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Peat is the organic matter or vegetable soil of bogs, swamps and marshes—decayed mosses, coarse grasses, etc. The peat next the surface, less advanced in decomposition, is light, spongy and fibrous, of a yellow or light reddish-brown color; lower down it is more compact, of a darker-brown color, and in the lowest strata it is of a blackish brown, or almost a black color, of a pitchy or unctuous feel.

Peat in its natural condition generally contains from 75 to 80 per cent. of water. It sometimes amounts to 85 or 90 per cent. in which case the peat is of the consistency of mire.

When wet peat is milled or ground so that the fibre is broken, crushed or cut, the contraction in drying is much increased by this treatment; and the peat becomes denser, and is better consolidated than when it is dried as it is cut from the bog; peat so prepared is known as condensed peat, and the degree of condensation varies according to the natural heaviness of the peat. So effectively is peat consolidated and condensed by the simple process of breaking the fibres whilst wet, that no merely mechanical force of compression is equal to it.

In the table the elements of peat are presented in two conditions. One perfectly dried into a powder before analyzing and the other with 25 per cent. of moisture.

The value of peat as a fuel of the future is an interesting problem in view of the numerous inroads made upon our great natural coal fields.