The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-03-11
The Use of Peat for Fuel,

Peat, when freed from sand, makes q
very good fuel, giving out great heat
and when covered with ashes re.
tanning a slow combustion for lone
time. In burning, it emits a sweet
scented smoke which is very pleasant
as it is borne by the breeze to the pass
ing traveller. Its only fault is that the
ashes are light and are easily waited by
very light draft of air from the fire.
place into a room. But what is there
of all the useful things which nature has
provided us with, that has not some
drawback in the using of it? Efforts
have been made to utilize peat for fuel
in this country for the purposes of
smelling iron and firing under
locomotive boilers; but while we have
coal and wood SO cheap and readily
available, the vast beds of peat which
exist will probably remain dormant
except for private household uses The
peat for the purposes above mentioned
was compressed by powerful machinery
into hard, solid masses not unlike the
West Virginia splint coal, or the brown
coal known as the Ignite which is COM
mon in the far Northwest. But peat
may be prepared for fuel with very little
trouble. a4 N1
In Ireland, Scotland, Wales and parts
of England where there are extensive
bogs or peat swamps, the peat is cut
out in systematic but very simple fash
ion, as follows: The moss and sedges,
with the upper layer Of the peat, are re-
moved by sharp-edged spades, when the
brown, fiDrous peat, which alone is used
for fuel, is laid bare. This is cut out
into blocks about nine inches long, six
wide and six inches thick, with tool
called skean. This is like spade with
upturned sides, and all the edges ground
sharp. As the tool is thrust down into
the peat, it cuts out block of the size
above mentioned. These are piled up
in perpendicular ranks, like those of
bricks in a brick-yard to dry. In dry
ing, they shrink to about two inches in
thickness and somewhat less in length
and width than when first cut. These
blocks, or "turfs, as they are called
when dry, form the only fuel for thou
sands of persons who live on the poor
and small tracts of land (not to be called
farms) that we arenow reading so much
ireland. They are also peddled about
the streets of large towns and cities adj
jacent to tracts of peat bog, and are
used there for summer fuel in wealthy
homes and to make an agreeable and
cheerful fire on chilly summer evenings,
as they are kindled readily and give a
fierce, glowing heat while burning.
There are thousands of acres of use
full peat in thousands of localities in
America, which might be made very
valuable as fuel. In the prairie regions
peat is plentiful, and as one goes fur
ther north into the treeless regions of
the North Pacific Railroad, there are
single peat swamps of hundreds of acss
which have millions of tons of peat in
them. The best peat lies deep in the
swamp, below the upper layer, which
has turned black and pasty by decompo-
sition. It is the fibrous, brown matter
that makes the best fuel, as it is tough
and bears drying and handling and does
not melt down, so to speak, into pow
der, as the black upper layer does.
Once peat becomes dry it is practically
indestruetible, aud if left in heap soon
dccomposes and breaks down; so that
in drying the blocks, it is necessary that
they be piled with wide open joints be-
tween them and the pile made not over
two feet wide, so as to give free passage
to the air. The pile is also covered
with the coarse weeds of the swamp to
shed rain. Lastly, frost is the great
disintegrator, and peat for fuel should
be cut only in the summer time; if cut
in the winter the frost would soon, re-
duce it to powder.-Rural New Yorker.