St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1880-02-28
The Use OF Peat Tor Fuel,

Peat when free from sand makes 4
very good fuel, giving out great heal.
and when covered with ashes retaining
a slow combustion for a long time. In
burning, 1t emitS Il sWect-sccntru smoke
which Is very pleasant Us it is borne by
| the breeze 70 the passing traveller. Its
only fault is that the ashes are LIGHT and
are easily waited by a very light draft
OF air from the Fireplace into the 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 pur-
poses OF smelling iron and firing I'M
der locomotive boilers; but while we
have coal and wood SO cheap and read
lily available, the vast beds of peat which
exist will probably remain dormant
except tor private household uses. The
peat tor the purposes above mentioned
was compressed by powerful machinery
into hard, solid masses not unlike the
w, Va, splnt coal, or the brown coal
known as the Ignite which is common
in the far Northwest. But peat may be
prepared orfacl with very little trouble.
In Ireland. Scotland, Wales and parts
Of England, where there are extensive
boys or peat swampS, the peat is cut out
in systematic but very simple fashion as
follows: The moss and Sedgcs, with
the upper layer Of the peat, are re-
moved by sharp-edgcd spades, when the
brown, tibrouS 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 a tool
called skean. This is like a spade with
upturned sides, and all the edges ground
sharp. As the tool is thrust down into
the peat, it cuts out a block of the size
above mentioned These are piled up
in perpendicular ranks, like those of
bricks in rick-yard, to dry. In dry
ing, they shrink to about two inches in
thickness and somewhat less in length
and width thon when first cut These
bluchs, o., "turl>,' us they are called,
when dry form the only fuel of thousands
of persons who live on the poor and
small tracts of land (not to be called
farms) that we are now reading so
much about in connection with the dis
tress in Ireland. They are also pedded
cities adjacent to tracts of peat and bog,
and are used there for summer fuel in
wealthy homes and to make an aereea-
BILE 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 us one goes further
north into the treeless regions of the
North Pacific Railroad, there are single
peat swamps of hundreds of acres 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 decomposition. 1t
is the tibrous, 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 powder, as the
black upper layer does. Once peat be-
comes dry it is practically indestructi-
bic, and if left in a heap soon decom-
poses and breaks down; so that in dry
ing the blocks, it is necessary that they
be piled with wide open joints between
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 disln-
tegrator, and peat for fuel should be cut
only in the summer time; if cut IN the
winter the frost would soon reduce 1t to
powder Prof. Il. Stew0rt, IN R'1ra|
NeU Yorker.