The Peats of New Jersey And Their Utilization by . SEL_AN A. WAKS_AN ... DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT STATE OF NEW JERSEY CHAgLESP. WILBUR,Director and Chief of the Division of Forests and Parks M_m_DI_HE. JOHNSON,Chief of the Division of Geology and Topography IN cooP_;_'rIoN WITH AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY WILLIA_ H. MARTIN, Director Trenton, N. J. 1942 NEW JERSEY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY r: ¸ . i The Peats of New Jersey And Their .Utilization PART A -- NATURE AND ORIGIN 'OF PEAT. COMPOSITION AND UTILIZATION., by SELMAN A. WAKSMAN Soil Microbiologist, N. J. Agricultural Experiment Station "Muck is the mother of the meal chest"- Old Scottish saying, quoted from Browne. DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT STATE OF NEW JERSEY IN COOPERATION WITH THE NEW JERSEY AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY NEW JERSEY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BOARD OF CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT State House Anne_, Trenton, N. J. GEN, HENRY L, M_OELLER, Preside_zt ................... Millburn ARTHUR J. COL_,JNS.............................. Moorestown WlLIJA,',_ C, Covl_ ................................. Glen Ridge HARRYA. DERBY................................... Montctair MAR'tINJ. HOGENCA_I".............................. Paterson W. STEWARTHOLLINGSHEAI).......................... Riverton CI_ARLESA, MEYER.................................. Andover OWEN W_STON ................... Mendham (P. 0. Gladstone) (2) NEW JERSEY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL March 30, 1942. MR. C_aRLES P. W1L_g, Director, Department of Conservation and Development, Trenton, N. J. SIR : Although given little publicity, the peat deposits of New Jersey constitute an important natu/'al resource. The domestic demand for this type of material is normally supplied in large part from Germany and Scandinavia, but since those sources have been cut off there has been renewed interest in our local peat deposits. The report on.peat written by Dr. Selman A. Waksman of the New Jersey Agrlcu]tural Experiment Station is therefore of timely aid in meeting the demand for detailed information _which has arisen concerning these deposits. Part A, which follows, is a general description of the nature and origin o_ peat. Part B is now in preparation and will contain detailed descriptions o[ all the larger peat deposits and many of the smaller ones. It gives me pleasure to acknowledge the generous cooperation of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station in making" this report available for publication as a bulletin in the Geologic Series of this Department's publicatiotls. , Respectfully yours, MEREDITH E. JOHNSON, State Geologist. (3) t NEW JERSEY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY THE ORIGIN OF PEAT When spring displaye4_ her quickening powers Up sprung aquatic p]ants and flowers, So thick, the sun could scarcely trace His image in the liquid glass. Rearing its brilliant head between Broad floating leaves of glossy green The yellow water lily swum Upon the surface of the scum. Like serried groves of hostile spears Tbe reeds uprais'd admidst the racers Their pointed heads of dusky brown By every passing breeze bow'd down. There'rose the waterflag which decks Its golden leaf with purple specks, And water plantain to the _iew Appearing like the plctur'd yew. The bulrush overlooldd the rest With pollsh'd shaft and knotted crest And many more which to describe Would puzzle half the slmpling tribe, Which when drear autumn nlpt tbeii" bloom Sunk down into the watery tomb. ZU-I_'_;. WILLIAM HARRIS02*I, The Fen Poet. Cited by Miller and Skertchly. (4) NEW JERSEY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PEATS_AND THEIR UTILIZATION PART A. NATURE AND ORIGIN OF PEAT. COMPOSITION AND UTILIZATION, SEL_AN A. WA_S_AN New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Rutgers University PREFACE TO PART A 1 Despite numerous books that have been written, in many languages, which deal with peat and despite the many scientific and agricultural societies in different countries dedicated to peat, this subject has received but limited consideration in this country. Very little atten- tion is being paid to peat as a whole, and even in those scientific institutions where peat is receiving much consideration, as in the Florida, Michigan and Minnesota Experiment Stations, and iri the Soils Division of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, attention is devoted primarily to the agricultural utilization of the peat. Just a century ago (1842) Samuel L. Dana, the brilliant American agricultural chemist, published "A Muck Manual for Farmers," in which he elucidated the nature and utilization of peat. His ideas concerning the function of peat in plant nutrition, however, were rather limited. Under the influence of the great European