Peat Beds In Washtenaw

It has been known for upwards of 40 years, says the Manchester Enterprise, that there were valuable peat beds in Washtenaw county. In the winter of 1867-8, Henry Goodyear who owned nearly 1,000 acres of land in Sharon and Freedom, and who built what is now called the Freeman house and the arbeiter block in this village, had some peent cut and pressed and after it was dry, he brought a quantity to town and some was burned in the hotel stove and some was given to us to burn in the stove at the Enterprise office. There was a talk at that time of organizing a stock company to manufacture peat blocks for fuel, but like many other schemes of that day and since, it fell through. The scarcity of hard coal and we might say, wood this winter has caused people to devise all sorts of schemes to find means of supplying the demand for fuel, and machinery has been invented, some of which is now in operation, for pressing peat into cakes or blocks suitable for use in furnaces and stoves. It is said that peat, if stored in a dry place or in a cellar not too damp, will keep for months. Ir makes a hot fire with but little smoke or ashes. The cost of getting it out and making it into shape to burn, it is claimed will not be as much as coal. A company of Detroiters has been organized, capitalized at $1,000,000 to operate in the vicinity of Chelsea and if they go to work at once, we may find in this a solution of the fuel problem for us, as it is quite evident that the coal trust, so called, will not give us a supply of hard coal for next winter's needs.