Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 85 
mineral districts of the state.’* Mayor Cooper, of Mineral Point, 
informs me that there are extensive bogs in that locality. The ex¬ 
tensive tamarack, cranberry and other marshes and swamps, almost 
all contain peat, from a few feet to fifty feet in depth. The bogs 
surrounding Madison are believed to contain many million tons of 
peat, and from the known amount in the eastern district of the 
state, I estimate there is not less than one hundred and fifty million 
tons of peat in the state, and this estimate is below that of more 
intelligent and close observers. Massachusetts, by careful estimates, 
has one hundred and twenty million tons. 
This enormous amount of fuel, at the lowest estimate, is sufficient 
in connection with that obtained by the necessary destruction of 
forests in the now unsettled portions of the state, to supply this 
state for a century with a vigorous, increasing population added, and 
employed in all the varied industries, vitalizing the now dormant 
manufacturing of the mineral products within the state, instead.of 
exporting the ore from our mines to neighboring coal bearing 
states for smelting. The cost of preparing this condensed peat 
fuel is the practical question, as it meets all the requirements of a 
substitute for coal, high combustible value, and great density, 
equal to bituminous coal. Therefore, peat fuel, free from all sand 
and most of the clay or oxide of iron usually found in the peat of 
this state, and other gross impurities, condensed to a specific grav¬ 
ity corresponding to that of bituminous coal, becomes a specialty, 
purer and more dense than any referred to in the preceeding tables 
of relative value, tested by experiment or analysis. Peat condensed 
by precipitation, its hygroscopic character destroyed, and partially 
freed from sand, has been prepared in Illinois successfully for two 
years. The process however, required the bog to be drained to 
permit it to be excavated by hand labor, and also required the 
water for precipitation to be 'pumped into the mill and there mixed 
with the peat, and also required hand labor to cut it into blocks when 
dry enough for removal to sheds, there to becomefit for use by 
atmospheric evaporation. 
A gentleman of more experience in working peat, and more pecun¬ 
iary interested that any one in this state, stated to me that from 
personal investigation at the works in Illinois, the cost would be 
$2.50 per ton. The proprietors of the works claim that it will not 
exceed $1 per ton. The sample furnished me from these works 
