PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



of the woodman and farmer, but now with preferential 

 railway and boat rates, combined with labour expenses over 

 which we have no control, the industry has quite passed 

 out of our hands, and the old, and at one time highly - 

 remunerative osier beds of the Thames Valley and many 

 other places, have almost ceased to exist. French and other 

 continental willows have almost entirely ousted the British- 

 grown wand from the market, and what at one time was a 

 flourishing native industry, and gave employment to a 

 large number of men, women, and boys, lias passed from 

 us for ever. It may appear strange, but it is never- 

 theless a fact, that two brothers engaged in willow 

 culture, one in the Channel Islands and the other only 

 a short distance from the great metropolis, are almost 

 placed 011 the same footing as regards delivery of their 

 produce to the IxDndon market ; in fact, the brother from 

 his island home can deposit his osiers in our market at 

 a cheaper rate than those from one of the home counties 

 are delivered. I know of not one but many examples 

 of the once remunerative willow beds of our forefathers 

 being now neglected jungles for the production of poles 

 and firewood. 



The hut of the charcoal burner was, not a century ago, a 

 prominent feature of the great forest remains of England, 

 but I believe I am within bounds in saying that there is 

 not one to-day for each of the best wooded counties. 

 Kentish forests at one time teemed with the familiar 

 charcoal burner, and right brawny and thrifty were these 

 natives of the woodland with their rustic wooden huts 

 and piles of rifted firewood. What a change ! The ring 

 of the axe and merry laugh have disappeared for ever from 

 our woodland glades and margins. Nowadays charcoal can 

 be delivered cheaper from Continental ports than we 

 are able to manufacture it in England, but about the 

 quality the less said the better. 



Fagots too, are being slowly but surely ousted from 

 the markets by the little bundles of cleft wood which 

 are displayed by the door- step of almost every second- 

 class grocer throughout the country. When we think 

 that, in order to compete with late day substitutes, the 



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