298 
FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY—THIRD ANNUAL REPORT. 
ANALYSES OF FLORIDA PEAT SAMPLES. 
The subjoined table shows the percentage of water, mineral 
matter, volatile combustible matter, fixed carbon, sulphur, and (in 
a few cases) nitrogen, and the fuel value, of the samples of Flor¬ 
ida peat collected by the writer in 1908-1910 and analyzed in the 
peat laboratory of the U. S. Geological Survey at Pittsburgh, Pa., 
mostly under the direction of Dr. F. M. Stanton. 
In the number assigned to each sample the figures before the 
decimal point indicate the consecutive number of the locality, the 
first figure after the decimal point the number of the hole from 
which the sample was taken, and the last figure the number of the 
sample from that hole. In most cases only one sample from each 
swamp or bog was taken, on account of the limited time available. 
For the same reason nearly half the samples were dug out by hand, 
from a depth of about a foot. The deeper ones were taken with a 
sampling instrument devised by Dr. Chas. A. Davis, consisting of a 
number of sections of half-inch iron pipe which could be screwed 
together, one of them with a short transverse handle at one end, 
and a brass cylinder nearly an inch in diameter and about nine 
inches long, which could be screwed to the pipes and pushed down 
to any desired depth, and then filled with peat from that depth by 
an ingenious mechanism. This cylinder had to be filled a good 
many times to obtain a sufficient quantity of peai for analysis, 
and in practice each sample was made up from several taken 
from the same depth within a few feet of each other. 
The next column after the name of the locality gives the depth 
from which the sample was taken, and the last column on the 
first page the maximum depth of peat found in each deposit. In 
a few cases where this depth was given me by other persons the 
figures are put in parentheses. 
The moisture percentage is taken from air-dry samples, and 
the other determinations were made after the water was eliminated 
by heating slightly above the boiling point (not enough to de¬ 
compose or volatilize the peat). The ash was not analyzed, but it 
is probably chiefly silica in most cases, though in the samples from 
Panasoffkee, Etelena Run, and the south end of the Everglades it 
must be mostly lime. The reason for determining the sulphur 
(which is done more generally for coal than for peat) is that an 
excess of it would have a corrosive effect on the iron parts of 
fire-boxes, and might also be objectionable if the peat was made 
into illuminating gas. The percentage of nitrogen gives some, 
indication of the value of the peat for agricultural purposes. 
