UTILISING WASTE FOREST-PRODUCE. 



of the forest and woodland are applied, but, as these hardly 

 come within the scope of the forester, special attention will 

 be devoted to the major by-products firewood, charcoal, 

 bark, and fagots with which the British forester is most 

 intimately associated. 



(1.) Firewood- Never, perhaps, was the subject of 

 English firewood more worthy of consideration than at the 

 present, when timber, speaking generally, is almost a drug on 

 the market, and numbers of unsaleable trees are to be found 

 on almost every averaged-sized estate throughout the 

 country. Many persons and, perhaps, rightly, too, will 

 maintain that, particularly in districts where coal is 

 abvmdant, it is very questionable whether there is any 

 advantage to be obtained from burning wood. We have 

 satisfied ourselves that even could wood be procured at less 

 than its present price firewood priced-it is quite as expensive 

 as coal, as sold nowadays in most of our large towns. No 

 doubt, on many large estates where there is a superfluity 

 of unsaleable wood, it would be utter folly not to have 

 it converted into firewood, more particularly as such work 

 gives employment to the woodmen when the inclemency of 

 the weather puts a stop to general outdoor work. But this 

 of itself, is no proof that the firewood when prepared and 

 ready for the grate is not as expensive as coal ; for, when the 

 rent of ground on which the wood was grown, the cost of 

 felling, and converting into firewood are considered, it will 

 be found that firewood is nearly as costly as household coal 

 of ordinary quality. 



What will it cost to prepare a ton of firewood? is a 

 question that is not very readily answered, the cost of labour 

 in various parts of the country varying so much. In 

 England, generally speaking, the cutting up and stacking of 

 a cord of fairly clean firewood that is, when large knotty 

 pieces, which require the mallet and wedge for their manipu- 

 lation, are excluded cost from 5s. to Cs. Then, how many 

 cords of wood will make a ton of firewood? is another 

 question that is more readily asked than answered, for the 

 difference in weight between eqnal-sii.^d logs of, say, yew 

 and birch is considerable. For all practical purposes, how- 



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