1 
, .  T  „„„TT  Published  Weekly  by  Tlie  Rural  Publishing  Co., 
'  OL.  333  W.  30th  St..  New  York.  Price  One  Dollar  a  Y'ear. 
NEW  YORK,  DECEMBER  1,  1923 
Entered  as  Second-Class  Matter,  June  26,  1879,  at  the  Post 
Office  at  New  Y'ork,  N.  under  the  Act  of  March  3,  1879, 
NO.  4771 
Peat  For  Fuel  in  New  England 
FARM  PEAT  BED. — Your  recent  number 
containing  the  article  on  peat  as  a  fuel  in 
New  England  (page  12S3)  came  just  as  we 
were  getting  in  our  Winter’s  supply.  I 
would  not  attempt  to  say  anything  about 
peat  as  a  source  of  power  on  a  large  scale, 
but  we  have  used  it  for  two  Winters 
as  a  household  fuel,  and  we  like  it. 
There  are  perhaps  three  or  four  acres 
of  peat  on  our  farm,  and  we  have  dug 
about  a  hundredth  of  an  acre  per  year 
to  a  depth  of  2*4  or  3  ft.  for  use  in  the 
house.  The  present  generation  will  not 
worry  about  providing  drainage  for 
digging  deeper,  although  the  depth  of 
the  deposit  where  we  are  digging  ap¬ 
pears  to  be  about  6  ft. 
CUTTING  OUT  THE  FUEL.— After- 
clearing  off  grass,  etc.  to  a  depth  of  6 
in.  or  so,  the  peat  is  cut  out  in  blocks 
5  or  0  in.  square  and  from  1  to  2  ft. 
in  length  by  a  special  spade  manu¬ 
factured  for  the  purpose,  which  cuts 
two  sides  of  the  block  at  one  stroke. 
The  blocks  are  laid  on  the  grass,  and 
after  they  have  dried  a  little  are  cut 
with  a  long-handled  sod-cutter  into 
slices  about  an  inch  and  a  half  thick 
and  5  or  6  in.  square.  These  are  spread 
on  the  grass,  and  under  favorable  con¬ 
ditions  of  sun  and  wind  will  be  dry 
enough  inside  of  two  weeks  to  be 
stored  under  cover  if  not  thoroughly 
dry.  But  as  every  farmer  knows, 
favorable  weather  con¬ 
ditions  are  always  more 
or  less  of  a  gamble; 
therefore  storage  space 
should  be  large  enough 
to  allow  for  a  good  cir¬ 
culation  of  air  over  and 
through  the  peat.  Under 
'these  conditions  damp 
peat  may  be  stored  ia 
•Summer  and  early  Au¬ 
tumn,  but  if  stored  in 
late  Autumn  it  should 
be  thoroughly  dry,  as 
freezing  may  make  it 
useless  for  six  months. 
HANDLING  T  II  E 
.PEAT. — For  transpor¬ 
tation  we  use  a  light 
drag  with  2x4  in.  spruce 
runners,  towed  by  the 
ever  faithful  Ford,  the 
track  being  over  short 
grass  all  the  way.  Stor¬ 
age  is  on  shelves  about 
18  in.  apart,  occupying 
a  space  about  12x24  It. 
on  the  ground  floor  of 
the  . barn.  Later  we  ex¬ 
pect  to  use  crates  of 
wood  and  wire  netting, 
about  36x18x9  in.  to  be 
loaded  in  the  field  and 
unloaded  when  wanted 
for  burning,  but  have 
only  a  few  of  these  as 
yet.  They  will  save  much  labor  in  handling,  and 
reduce  breakage  and  dust. 
USING  THE  FUEL.— Dry  peat  is  a  good  all-round 
fuel.  We  use  it  in  the  house  heater  (hot  water) 
in  the  kitchen  stove  and  in  the  fireplace,  although 
in  the  latter  it  does  not  supply  the  flickering  flames 
“Lady  Bountiful,”  high  bird  in  the  Vineland  International  Egg-laying  and  Breed¬ 
ing  Contest,  1923.  From  the  winning  pen  No.  93.  Bred  and  owned  by  James 
Whetsel,  Vineland,  N.  J.  Official  score,  289  eggs. 
