for  putting  in  a  plant.  The  best  way  to  test  the  fuel  value,  however,  is
to  make  actual  working  tests,  under  a  boiler,  in  which  samples  of  the
fuel  are  used,  made  up  in  the  machines  to  be  used  in  the  proposed  plant,
from  the  peat  taken  from  the  test  holes  made  in  the  final  prospecting.
Such  tests  are  expensive,  but  can  be  made  very  satisfactory,  as  they  show
the  real  efficiency  of  the  fuel  better  than  the  ordinary  chemical  analyses
and  calorimeter  tests.  If  the  fuel  does  good  work  in  these  practical  tests
there  will  be  little  question  about  the  amount  of  ash  present.
Possibilities  of  Drainage:  These  are  usually  considered  of  impor-
tance, and  sometimes  excellent  bogs  have  been  left  unutilized,  because
they  were  not  capable  of  being  effectively  drained.  In  Sweden,  however,
peat  fuel  has  been  satisfactorily  and  very  cheaply  made  upon  fioating
establishments  of  small  capacity,  and  there  seems  no  reason  why  the
peat  should  not  be  excavated  from  the  wet  bogs,  without  draining  them,
by  the  use  of  scows  and  dredges  just  as  ditches  are  cut  through  marshes.
In  recent  practice  in  Germany,  indeed,  the  peat  is  sent  to  the  mill  from
the  bog  by  fioating  it  in  a  liquid  form  through  shallow  trenches,  which
have  an  artificial  fall,  into  a  storage  basin,  hence  the  more  nearly  the
peat  approaches  the  fluid  condition  when  taken  from  the  bog,  and  can
still  be  handled,  the  better  it  is  for  the  purJ)ose,  so  that  drainage  is  not
an  essential,  or  even  a  desirable  thing,  especially  if  some  such  system  of
transportation  is  used.
