The space of 10 feet between the plot that is excavating, and the drying ground, is, at the same time, cleared of the useless surface muck by the Bunker, in preparation for the next year's work. With moderate activity, the five men will lift and lay out 12,000 sods (3000 cubic feet,) daily, and it is not uncommon that five first-rate hands get out 16,800 peats (4200 cubic feet,) in this time. A gang of five men, working as described, suffices for cutting out a bed of four feet of solid peat. When the excavation is to be made deeper, a sixth man, the "Hanker," is needful for economical work; and with his help the cutting may be extended down to nine and a half feet; i. e. through eight feet of solid peat. The cutting is carried down at first, four feet as before, but the peats are carried 50 feet further, in order to leave room for those to be subsequently lifted. The "Hanker" aids here, with a second wheel-barrow. In taking out the lower peat, the "Hanker" stands on the bottom of the first excavation, receives the blocks from the Diggers, on a broad wooden shovel, and hands them up to the Loader; while the Wheeler, having only the usual distance to carry them, lays them out in the drying rows without difficulty. After a little drying in the rows, the peats are gradually built up into narrow piles, like a brick wall of one and a half bricks thickness. These piles are usually raised by women. They are made in the spaces between the rows, and are laid up one course at a time, so that each block may dry considerably, before it is covered by another. A woman can lay up 12,000 peats daily--the number lifted by 5 men--and as it requires about a month of good weather to give each course time (two days) to dry, she is able to pile for 30 gangs of workmen. If the weather be very favorable, the peats may be stacked or put into sheds, in a few days after the piling is finished. Stacking is usually practised. The stacks are carefully laid up in cylindrical form, and contain 200 to 500 cubic feet. When the stacks are properly built, the peat suffers but little from the weather. According to Schroeder, from whose account (Dingler's Polytechnisches Journal, Bd. 156, S. 128) the above statements are derived, the peats excavated under his direction, in drying thoroughly, shrank to about one-fourth of their original bulk (became 12 inches x 3 inches x 3 inches,) and to one-seventh or one-eighth of their original weight. c. _Machines for Cutting Peat._