The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1906-08-29
FORTY YEARS AGO.
Excerpts Taken from St. Paul Papers of
Forty Years Ago.

of 1868 some Irish laborers were
moving hay on meadow belonging
to J. w. Bass, Esq, just outside of
town on branch of Trout Brook.
when they told Mr.. Bass that they
believed the meadow was a peat
bog similar to those in Ireland. Mr..
Bass got a pole and thrust it down
twenty feet or more without finding
bottom. He had himself observed
the peaty nature of the bog, and
now resolved to test it. He had a
few cords of the surface, or turf,
cut and dried and used for some
time in his house as fuel. 1t made a
hot fire, but did not last long, tho
his experiments showed that, even
if two cords were required for one
of wood, the peat was still much
the cheapest.
The newspapers soon got wind of
his experiments and the result was
a thorough airing of the peat ques-
ton. Public attention was thus
attracted to the matter, which, it
was seen, was one of immense i'm
portance to the city. People began
to look for peat boys everywhere.
The result was that boys of in
calculable extent were found sur
rounding the city in all directions,
some even lying within it's corporate
limits. The people were both sur
prised and gratifed to find such
immense deposits of valuable fuel at
their very doors sufficient to last
for generations, ages almost.
Papers all over the country pub
lished the story and urged the peo-
pie to hunt for boys. One bed alone,
near Chicago, has been explored
sufficiently, the Tribune says, to
supply that city with fuel if it lives
to the age of Jerusalem. The same
story comes from other places and
now peat boys are looked upon as
most valuable property, where be-
fore they were looked on as worth
less.
Machines for condensing the peat
into hard bricks were soon invented
and patented. Mr.. Bass secured the
latest and most improved of these
in Boston early in the spring and it
was erected on his peat bed, about
half mile beyond Rice's villa, on
Phalen creek. The engine is fifteen
horse power and is run by turf fuel,
a little kindling only being required
to start the fire each day.
The peat is cut in large blocks,
laid on tramway barrow and rolled
to the machine. When it is cut it is
wet, but after lying a few hours in
the sun and wind it dries sufficiently
to be ground up and shoveled into
the machine. The machine looks
like cob mill On an upright CEN
trail revolving shaft are projecting
blades set angling, so that the peat
is ground up into black mud, every
root, fiber and vegetable blade dis
1t is then forced out on
a revolving belt, which carries it
out of spout in a continual mass
towards a table where it is cut by
hand into bricks. These are then
dried.
The peat then shrinks greatly in
size and weight while drying from
the loss of the moisture. 1t gains in
density, however, and if left long
enough becomes black and shiny like
coal. A ton of dried peat will
occupy about thirty-fve cubic feet.
The peat bed belonging to this
company embraces about eighty
acres. It's depth is unknown. If in
Is feet there are about $4,000 tons
of peat per acre. In 100 acres this
would make 100000 tons, so that
the tremendous extent of the peat
beds around ST. Paul can be esti-
mated
Should the hopes of those who
have examined this subject be rea-
lized, st. Paul will become a great
manufacturing city, and our in
crease in wealth and population
must be unprecedentedly increased
by those humble and hitherto m