noun
definition
Soil formed of dead but not fully decayed plants found in bog areas, often burned as fuel.
Examples of peat in a Sentence
It likes fibrous peat in fissures of the rocks.
Coal has not been found, but peat may be exploited under favourable economic conditions.
It should be mixed with six or eight times its weight of loam or ashes, charred peat, charcoal-dust or some earthy matter, before it is applied to the soil, as from its causticity it is otherwise not unlikely to kill or injure the plants to which it is administered.
The oak grows most luxuriantly on deep strong clays, calcareous marl or stiff loam, but will flourish in nearly any deep well-drained soil, excepting peat or loose sand; in marshy or moist places the tree may grow well for a time, but the timber is rarely sound; on hard rocky ground and exposed hillsides.
Ironstone, peat and lime are found in the vicinity.
Peat is found in abundance, as well as gypsum, china-clay, potters' earth and salt.
Beautiful terrestrial orchids, requiring to be planted in peat soil, in a cool and rather shady situation.
The evidence of the peat bogs shows that the Scots fir, which is now extinct, was abundant in Denmark in the Roman period.
On the Coastal Plain the soil is generally sandy, but in nearly all parts of this region more or less marl abounds; south of the Neuse river the soil is mostly a loose sand, north of it there is more loam on the uplands, and in the lowlands the soil is usually compact with clay, silt or peat; toward the western border of the region the sand becomes coarser and some gravel is mixed with it.
Many monocotyledons do well in peat, even if they do not absolutely require it.
They succeed best in an open position in sandy peat.
Again, acidic humus does not form in calcareous soils; and hence one does not expect to find plants characteristic of acidic peat or humus on calcareous soils.
Peat is especially abundant on the Erzgebirge.
Night-soil is an excellent manure for all bulky crops, but requires to be mixed with earth or peat, or coal-ashes, so as both to deodorize it and to ensure its being equally distributed.
Warm sunny situations and rich sandy loam and peat are required.
Again, the well-known action of earthworms may be said to be a biological work; but the resulting aeration of the soil causes edaphic differences; and earthworms are absent from certain soils, such as peat.
A good illustration of it is peat.
By making very thin sections and employing high magnification (1000-1200 diameters), Renault has been enabled to detect numerous forms of bacilli in the woody parts preserved in coal, one of which, Micrococcus carbo, bears a strong resemblance to the living Cladothrix found in trees buried in peat bogs.
Fossil remains of beavers are found in the peat and other superficial deposits of England and the continent of Europe; while in the Pleistocene formations of England and Siberia occur remains of a giant extinct beaver, Trogontherium cuvieri, representing a genus by itself.
The minerals are unimportant, except amber, peat and clay.
Many smaller lakes, however, contain them, and they are also found in peat moors on the sites of ancient lakes now drained or silted up, as at Laibach in Carniola.
If leaf-mould is not at hand, turfy peat may be substituted for it.
The soil varies greatly according to the district, being in some cases a rich loam, in others a chalky marl, and elsewhere showing a coating of peat.
The majority of the lakes have rocky shores and islands and great variety of depth, many of the smaller ones, however, are rimmed with marshes and are slowly filling up with vegetable matter, ultimately becoming peat bogs, the muskegs of the Indian.
In the cold regions of the northern lowlands peat occurs in beds of immense thickness.
A narrow strip of level moorland, covered with furze and rich in deposits of peat, coal and amber, stretches inland, from the edge of the sheer cliffs which line the coast, to the foot of the mountains.
Peat soil is largely employed for the culture of such plants as rhododendrons, azaleas, heaths, &c. In districts where heather and gritty soil predominate, the peat soil is poor and unprofitable, but selections from both the heathy and the richer peat soils, collected with judgment, and stored in a dry part of the compost yard, are essential ingredients in the cultivation of many choice pot plants, such as the Cape heaths and many of the Australian plants.
For most of these the lightest spongy but sweet turfy peat must be used, this being packed lightly about the roots, and built up above the pot-rim, or in some cases freely mixed before use with chopped sphagnum moss and small pieces of broken pots or nodules of charcoal.
In other cases they are planted in open baskets of wood or wire, using the porous peat and sphagnum compost.
These conditions of orchid-growing have undergone great changes of late years, and the plants are grown much as other stove and greenhouse plants in ordinary pots with composts not only of peat but of leaf-mould, and fibres from osmunda and polypodium ferns.
It does best in shady peat borders.
They require rich sandy peat and warm sheltered spots.
The spores should be sown in well-drained pots or seed pans on the surface of a mixture of fibrous sifted peat and small broken crocks or sandstone; this soil should be firmly pressed and well-watered, and the spores scattered over it, and at once covered with propagating glasses or pieces of sheet glass, to prevent water or dry air getting to the surface.
Many of the lakes are nothing more than deep pits or marshes from which the peat has been extracted.
It was gradually recognized that the masses of water which collected wherever peat-digging had been carried on were an unnecessary menace to the neighbouring lands, and also that a more enduring source of profit lay in the bed of the fertile sea-clay under the peat.
It became usual, therefore, to make the subsequent drainage of the land a condition of the extraction of peat from it, this condition being established by proclamation in 1595.
Again, a totally different character belongs to the canals in North Brabant, and the east and north-east of Holland where, in the absence of great rivers, they form the only waterways which render possible the drainage of the fens and the export of peat; and unite the lesser streams with each other.
The Levels, as this district is generally named, are of remarkable fertility, and Thorne, having water communication with Goole and the Humber, is consequently an agricultural centre of importance; while some barge-building and a trade in peat fibre are also carried on.
Menier, the French chocolate manufacturer, who converted the island into a game preserve, and attempted to develop its resources of lumber, peat and minerals.
But in the " Drift " maps many other types of deposit are indicated, such, for instance, as the ordinary modern alluvium of rivers, and the older river terraces (River-drift of various ages), including gravels, brickearth and loam; old raised sea beaches and blown-sand (Aeolian-drift); the " Head " of Cornwall and Devon, an angular detritus consisting of stones with clay or loam; clay-with-flints, rainwash (landwash), scree and talus; the " Warp," a marine and estuarine silt and clay of the Humber; and also beds of peat and diatomite.
During recent years in India a new development has taken place in planting tea upon what are termed "bheels," - lands resembling to a great extent the peat bogs of Ireland and Scotland.
In north Germany peat is also of importance as a fuel; the area of the peat moors in Prussia is estimated at 8000 sq.
It is a good peat border plant, thriving best in a moist peaty soil and in shade.
Beautiful dwarf bulbous plants, thriving in well-worked sandy loam, or sandy peat.
These draining ditches all have their issue in a main drainage canal, along which the transport of the peat and peatlitter takes place and the houses of the colonists are built.
In the dreary country still farther north there is a series of rounded hills covered with peat and mosses, the chief feature being Drygarn Fawr (2115 ft.) on the confines of Cardiganshire.
There are peat and forest beds, which must have grown quietly at the surface, alternating with deposits of gravel, sand and clay.
The gyttja of the lakes is generally covered over by peat of a later date.
A large amount of peat is collected, especially in the south-west of Bohemia, as well as a great quantity of asphalt.
In Bergen, Warren, Sussex and Morris counties are numerous bogs containing peat of a good quality.