Raised Bogs in Eastern Maine

During the summer of 1918 the writer, acting in the capacity of Botanical Adviser on Sphagnum for the American Red Cross, was called upon to secure information regarding the location in the East of sources of supply for sphagnum moss suitable for use in surgical dressings. Sphagnum was being used on a vast scale abroad and in Canada as a substitute for absorbent cotton in making pads or compresses and had proved itself singularly adapted to this purpose by reason of its very high absorptive capacity.' In March, 1918, it had been officially adopted by the American Red Cross as a standard surgical material. But, while there were known to be extensive areas of suitable moss in the Pacific Northwest, very few data were available regarding its occurrence in the East. There had been, and there continued to be, reports of good material from various sections; but investigation of these, as well as other sources of information, had seemed to indicate that throughout most of the eastern United States sphagnum of the quality required for surgical work, if not entirely absent, was either very local in its occurrence or else present in too small amounts to be of practical value. It was known, however, that in southern New Brunswick and in parts of Cape Breton, there were abundant supplies of high-grade surgical sphagnum

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