Part  of  winning  pen  No.  93  at  the  Vineland  International  Egg-laying  and  Breeding  Contest,  1923.  Official  score, 
3.998  eggs.  This  pen  is  bred  and  owned  by  James  Whetsel,  Vineland,  N.  J.  This  pen  laid  144  eggs  more  than 
its  nearest  competitor. 
which  are  so  interesting  to  look  at,  and  are  said 
nowadays  to  be  so  good  for  the  eyesight.  It  makes 
either  a  slow  or  a  quick  fire,  according  to  the  draft, 
and  the  quick  fire  is  very  hot.  We  prefer  it  to  all 
other  fuel  for  heating  the  boiler  on  wash  days.  The 
chief  objection  to  it  is  the  fine  dust  from  the  peat 
and  the  ashes.  The  more  it  is  handled 
the  more  dust  is  produced,  although 
the  peat  dust  is  all  burned  in  the  heat¬ 
er.  It  sometimes  explodes,  but  not  so 
violently  as  soft  coal  dust. 
GRADES  AND  QUALITIES.— The 
best  peat  has  the  color  of  plug  tobacco, 
and  is  almost  wholly  made  up  of  com¬ 
pressed  leaves,  twigs  and  roots.  Some¬ 
times  one  finds  a  cone  or  a  fairly  large 
stem  or  root  embedded  in  it.  The  poor¬ 
est  is  full  of  earthy  matter,  and  crum¬ 
bles  in  the  rain.  We  do  not  use  it. 
There  is  an  intermediate  grade  which 
looks  like  clay  when  dry  and  appears 
to  contain  very  little  combustible  ma¬ 
terial.  Like  the  best  peat,  however,  it 
is  very  light  and  porous,  weighing  only 
about  20  lbs.  to  the  cubic  foot,  and 
makes  an  excellent  medium  for  burn¬ 
ing  oil.  Blocks  of  peat  will  soak  up 
kerosene  very  quickly,  and  these 
thrown  into  the  heater  and  lighted 
with  a  match  make  a  very  quick,  hot 
fire.  We  expect  to  use  a  cheap  grade 
of  fuel  oil  in  this  way.  Of  course  for 
very  cold  weather,  neither  peat  nor 
wood  will  keep  a  fire  over  night;  one 
has  to  burn  coal  or  sit 
up  with  the  fire. 
T.  P.  PERKINS. 
Middlesex  Co.,  Mass. 
R.  N.-Y.  Several  peo¬ 
ple  have  asked  for  the 
analysis  of  peat  ashes. 
There  seems  to  be  an 
opinion  that  these  ashes 
are  much  like  ordinary 
wood  ashes,  and  better 
than  the  ash  from  coal. 
Prof.  H.  D.  Haskins  of 
the  Massachusetts  Ex¬ 
periment  Station  sends 
the  following  as  an 
average  of  fair  samples 
of  peat  ashes : 
Moisture,  8.40% ;  po¬ 
tassium  oxide,  .26%;  cal¬ 
cium  oxide,  5.74%;  phos¬ 
phoric  acid,  .62% ;  mag¬ 
nesium  oxide,  1.63%;  iron 
and  aluminum  oxides, 
6.13%, 
Although  peat  ashes 
are  very  much  richer  in 
lime,  potash,  and  phos¬ 
phoric  acid,  than  coal 
ashes,  yet  you  will  see 
from  this  average  that  as 
compared  with  ashes 
from  wood  these  ingre¬ 
dients  are  comparatively 
small.  In  all  probability 
the  calcium  and  magnes¬ 
ium  that  are  present 
/Would  be  in  form  of  car-  . 
bonate  and  would,  there-  ' 
fore,  be  able  to  sweeten 
sour  soils  to  a  certain  ex-  . 
tent. 