chemists , Berzelius and Mulder, Dana considered the organic constituents of peat and soil as the most important plant nutrients. "Geine," a term applied to the organic matter of the soil, was said to be "as essential to plants as is food to animals .... geine is the food of plants." With the advance of our knowledge of soil processes and plant nutrition, resulting largely from the work of Boussingault in France, Lawes and Gilbert in England, and Liebig in Germany, the humus concept of plant nutrition was gradually replaced by the mineral theory. One of the outstanding representatives of this school in 1 Assistance in the preparation of this material was furnished by the personnel of Work Projects Administration, Official Proiect No. OP 6S-1-22-477. (5) NEW JERSEY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 6 PEAT America, Samuel W. Johnson, in 1859 published a series of lectures on peat and muck, in which he emphasized the potential value of peat for agriculture, not as a direct but as an indirect nutrient for plants, namely, as a source of nitrogen and as an agent for improving physical and chemical soil properties. The major interest in peat was centered, at that time, however, upon its use as a fuel. This can be illustrated by the work of Hyde in 1866 (137) and of Leavitt in 1867 (170), followed by the monu- mental work of Shaler (266-269), as well as by numerous scientific and agricultural papers published in journals and by the various agricultural experiment stations, the U. S. Department of Agricul- ture, and the U. S. Bureau of Mines. In New Jersey, for example, the interest in peat dates back more than a century (253). Despite these studies, the utilization of peat did not make much progress in this direction, because the rapid and extensive use of coal and later of .oil, as well as the large deposits of these materials available in this country, made the use of peat as a fuel superfluous. The latest and perhaps the most complete discussion of peat in the United States, from this point of view, is that of Soper and Osbon (279), published in 1922. It gradually became recoguized that the most important uses to be made of peat in this country are for plant growth and for soil improvement. The present work consists of two parts: Part A comprises a gen- eral survey of the nature and origin of peat ; part B, a survey of the peat resources of New Jersey, carried out with funds supplied by the Work Projects Administration. Part A was prepared entirely by the writer with a certain amount of technical assistance from some of the workers on the W.P:A. project. The contribution made by the members of this proiect to part B ,will be listed in detail in the preface to that part. Opportunity is taken here to express appreciation to the W. P. A. administration of New Jersey, for assistance in the preparation of this monograph, and to the various members of the staff connected with this project, especially to Mr. C. A. ttickman and Miss A. Sadfler, for the preparation of the photographs and sketches. The author also wishes to express his appreciation to Herminie B. Kitchen for her painstaking work in the editing of this manuscript. SELIM[AN A, _VrAKS_AN, NEW JERSEY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CONTENTS PART A. NATURE AND ORIGIN OF PEAT. COMPOSITION AND UTILIZATION. I PAGg Introductory, The nature of peat, its formation and abundance .......... 1_ Chapter ]. Terminology of peat and causes of confusion ............. 16 Chapter If. Types of peat and systems of classification ............... 25 Chapter IIL Climatological, geological and botanical factors involved in peat formation ....................................... 41 Chapter IV. Chemical composition of peats .......................... 57 Chapter V. Physical and physico-cbemical properties of peats aud peat soils ................................................ 80 Chapter VI. Mierobiolcgy of peats. Peat formati6n and decomposition. Peat subsidence .................................... 90 Chapter VII. Utilization of peat for agricultural I_urposes ............. 103 Chapter VIII. Industrial utilization of peat ............................ t31 Bibliography ......................................................... 140 (7) NEW JERSEY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY ILLUSTRATIONS PAG_ Fig. 1. Eight representative profiles from European and American peat hogs: I-IV, Swedish profiles (221); V, Maine profile (309a); VI-VIII, New Jersey profiles ................................ 19 2. Lowmoor beg (Echo Lake) in New Jersey ................... 27 3. Forest peats in New Jersey: (a) Ongs Hat cedar swamp; (b) Sleeper Creek bog ....................................... 28 4. Floating mat of peat, Budd Lake, N. J ........................ 31 5. Tidal marshes in New Jersey: (a) Bridgeton marsh; (b) Rari- tan River marsh ............................................ 32 6. Effect of tidal marsh on cedar forest, Secaucus,