Feedback on.... Peat

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I should mention in closing that peat does have a commercial value today . . . not as fuel, but as a soil improver and planting medium sold by the bag through greenhouse and garden supply outlets.

JOHN C. SINCLAIR:

I was born in the Shetland Islands, where peat was the main fuel, and would like to tell you how it was prepared and used.

In summer, we dug our winter heating material as shown in the picture (which I have taken from a very old book about the Shetlands). The peat was sliced out of the bog in chunks 2 inches thick, 6 inches wide, and 24 inches long. The tool used for this purpose had a 3-inch cutting tip and a 10-inch edge blade with which the sides of the blocks were carved out. The slabs were taken from the ground at an angle so they would stay on the spade when lifted.

The peat was then laid up in stacks—usually 30 inches high—with the blocks in the first row set 2 inches apart and the upper layers staggered over the gaps to allow air to pass through the material.

When the fuel was thoroughly dried, we brought it home and stored it in a large stack close to the house. Our home had a metal cookstove and a potbellied stove for heating . . . and, since that area is very cold, it was necessary to warm the rooms year-round.

If anyone desires further information on the use of peat, I'll be glad to furnish all I can. Just write to me in care of MOTHER.

Is there a lesson here for all the experts who think we can "solve" the current energy "crisis" by the high-energy-input leveling of the Rocky Mountains for its oil shale? Why do we always seem to think that big factories and grandiose financing is the answer . . . when, time and again, nature shows us that the long-term solution is always as simple as a spade and the drying rays of the sun?—MOTHER.

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