rticles that penetrate them.
They are therefore washed at each revolution by passing before a pipe
from which issue, against them, a number of jets of water under high
pressure. The blocks, after leaving the machine, are soft, and require 5
or 6 days to become air-dry. When dry they are dense and of good
quality, but not better than the same raw material yields by simple
moulding. The capacity of the rolls, which easily turn out 100,000 peats
in 24 hours, greatly exceeds at present that of the drying arrangements,
and for this reason the works are not, as yet, remunerative. The rolls
are, in reality, a simple forming machine. The pressure they exert on
the peat, is but inconsiderable, owing to its soft pasty character; and
since the pair of rolls costs $8000 and can only be worked 3 to 4
months, this method must be regarded rather as an ingenious and
instructive essay in the art of making peat-fuel, than as a practical
success. The persevering efforts of the inventor may yet overcome all
difficulties and prove the complete efficacy of the method. It is
especially important, that blocks of greater thickness should be
produced, since those now made, pack together too closely in the fire.

_Neustadt Method._--At Neustadt, in Hanover, a loose-textured fibrous
peat was prepared for metallurgical use in 1860, by passing through iron
rolls of ordinary construction. The peat was thereby reduced two-thirds
in bulk, burned more regularly, gave a coherent coal, and withstood
carriage better. The peat was, however, first cut into sods of regular
size, and these were fed into the rollers by boys.

b. _Pressing Air-dried Peat._

Some kinds of peat, when in the air-dry and pulverized state, yield by
great pressure very firm, excellent, and economical fuel.

_Lithuanian Process._--In Lithuania, according to Leo,[20] the following
method is extensively adopted. The bog is drained, the surface moss or
grass-turf and roots are removed, and then the peat is broken up by a
simple spade-plow, in furrows 2 inches wide and 8 or 10 inches deep. The
broken peat is repeatedly traversed with wooden harrows, and is thus
pulverized and dried. When suitably dry, it is carried to a magazine,
where it is rammed into moulds by a simple stamp of two hundred pounds
weight. The broken peat is reduced to two-fifths its first bulk, and the
blocks thus formed are so hard, as to admit of cutting with a saw or ax
without fracture. They require no further dry