The Peats of New Jersey

Abstract

TWO recently published bulletins¹ provide a broad picture of the peat bogs of New Jersey. If these are read in conjunction with other publications², one is given a wide purview of American east-coast peat bogs from Maine to Florida. In these various bulletins there is in particular very detailed information about the maritime peats, both the salt marsh and the mangrove types. One is chiefly impressed, however, by the scale upon which this study of the New Jersey peats was carried out. The investigation was treated as an official Work Projects Administration project, and fifteen to twenty-five field-crews of five men each were engaged upon it in addition to office and laboratory staff, so that the total number employed was at one period about 150 persons. There is still scope for investigations on this scale in the British Isles, and it is to be hoped that the end of the War may see similar projects in being. In particular, British peat bogs or salt marshes would be eminently suited to this type of treatment, and in view of the possible value or use of such land for agricultural purposes there would seem to be a strong case for Government support of any such research programme on a commensurate scale.