CHAPTER XXIV 

 THE MANUFACTURE OF CHARCOAL 



AMONGST dead or dying industries of our woodlands that 

 have been revived by the war, none is at present receiving a 

 greater share of attention than the manufacture of charcoal. 



There was a time, and not so long ago, when the merry 

 voice and ring of the charcoal burner's axe were familiar 

 sounds in some of the Kentish and other forests of Southern 

 England ; but keen foreign competition, aided by pre- 

 ferential carriage rates, have caused this time-honoured 

 industry to slip from our hands ; indeed, it was almost 

 forgotten till again called into existence for the battlefields 

 of France and Flanders. The trenches must* be warmed 

 without apprising the enemy of the existence of our men, 

 and in order to do this and prevent soaring signals of smoke, 

 the tent brazier is filled with glowing charcoal. 



Except, perhaps, in Kent and Surrey and the English Lake 

 district, where small quantities of charcoal are annually 

 produced for the hop kilns and iron smelting, charcoal 

 burning is a thing of the past. The expert charcoal burner 

 is now a difficult man to find, and an independent, highly- 

 paid workman when you have found him. Successive 

 members of the same family in Kent have been known to 

 follow the occupation of charcoal burning for fully a century 

 and a half, and it is distinctly a skilled industry, and con- 

 fined to few. 



Usually the men work in threes, and, having selected a 

 piece of ground sheltered from the prevailing winds and in 

 a position to which easy access with wood can be obtained, 

 a rough hut is erected t for the accommodation of these 

 nocturnal workmen. Water, sand or sawdust and turf are 



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