REPORT ON FORESTS. 255 
Scattered here and there throughout the Pines are the remains 
of what were once centers of a flourishing industry. This 
was the manufacture of iron from bog ore (limonite). In some 
places the furnaces and forges have been completely obliterated 
and forgotten; in others only bits of black slag remain, 
while in others the ruins are still standing. ‘These centers 
of industry, usually located in the neighborhood of streams 
and bogs, were connected by stage routes, along which here 
and there were clearings and taverns. Immense quantities of 
charcoal were consumed by these forges and furnaces, the owners 
of which usually possessed the land for several miles in every 
direction. Wood in those days was in demand, and coalings were 
frequent. Even after the iron industry in the Pines succumbed, 
charcoal was shipped to the cities by schooners in large quan- 
tities. Owing tothe abundance of other forms of coal, the demand 
for charcoal has gradually decreased. Along the rivers there 
were many depots to which the charcoal was carted, which are 
still in evidence, owing te the great masses of coal-dust which 
accumulated there. Coal and iron were worked side by side 
in the neighboring State of Pennsylvania, transportation by 
rail increased the competition; the iron industry in the Pines 
was unable to survive, and with it faded the manufacture of 
charcoal,* and the value of coal-wood. The ruins of furnaces, 
the large dilapidated houses, the overgrown roads, the wharves, 
the piers, the old ship-yards, and the masses of coal-dirt on the 
landings are evidences of what the country was when iron was 
made from bog-ore, and when schooners were built to trade to 
foreign lands. The woods were full of men hewing timbers, 
cutting coal-wood, working in the coalings, raising bog-ore and 
carting materials from place to place. The death of these indus- 
tries, however, is only the result of progress. In the develop- 
ment of the whole of a country, certain parts, although they 
may have once played an important role, must suffer. In the 
course of its development almost every country is subjected to a 
series of industrial ups and downs. 
Another peculiar old-time industry was the mining of cedar. 
The bed of a cedar swamp is a mass of forest detritus, several 
*It is unfortunate that so little charcoal is used in the American household. The fine flavor of 
French cookery is partly due to the use of an excellent quality of charcoal. Other kinds of coal and wood 
emit gases in the process of combustion which taint food more or less, and for successful broiling charcoal 
and the brazier are necessary. ' 
