It is long before they become capable of bearing wheat ; nor is this crop to be recommended at any time, unless there be a good depth of soil formed over the peat. Laying down to grass as soon as a certain degree of improvement has been made, and depasturing with sheep at first and cattle afterwards, tend more than any other means to con solidate the surface and deepen the mould, which gradually increases by the decomposition of the tannin in the peat.
Great attention has been paid within the last few years to the ques tion how far peat can be practically applied in the arts, thereby rendering a double service—clearing bog-land for agricultural purposes, and making good use of the substance taken from it. As Ireland con tain/ 3,000,000 acres of bog, the inquiry really becomes an important one. Several years ago, a patent was obtained by Mr. Williams, man aging director of the Dublin Steam Navigation Company, for compres sing peat into a dense mass, so as to resemble coal The process is as follows :—Immediately after being dug, the peat is triturated under revolving edge-wheels faced with iron plates perfOrated all over the surface, and is forced by the pressure through these apertures, till it becomes a species of pap, which is freed from the greater part of its moisture by a hydraulic press. It is then dried, and converted into coke in the same manner as is done with pit coal. The factitious coal of Mr. Williams is made by incorporating pitch or rosin melted in a cauldron with as much of the teat-charcoal ground to powder as will form a tough doughy mass, winch is then moulded into bricks.
Tho use of peat for fuel is too well known to require notice ; but it may be interesting to know bow peat fuel is made in Holland, where it cannot be dug out of the solid moss but is brought up in the form of mud from a considerable depth under water. It is raised by means of small strong nets, fixed by an iron ring to a long pole, in the man ner In which canals are cleared of mud. This liquid peat is brought in boats to a place prepared for its manufacture, which has been levelled as a brick-yard usually is. The soft mud is spread over this to the depth of six inches, and the water is allowed to drain oil slowly. When the peat begins to dry, men fix boards to their feet and walk over It, so as to compress it ; and as soon as It will bear cutting, it is I cut with a spade made on purpose Into oblong pieces of the usual size of peat, which is about eight or nine inches long and five wide ; the treading and drying have reduced the thickness to about four or five inches. When completely solid, these pests are set on edge, and after wards stacked loosely, so that the air may leas through them. In some places they have sheds, for the purpose of protecting them from rain. They soon become very hard, and burn more like wood or coal than the peat which is cut immediately from a solid mesa. They give a very great heat, and form a coal which, when it is shut up in a close vowel to stop the combustion, and allowed to cool, has a considerable resemblance to charcoal.
Dutch peat Is used as fuel for all the purposes of manufactures, except for the forging of iron, fur which coals are imported from England and the Netherland& The pest-fen in Holland, however, begin to be exhausted, and the fuel is so dear, that it is found more economical to import coals from England, which are used chiefly in cast-iron stoves.
In Ireland, some years ago, the Irish Amelioration Society encou raged the conversion of peat into charcoal. The charcoal obtained from this source is found to he valuable not only for smelting-fur naces, but also as a deodoriser. Around each charcoal factory, in some parts of Ireland, a rim of cottage gardens was gradually formed; and the land, relieved from the load of otherwise unprofitable peat, pro duced useful crops. Whether, however, from the commercial value of the product having been overstated, or for some other cause, the mak ing of charcoal from peat still remairra only a small branch of industry in Ireland. A British and Irish Peat Company was afterwards formed, suggested with reference to Dartmoor peat rather than to that of Ireland ; but if available for one, it would also be for the other. The company professed to be able to obtain naphtha, paraffin, fixed oil, volatile oil, acetate of lime, and sulphate of ammonia, from peat, at profitable prices ; and very sanguine accounts were published as to the rate of profit obtainable. When the Earl of Clarendon was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, he commissioned Sir Robert Kane to inquire into and report upon the various proposed plans for economically apply ing the millions of acres of peat in Ireland. One difficulty is, that all attempts to expel the water from wet peat by mechanical means alone have been found defective ; and another is, that the profitableness of applying heat to evaporate the moisture is doubtful. In the peat taken from the Bog of Allen, it is found that 100 tons of the wet substance produce only 16 tons of dry peat. Mr. Reece, whose patent led to the formation of the Irish Peat Company, found that by the destructive distillation of 1000 parts of peat, he obtained about eleven of sulphate of ammonia, seven of acetate of lime, two of wood naphtha, one of paraffin, seven of fixed oil, and three of volatile oil. When Sir Robert Kane tested this statement he found it to be pretty nearly correct ; but when he proceeded to inquire into the profitableness of the process as a manu facture of the above-named substances, the conflicting evidence quite baffled him. From the reports of Kane and other authorities, the area of all the bogs in Ireland, multiplied by the average thickness, would it appears yield the enormous quantity of 4,000,000,000 tone of peat even when quite dry ; and some enthusiasts have given to this a money value of more than 1,000,000,000/. for fuel. A village has been lighted with peat gas in Westmeath. It remains true, neverthe less, that although a mass of peat is a vast storehouse of chemical material, manufacturing operations relating thereto have not yct become important.