OCR Text |
Show FIND MANY USES FOR FEAT Wartorn Industry Gives Promise of Great Development in the Years to Come. The output of prat in the United States lust year far exceeded that of any preceding year and the general Increase, 1dch was stimulated by the war. was shared by practically all branches of the industry. Though extensively ex-tensively used as fuel in Europe and widely known in the United States as a potential source uf heat and power, peat lias been unable to compete with coal and many peat operators have directed di-rected their attention to the utilization of peat In agriculture with gratifying results. Peat fertilizer was first marketed In commercial quantities In 190S. and stock-food peat in 1912, and though there Is s,till some prejudice against its use the agricultural branch of the Industry In-dustry has been successful and the quantity of fertilizer and stock-food peat annually produced Is increasing. Large quantities of these products were made last year, but the most striking development was the production produc-tion of more peat in the New England States than has been manufactured in the entire United States In all preceding preced-ing years. Almost equally striking was the widespread interest manifested manifest-ed In peat resources which had been generally regarded as of doubtful value. Large quantities of peat or sphagnum sphag-num moss were produced and utilized for stable Utter, packing material, and surgical dressing, nnd several hundred hun-dred thousand acres of peat soils were used for the growth of crops. The peat litter was produced by the owners own-ers of small hogs for their own use. but the packing material was sold to florists for .?23 a ton. According to J. W. Hotson of the Red Cross more than half a million peat pads were prepared In this country for that organization. Most of the moss was gathered by volunteers from bogs in Washington, Oregon and Maine, and the pads were used in military hospitals hos-pitals at home and abroad. |