Mineral Facts and Problems: 1960 Edition Page: 457

                                
LIGNITE AND PEAT

The United States does not export peat, but a
very important part of the peat market in this
country has been supplied by peat imports. In
the middle 1930's imports were about 61 per-
cent higher than domestic production. Most of
the peat imports were from Germany and
Sweden. During World War II, supplies from
Germany and Sweden were not available, and
the demand for peat in the United States re-
sulted in the development of a peat industry in
Canada. Virtually all of the peat imports be-
tween 1942 and 1945 were from Canada. Fol-
lowing the end of the war Canada continued to
ship peat into the United States, and West Ger-

many resumed exporting peat to the United
States. During  the benchmark years of
1947-49, peat imports averaged about 88,000
tons, which was equal to about 67 percent of the
domestic production. In 1956-58 imports aver-
aged 255,000 tons, which was about 82 percent
of the domestic production. Canada was the
principal source of peat imports, supplying
about 50 percent in this period. West Germany
supplied about 43 percent and the remainder
was imported from various European countries
such as Denmark, Ireland, The Netherlands,
Poland, and the United Kingdom.

TABLE 7.-Peat produced in the United States, by States
1957                              1958
State
Number of  Short tons    Value    Number of   Short tons   Value
operations                        operations
California-_- -------------------    5      35, 916    $424, 362       5       28, 617    $373, 743
Colorado ----------------------      2       3, 559      (1)           3        7, 143      40, 600
Connecticut_------------------       3       2, 004      11, 268       4        1,764       11,255
Florida------------------------      9      37, 844     194, 937        9      36, 438     165, 123
Georgia--------------------          3       4, 690      44, 496        2       4, 491     (1)
Idaho-------------------------       1       (1)        (1)             1      (1)         (1)
Illinois----------------------       4:      11, 480    106, 321        4      11, 588      72, 495
Indiana -----------------------      8       13, 805    129, 750        5      12, 106     144, 974
Iowa  2--------------------------           (1)         (1)             3      (1)         (1)
Maine----------------                2:      3, 770     175, 173        1      (1)         (1)
Massachusetts_ ---------------  --1            600       (1)            1       1, 014     (1)
Michigan ----------------------      5      80, 271   1, 406, 195       7     107, 342   1, 683, 980
Minnesota---------------___          1       1, 300      (1)           2       (1)        (1)
New Hampshire---------------_        1          85       (1)            1         100      (1)
New Jersey__                         2       (1)        (1)             3      18, 397     184, 857
New York 1---------------------      1       (1)        (1)             3      13, 606     116, 836
Ohio  --------------------------     8       5, 478     102, 074        8       5, 660     103, 593
Pennsylvania-------------_           5       26, 086    235, 752        5      23, 623     202, 718
South Carolina                   _-_ _-______            _ __        1       4, 865     (1)
Washington--------------___         12      39, 364     153, 274       11      34, 642     115, 941
Wisconsin 1----------------------    1         400       (1)            1      (1)         (1)
Undistributed -------------------49, 565                474, 857               16, 417     229, 652
Total-------------------      76      316, 217  3, 458, 459      80     327, 813   3, 445, 767
1 Included with Undistributed to avoid disclosing individual company confidential data.

All imported peat was of the "moss peat"
type and was classified by the Bureau of the
Census into two grades: Poultry and Stable,
and Fertilizer. Ninety-six percent of the im-
ported peat was Fertilizer grade and entered
the United States duty free. A duty of $0.25
per long ton was levied on all imported peat
classified as Poultry and Stable grade. Table
8 shows in detail peat imports for 1958.
PRICES
The average value of North Dakota lignite,
at the mines, doubled between 1940 and 1958
(from $1.17 to $2.34 per ton). An indication of

the relative costs of strip mining and under-
ground mining is included in table 4.
The average value or price on domestic peat
sold has increased about 68 percent since 1947-
49. Tables 9 and 10 show, by kinds and uses,
average prices of peat sold in 1958. Moss peat
had the highest average prices per ton, reed
sedge was second, and humus was third. The
prices, however, were influenced by the amount
of processing the peat underwent and whether
it was sold in bulk or packaged. Sixty-nine
percent of the total sales in 1958 were in bulk,
which had a much lower value per ton than the
peat sold in packages.

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