The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1914-08-21
Peat Manufacturer Tells of the
Possibilities of Great Indus
try Here.
Land Will Produce Fuel or Good
Onion and Celery Crops
Life's Opportunity.

That Northern Minnesota has a fu-
ture source of revenue of far greater
value than all it's mines and one that
will continue to supply untold riches
as perpetually as the valley Of the
Nile, is the import of an interview
given to The Herald today by Carl G.
Keinstuck of Kalamazoo, Mich, vice
president of the American Peat So
ciety and one of the pioneer manu-
facturers of peat products and per-
haps the largest owner of peat lands
in the country. Probably no man in
the world knows more about peat than
Mr.. Kleinstuck, as he has inspected
peat beds from Vera Cruz to Quebec
and from the Atlantic coast to the
Rocky mountains, and has facts and
figures at his tongues end.
Mr.. Kleinstuck with his wife came
20 Duluth yesterday and was the first
delegate to arrive for the annual con-
Jention of the American Peat society
which will convene at the Commercial
.lub for three-day session Thursday
morning. He brought with him a fine
exhibit of peat products and Indian
elics gathered from peat bogs
throughout the country. These are
being arranged in the display in the
md will be displayed throughout the
convention. Many other exhibits will
)e put ON exhibition as the delegates
arrive with them.
For the last twelve years, Mr.. Klein
stuck has been studying peat, and
:ultivating peat soil, and is an author
ty on the value of peat, cost of its
production, the best uses for peat soil
md the kinds of crops best adapted to
he cleared land. He says what is
rue of Michigan peat lands is also
rue of Minnesota swamp lands.
Minnesota Peat Lands.
zone of your biologists told me-
;aid Mr.. Kleinstuck today, "that fully
,wo-fifths of the state of Minnesota is
Zine peat land. It is impossible to esti-
mate the exact value of this land
either for crop or fuel purposes, but a
fair idea can be obtained by illustrat-
ng by the citing of concrete results
obtained iii Michigan.
eve have burned peat for a long
lime and it's cost is less than half that
If coal and is by many considered bet
ter fuel for many purposes. Great in
zerest was aroused in peat after the
yreat coal strike when the country
vas threatened with a fuel famine
Activities we're begun to manufacture
.uel from peat but promoters that
would cast j. Rufus Wnllingford into
he shade got hold of the business, and
he work was not pushed scientifical-
y, and failure was the result. Con.
:rete buildings were erected on miry
oogs at considerable cost, and it was
only short time before such build
ings sank out of sight. / saw such q
concrete building with one window
hat cost more than was necessary tx
,ut up a practical peat producing
structure. After these promoters
failed, many people thought peat man.
fracture impractical, and the result
was a great, retardation of the indus
| ry. However, have continued in the
ago saw business, and delegates to the
| peat convention at Kalamazoo two
years ago saw my plant working sue
:essfully and profitably."
The value of peat lands for fuel pur
poses was we'll illustrated by Mr.
Aleinstuck. Swamps with peat beds
i've feet deep will produce 300 ton:
per foot deep, per acre, making 1,50(
;ons to the acre. Machine peat sells
at S. a ton. There is fully 81 clea,
profit on ton Of peat, which show!
hat one acre of peat land will produc'
$1,000, clear profit for fuel alone.
The fuel value of the land is a mer.
fraction of what the soil is worth fol
the production of crops. Celery