APPROXIMATE CAPACITIES OF PUMPS

(Not allowing for Friction)

Taken at the rate of 150 feet travel per minute, and allowing 6 gallons of water to the cubic foot.

In calculating pressures from higher altitudes than those given in the above Table, remove the decimal point accordingly, viz. :—

4 feet head of water gives

=

1.73 lbs. per square inch.

THE UTILISATION OF PEAT.

By H. S. GIBSON.

A Paper read before the Insurance Institute of Ireland, 19th February, 1907.

THERE are bog and marsh lands in most countries, but what we would wish particularly to consider to-night is the possible utilisation of the peat composing over two million acres of the land of Ireland.

I do not, of course, attempt to appear before you as an authority on the subject, but such information as I have been able to glean I bring to you in the hope that my remarks may be found of some interest.

The fertility of that portion of the soil of Ireland under cultivation has long been recognised, and that fertility is no doubt owing largely to the humidity of the climate, the moisture-laden breezes from the Atlantic combining with the modifying influences of the Gulf Stream to produce a more prolonged period of vegetable growth than is enjoyed by other countries in practically the same latitude. But a glance at a geological map of the country suffices to show us that a very considerable area is in the meantime incapable of cultivation, and it is to the probable latent possibilities buried in the bog and marsh that I would beg to ask your attention.

Bogs would appear to have their origin in the following manner :-Water pools and springs become surrounded by grass, moss, and weeds during normally dry seasons; in wet weather the quantity of the water naturally increases and loosens the earth around the roots of the vegetation, lifting up and actually floating the vegetable matter. With the next dry season the vegetable matter is left stranded high and dry, but drowned and dead, forming a matted mass of fuzzy, stringy material. On that mass new vegetation springs, and the whole is again floated and killed by the water in the next rainy

season, the process being repeated again and again until the water-springs or pools are entirely covered up, and what is known as a "quaking bog" is formed. In the meantime, the lower layers of the roots, moss, and grass rot and become decomposed by the action of the water, acquiring in time an intense blackness, forming Turf Bog or Peat, which, cut into the small blocks so familiar to us, is dried and used in many parts of the country as fuel. I fancy that the heavier and probably more incombustible portions of the material sink, and are washed away by the water in the process of the formation of the bog, the carboniferous and oily portion remaining floating on the surface, thus imparting to the Peat its inflammability. That Peat would ultimately turn into something very like coal if left to itself through the ages is a matter of little doubt, as in coal we have the evidence of a very ancient vegetation, but the process might spread itself over a period of a million years or so, and such a utilisation of Peat would scarcely benefit us. But, as you are aware, some coal-seams are merely ancient Peat-beds, in support of which statement the under-clays of the coal-seams appear to be very similar to the clays found at the bottoms of the bogs, both kinds of strata being deficient in alkalies, owing probably to the fact that the plants extracted the alkalies for nourishment.

A very peculiar feature of bogs is that they are often higher than the surrounding cultivated land, and it is difficult to assign a cause for that peculiarity. It might be suggested, however, that the spring or pool of water which originally caused the formation of the bog is generally situated near the centre, and that the dilation of the body of the bog caused by the influx of water during wet seasons exercises a greater upward pressure at that point than at the sides, where the semi-liquid Peat dilates along the line of least resistance until it meets with an obstacle. Howsoever that may be, there remains the fact that the difference in level generally causes the disastrous "moving bogs," instances of which, attended by fatal results, we have had in Ireland during recent years.

That Peat takes a very considerable time to form is indicated by the nature of the things found in it from time to time. The remains of the extinct Irish Elk, or Giant Deer, are often found in the marls beneath the Peat-bogs in Ireland, as also weapons of the Stone Age and ancient Irish ornaments.

In a

bog in County Limerick, some time ago, two human skulls were found with the teeth locked, as if the men died biting, and there were two arrow or spear heads found near them. That all indicates a considerable antiquity, and if, as I am informed, traces of lake dwellings have been found in the bogs, the time of the birth of some of them might be placed in a comparatively recent geological, but remote historical, period, and they probably date from about the time of the advent of man.

In an old Natural History of Ireland, a writer, in speaking of the bogs, says :-" They are a shelter and refuge to Tories and thieves, who can hardly live without them." Our forefathers did not always err on the side of politeness. There is no doubt, however, that during the ever-recurring inter-tribal wars which were waged so consistently during the early periods of Irish history, the bogs afforded refuges from their pursuing enemies to the hunted remnants of the vanquished tribes, and at a later period, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, they gave shelter to the Desmonds and others, and rendered military expeditions liable to ambushes, making their progress difficult.

DRAINING.

At the beginning of the 19th Century many schemes were promulgated in Ireland for draining the bogs, and making the land thus reclaimed fit for agricultural purposes; and although there are records of endless surveys made by painstaking surveyors and engineers with that object in view, no very practical result appears to have followed, except to the surveyors and engineers, whose resultant fees were substantial enough. Yet one cannot help thinking that systematic draining, combined with judicious manuring, would ultimately result in transforming the bogs into good farm land. But it would take a long time a very long time and the expense would be incalculable. And what has posterity done for us? At the bottoms of some of the apparently more recently-formed bogs very ancient ploughs have been found, and traces of furrows and ridges, so that it is probable that whilst the ancient inhabitants were interesting themselves more keenly in hunting and fighting than in agriculture, they allowed the bog to encroach on their holdings by neglecting such system of drainage as they may have been cognisant of at the time. But