106 
TENTH REPORT. 
fertilizers. While this use has been condemned by the agricultural chemists, 
as likely to be misleading, in that it makes the finished fertilizer seem higher 
in Nitrogen than it should, as it contains some Nitrogen which is not avail- 
able for plants, it is mechanically really an ideal substance for the purpose, 
because it absorbs the water from the freshly made mixtures of the ingre- 
dients of the fertilizers and prevents caking and spoiling. How much of 
the water absorbed by the peat is sold as fertilizers, does not appear, but 
probably not so much, in proportion, as is sold in butter by the chief con- 
sumers of the fertilizer at from 25 to 35 cents per pound. 
At any rate, the peat in the form of a dry powder, sold for this purpose, 
brings the highest price per ton of any peat product now on the market. 
The purely academic and experimental uses to which peat has been put 
abroad, are, as yet, in too early a stage of development for more than passing 
mention here. In the opinion of the writer, they do not at present offer 
many opportunities in this country, which is so rich in better raw materials 
for the purposes to which peat has been put; but that one may easily misjudge 
in such matters is illustrated by the success of the peat paper mill already 
mentioned. That a good-sized factory should be established on a peat 
bed in Michigan, when thousands of tons of flax straw, apparently a vastly 
better material for paper-making, are annually burned to get rid of them 
in neighboring states, is certainly an anomaly. 
It may be then, that artificial wood and paving blocks will yet be made 
here in quantities from peat, and this opportunity for peat utilization should 
not be overlooked as a possibility of much promise. 
From what has been said, it is evident that there is a basis for the belief 
that is in us, that our peat deposits are valuable, that they will in the near 
future be the basis for extensive developments and will give rise to profit- 
able industries; but, it is also evident that the development can only come 
from careful and thoughtful study of the possibilities of the basal substance, 
and, until this is thoroughly done, no one of us can be certain of success in 
any of the fields which have been opened up before us here. 
