The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1914-08-21
PEATLANDS WORTH
MORE THAN MINES
Manufacturer. Tells of Possibilities of
Great Industry Here will Produce
Fuel, or Onions and Celery Crop. ;.
c. G. KLE1NsTUCK AN AUTHORITY
Has Made Study Of Peat for Twelve
Years-In Attendance at Conven-
ton Now in Progress at Duluth.

That Northern Minnesota has a
future source of revenue of far great
er 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 inter
view with Carl e.. Kleinstuck, of
Kalamazoo, Michigan vice-president
of the American Peat Society, at the
Duluth Peat convention now in SEES
sion and which is being attended by
o. L. Dent, ditch referee of this
district
Mr.. Kleinstuck is one of the
pioneer manufacturers of peat pro-
ducts and perhaps the largest owner
of peat lands in the country. Pro-
badly no man in the world knows
more about peat than Mr.. Klein
stuck, 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.
For the past twelve years, Mr..
Kleinstuck has been studying peat
soil, and is an authority ON the
value of peat, cost of it's production,
the best uses for peat aoil, and the
kinds Of crops best adapted to the
cleared land. He says what is true
of Michigan peat lands is also true
of Minnesota swamp lands.
Minnesota Peat Lands.
Zone of your biologists told me-
said Mr.. Kleinstuck today, chat
fully two ffths of Minnesota was
fine peat land. 1t is impossible to
estimate the exact value of this land
either for crop or fuel purposes, but
a fair idea can be obtained by illus
trating by the citing of concrete re-
suits obtained in Michigan.
"We have burned peat for long
time and its cost is less than half
} that of coal and by many considered
better fuel for many purposes Great
interest was aroused in peat after
the great coal strike when the
country was threatened with a fuel
famine. Activities were begun to
manufacture fuel from peat but pro-
motors that would cast J. Rufus
Wallingford into the shade got hold
of the business, and the work was
not pushed scientifically, and failure
was the result
The value of peat lands for fuel
purposes was we'll illustrated by Mr..
Kleinstuck. Swamps with peat beds
five feet deep will produce 300 tons
per foot depth, per acre, making
1900 tons to the acre. Machine
peat sells at $500 ton. There is
surely 81 90 clear profit on a ton of
peat which shows that one acre of
peat land will produce $500, clear
profit for fuel alone.
The fuel value of the land is a
mere fraction of what the land is
worth for the production of crops. Gel
cry, onions and peppermint, he says,
are the best crops for the soil, and
are more productive than an iron
mine
Celery Lands. -
Land purchased at Kalamazoo a
few years ago for few dollars an
acre." says Mr.. Kleinstuck, sis now
worth 1900 an acre for the produc-
tion of celery. The climate Of
Michigan, Northern Wisconsin and
Northern Minnesota is ideal for Gel
cry and produces the best products
in the world. The soil also produces
fabulous onion yields and is perfect
CONTINUED on Pare 81