MANUFACTURE OP CHARCOAL. 61 



faggot bound by a single cord, exclusively composed of fragments 

 from the saw-mill, or the clearings of the woods. In the Landes 

 there are bourrees of a peculiar kind, formed of heath, broom, and 

 whins. Whatever it is made of the hourree is from 1 metre to 1'33 

 metres in length, and from O'SO to 0-85 metres in circumference. 

 Sologne furnishes a great quantity of these bourrees, which are not 

 needed for fuel, except when within reach of the great centres of 

 population. They rarely pay the cost of being carried farther than 

 12 or 16 kilometres. 



" When they are not sold to the poorer classes for fire-wood it is 

 necessary to get rid of them in such a way as to reimburse the 

 proprietor for their collection. Rather than make an article which 

 costs from 1 franc to 2 francs per hundred, and which it is diflScult 

 to sell, he would prefer to leave the twigs to rot on the spot so as to 

 produce a sort of compost for the trees. In this case he should copy 

 the Gascoyne farmer, who litters his cattle with the smaller twigs, 

 which act as absorbents. 



" In Sologne this is not the custom, and the bourrees are used in the 

 manufacture of bricks, tiles, and lime. The manufacturers buy 

 them at from 2 francs to 2 francs 50 cents the hundred, which leaves 

 the proprietor a clear gain of 50 cents. The making of bourrees is a 

 good employment for the idle season. 



" Unfortunately, brick kilns are not able to use all the bourrees 

 supplied by making cotrets, or faggots, of pine, and it would be im- 

 possible to sell all if they could not be converted into other articles 

 made use of in various manufactories. 



" For several years the botirrees have been burned in air-tight vases ; 

 petite braise, or charcoal cinders, is produced, and a more powdery 

 sort of charcoal called charcoal dust. The experiment leaves nothing 

 to be desired, for the bourrees are carbonised so perfectly that with 

 care they may be withdrawn from the furnace in the same shape in 

 which they were put in. Pine needles, leaves of heath, are perfectly 

 carbonised, undergoing no physical change except in the colour, 

 which changes from grey to black. Twigs of a certain size furnish 

 braise, which is used in the same way as ordinary charcoal, but this 

 article is of secondary importance beside the charcoal dust, which is 

 the chief product. This is used in many manufactories. M. Popelin- 

 Ducart uses it for the preparation of the cylindrical charcoal, known 

 as Charbon de Paris. 



" Such is the power of science. Bourrees, which would not repay 

 the cost of transport to warm the inhabitants of Sologne, are, 



