turf

Miss Thorn began digging up the turf with her lofter: it was a painful moment for me. ¶ “You might at least have tried me, Mrs. Cooke,” I said.

"It's an old custom the people had when they bought and sold land. They used to cut out a clod and hand it over to the buyer, and you weren't lawfully seised of your land - it didn't really belong to you - till the other fellow had actually given you a piece of it - like this." He held out the turves.

In ordinary peat-bogs, however, where turves are cut, there is always a large percentage of waste peat resulting from the digging, drying or transport of the turves, which can be utilized only by moulding it.