LOCAL INDUSTRIES 49 



are felled for the purpose are used for props in the 

 coal-mines, the branches being sold as bean-sticks 

 and faggots and burnt for charcoal. 



The whole job is either let by the landowner on 

 contract to one man, who employs all the labour ; 

 or one man is paid by the ton for the bark, getting 

 it at his own risk. The women, who do most of 

 the peeling, get Is. 6d. a day. 



A whole piece of forest will in this way be 

 cleared annually. The saplings which then spring up 

 on the fallen stools are used for the basket-making 

 which is another local industry in connection with 

 the forest. 



The baskets are chiefly potato-baskets, which are 

 sold at 14s. 6d. a dozen, and colliery -baskets, a 

 large number of which go to the Staffordshire 

 mines. 



Besides this work a number of men find em- 

 ployment as hauliers, hay-dealers, fruit and poultry 

 dealers, and the women earn extra money at fruit- 

 picking, blackberrying, etc. The combination of 

 a small holding with these forms of occupation 

 makes a living possible where it would not be if 

 either form were attempted by itself. 



A number of the men in regular employment 

 are miners, and walk five and six miles daily to 

 their work. There being no large farms in the 

 immediate neighbourhood, very few agricultural 

 labourers working for farmers will be found. 



4 



