4 JULY 1952, Page 19

COUNTRY LIFE

PEAT is a first-class fuel. It burns well and gives off a great heat, and 1 Its only disadvantage is that it tends to leave grey ash on the mantel- piece and make a rather untidy hearth. Throughout the country there must be vast deposits of peat, and yet, from what I have seen, little effort is made to put it to use. In the North and in Ireland this is not so. In Ireland stacks of peat are to be seen every few miles along moorland roads, and I was amused, when I was there recently, to see motorists stopping to help themselves to as much as they could cram into the boot of a car. Here in Wales peat is cut and set up to dry, but the work is half-hearted. Great stretches of moorland could be I used, but no one seems to have the time or inclination to do anything I about it. When I was a boy, a stack of peat at the side of the house was a greater comfort in autumn than a mountain of coal.