MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
103 
can be properly used in competition with equally good, or better, substances 
already in use. and now holding the markets? 
Considering it as a source of fuel supply, its most obvious use, and doubt- 
less, that first to occur to the minds of most people as the one most likely to 
be successful, what are the opportunities and the possibilities and probabili- 
ties of success? At first thought and with but casual investigation of the 
matter, it would seem as if opportunities were practically as wide as the 
field over which fuel of any sort is used, and that peat has but to be made 
ready to use, and at once the demand for it will become general. 
On more careful study of existing supplies of other fuels, and of the methods 
of distributing and handling these, however, one is led to the inevitable 
conclusion that for a long time to come, the larger markets will be chiefly 
supplied as they are now. This is a country of an abundance of good coal, 
which is to be had at moderate prices, over the greater part of the more 
thickly settled regions, and in the manufacturing districts. The trade in 
coal is so thoroughly organized, moreover, that a new type of material, 
■competing with it, must necessarily make its way slowly, and especially 
will this be true of peat, which, at its best, must always be handled rather 
carefully and always be transported and stored under cover, in order to 
prevent loss or deterioration, and which is at the same time much more 
bulky than coal and a poorer fuel as well. 
Aside from these factors, are some which may affect the would-be pro- 
vider of peat fuel even more, namely, those arising from the consumers, 
such as a prejudice, which the average human being has against using a 
new thing, as a substitute for that which he knows and likes, or, the fact 
that furnaces, grates and other heating appliances are all devised for the use 
of coal, and would need some changes in order to get the best results from 
any other fuel. Not the least potent with the larger consumers, at the 
outset, would be the fear that once having adopted peat fuel, they might 
be unable to secure a constant supply. It is a well-known fact that some 
large industrial concerns, for example, carry at least a full year’s supply 
of coal, as a reserve stock, and often have more than this available. From 
these and other causes, which could be mentioned, the prospects for founding 
a great peat fuel industry, which should soon be an active competitor with the 
coal trade are not good. 
On the other hand, there are evidently innumerable opportunities in the 
direction of slow development of small, inexpensive, and carefully planned 
plants, equipped to supply limited local markets with fuel, for domestic 
uses or small manufacturing enterprises. There is opportunity for the utili- 
zation of peat for fuel in larger quantities, in regions remote from coal fields, 
like those lying west of the Great Lakes, and about the head of the Missis- 
sippi, as well as in Florida, and the adjacent regions, where coal is not only 
poor, and high in price, but wood also is of poor quality, and hard to get. 
In these regions, there are calls for fuel, which well-planned and carefully 
executed peat fuel developments would doubtless meet, and in them lie 
some of the most promising fields for the upbuilding of a large industry, 
based on the peat beds. Not only this, but the converse is true, that unless 
the peat beds of these regions are used for fuel, several promising industries 
have reached the limits of their expansion, although but recently estab- 
lished. 
In still other directions, opportunity lies open for rightly directed effort, 
namely, in furnishing either charcoal, coke, gas, or all of these, or even electric 
energy, from peat beds of large extent, which lie sufficiently near industrial 
