TASMANIAN FORESTRY. 587 
each other’s growth, and when allowed too much space 
develop branches instead of trunk. 
I have spoken of the necessity for skilled labour in con- 
nection with forest-thinning, and to make this sort of work 
pay its way, it would be desirable that some market should 
exist for the disposal of material cut out in this way. 
Some sale might be found for well-grown stakes and poles, 
but much of the produce which in Europe and many other 
parts of the world would find a ready sale as firewood, would 
in Tasmania have to be burnt on the ground out of the way. 
I have recently been considering the feasibility of char- 
coal-burning being taken up in Tasmania on a large scale in 
connection with the mining industry. Charcoal has been 
used for ages for the purpose of reducing metallic ores, and 
in view of the augmented price of coal, and the scarcity of 
the latter in this country, it occurred to me that charcoal 
might be advantageously prepared from the vast quantities 
of wood at present left to rot upon the ground. 
I lately addressed inquiries upon this subject to several 
prominent mining managers, and to Branch Boards of 
Agriculture. The replies received are in a certain degree 
contradictory: some speaking in favour of charcoal, others 
not. 
In view of the great importance that would attach to 
any practicable scheme for utilising, in a large way, the 
waste wood of the forests of this country, and possibly 
supplying the smelting works with a suitable fuel at 
moderate cost, I think that the question of charcoal-burn- 
ing deserves further inquiry and investigation. To make an 
industry of this sort pay, however, it would have to be 
undertaken by men who fully understand the process of 
manufacture, such as the Italians, who, I understand, are 
employed to burn charcoal extensively in Australia. 
Companies of men working systematically, and equipped 
with the means for readily cutting up and preparing wood, 
and afterwards converting it into charcoal, might go from 
one locality to another, and rapidly rid the country of the 
dead gum-trees, which at present encumber the ground, and 
make the landscape hideous. Also, they might use up the 
rough, scrubby, and misshapen trees of the bush which 
would never, if allowed to remain, grow into really good 
timber. 
It is hardly necessary to emphasise the fact that men 
skilled in any branch of work can turn out their particular 
product at a far cheaper rate than could those only quali- 
fied to deal with it in a rough and ready way, such as 
the ordinary settler. 
