9. Torvtäkt

(Peat-cutting)

There was once a lake in this area, Tunby Lake, which later became a peat-cutting. Linné describes a peat-cutting as “where the people cut their peat in the marsh at places where their ancestors used to fish”. Peat mainly consists of the remains of plants that once lived on the site. Such plant remains usually decompose and disappear, but what happens when peat is formed is that the supply of oxygen is insufficient for decomposition to be complete. The lack of oxygen is due to the fact that the ground is waterlogged. Peat was cut here from 1917 to 1939. Nils Nilsson bought the land in 1917 and with the income from the peat cutting built a farmhouse which he called Nyhem. The land was drained and the lake, which earlier contained pike, was partly laid dry. The peat was cut from the resulting bog. A steam-powered machine was used, which produced long peat “sausages”. These were placed on boards that were pulled along on rails to higher ground where they were left to dry. The drying peat covered roughly 7 acres of land. At its height, the peat cutting employed 16 or 17 people. Some of the peat was transported on horse-drawn carts to Onslunda station, where it w as loaded onto trains to be sold.

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