in competition with each other, so that nc 
advantage would arise from rendering them into their English equivalents 
