In North Prussia, the Peat Cutting Machine of Brosowsky, see fig. 4, is extensively employed. It consists of a cutter, made like the four sides of a box, but with oblique edges, _a_, which by its own weight, and by means of a crank and rack-work, operated by men, is forced down into the peat to a depth that may reach 20 feet. It can cut only at the edge of a ditch or excavation, and when it has penetrated sufficiently, a spade like blade, _d_, is driven under the cutter by means of levers _c_, and thus a mass is loosened, having a vertical length of 10 feet or more, and whose other dimensions are about 24 × 28 inches. This is lifted by reversing the crank motion, and is then cut up by the spade into blocks of 14 inches × 6 inches × 5 inches. Each parallelopipedon of peat, cut to a depth of 10 feet, makes 144 sods, and this number can be cut in less than 10 minutes. Four hands will cut and lay out to dry, 12,000 to 14,000 peats daily, or 3100 cubic feet. One great advantage of this machine consists in the circumstance that it can be used to raise peat from below the surface of water, rendering drainage in many cases unnecessary. Independently of this, it appears to be highly labor saving, since 1300 machines were put to use in Mecklenburg and Pomerania in about 5 years from its introduction. The Mecklenburg moors are now traversed by canals, cut by this machine, which are used for the transportation of the peat to market.[18] [Illustration: Fig. 4.--BROSOWSKY'S PEAT CUTTER.] Lepreux in Paris, has invented a similar but more complicated machine, which is said to be very effective in its operation. According to Hervé Mangon, this machine, when worked by two men, raises and cuts 40,000 peats daily, of which seven make one cubic foot, equal to 5600 cubic feet. The saving in expense by using this machine[19] is said to be 70 _per cent._, when the peat to be raised is under water. 11.--_The Dredging of Peat._ When peat exists, not as a coherent more or less fibrous mass, but as a paste or mud, saturated with water, it cannot be raised and formed by the methods above described.