61 



tightly and boiledac orcding to the wood used at a pressure of from 90 to 

 120 Ibs. of steam for from eight to twelve hours. When properly cooked 

 the steam is blown off and the boiler emptied into a drainer with a per- 

 forated bottom, which allows the liquor to run off into tanks below, after 

 which the pulp is carefully washed to carry off all trace of alkali, and th 

 liquor after being passed through a " recovery furnace " leaves a black 

 soda ash which is as good as new for working again. The paper-maker 

 mixes the wood pulp with rag pulp in a proportion of forty to sixty per 

 cent, according to the standard and quality of papers required. 



CHARCOAL. 



Charcoal burning is an industry which is local in its character, but yet 

 which finds employment for quite a numerous class. It is largely used 

 for smelting and domestic purposes. The last census returns only enu- 

 merate 32 places where this material is made and 83 hands employed 

 therein ; but there are large quantities of it prepared of which no record 

 is given in addition. At the St. Maurice forges, at L'Islet, Batiscan, River 

 au Vaches, and Bay St. Paul in the Province of Quebec, large quantities 

 of charcoal are consumed, and at Woodstock, in New Brunswick, and 

 Londonderry in Nova Scotia, charcoal burning is a necessary concomitant 

 of the blast furnaces. In the Geological Survey Reports of 1874, Mr. 

 Harrington states that in Yamaska County alone at the St. Francis fur- 

 nace, from 1st December to the 1st April, 50 wood cutters and 6 carters 

 were employed cutting and drawing wood to the ovens, and in addition 

 to the foreman 7 men were employed at the kilns and 7 at the furnace, 

 all engaged in charcoal preparation. A cord of dry wood gives from 50 

 to 60 bushels of charcoal, the wood used being both hard and soft, (one- 

 third of the former and two-thirds of the latter) consisting of maple, birch, 

 hemlock, spruce, beech, pine and balsam. The soft wood loses less in 

 volume by charring than hard wood. The ovens are 50 feet long, 16 wide 

 and 12 high. About 190 bushels of charcoal are required under the most 

 favourable circumstances to make one ton of pig iron, and in spring, when 

 the ore is wet and covered with ice, as much as 400 bushels are sometimes 

 necessary. Professor Hind says that at Woodstock 126 bushels are 

 required to a ton. At Londonderry, Mr. Romans quotes from 135 to 

 160 bushels to a ton, it being burned there by furnaces in the vicinity, 

 and it costs, delivered at the furnace, seven and a half cents per bushel. 



HOP-POLES. 



A very large business has of late years sprung up in Central Canada in 

 shipping at various way stations, young cedar trees stripped for the pur- 

 poses of hop-growers in New York State. These poles are cut and drawn 

 in by the neighboring farmers and deposited in large quantities for buyers. 

 The latter reject all that are not straight or strong enough for their pur- 

 pose, and when a sufficiency has been accumulated forward them to the 

 various hop growers according to orders received from them. It is 

 impossible to give the details of this trade, as in the Customs returns hop 

 poles are bracketed with telegraph and hoop poles. 



