34 THE IRON ORE DISTRICT OF EAST TEXAS. 



timber which can be utilized offer facilities and inducements for the pro- 

 duction of charcoal with which to smelt the local ores, and thus enrich the 

 manufacturing interests of the commonwealth. Much of the timber is of 

 such *an excellent quality and of such large size as to cause regret that it 

 should be sacrificed for burning into charcoal, were it not for the consolation 

 that the maintenance of large timbered areas is essential to the continuance 

 in activity of blast furnaces, where this fuel is the basis upon which the 

 smelting operations are carried on. The necessity of maintaining these large 

 timber areas naturally encourages a system of protection which none of the 

 other utilizations of forest products warrant, and if an active pig. iron industry 

 is established in the State it may necessitate, for its continuous life, the re- 

 forestation of areas denuded of their timber, as well as an encouragement 

 to protect forests from ravages by cattle, damages by fire, etc. ; and the 

 operation of a blast furnace using charcoal as fuel will, to a large extent, re- 

 duce the sacrifices of standing timber by farmers, who girdle the trees to 

 encourage their decay and to permit of their more ready removal for the 

 purpose of clearing the ground. 



Charcoal is manufactured in a number of ways, but these may all be 

 divided into three classes: 



(A) Charring in Pits or Meilers. — This is ordinarily carried on in the 

 woods where the timber is cut, although in rare cases wood is hauled to a con- 

 venient center and there charred, so as to reduce the cost of attention and 

 watching. The pits or meilers differ considerably in form, but the plan most 

 generally adopted in this country is a circular or conical heap or pile of wood 

 covered with leaves or turf. In Europe these heaps are sometimes made 

 rectangular, and in China the pits are wells sunk into the ground, the tops 

 being covered so as to secure slow combustion. In some of the heaps logs can 

 be charred, but the usual practice in this country is to cut the wood into four 

 feet lengths and place it in the heaps. 



The yield of charcoal in meilers varies considerably in accordance with the 

 kind of wood used, the depth and character of the cover, and the skill of the 

 attendance. Taking the standard bushel as adopted by the United States 

 Association of Charcoal Iron Workers (namely, 2748 cubic inches), the yield 

 obtained from meilers will range from twenty-eight to forty bushels, the 

 average approximating thirty-three bushels, or one hundred bushels for three 

 cords. This estimate, like all others which follow, is based upon using four 

 foot wood, well cut and properly ranked so as to obtain a good cord measure. 



(B) Charring in Kilns has an advantage over charring in meilers in the 

 fact that the enclosing walls, being generally of brick masonry, are tighter 

 than a turf covering, and therefore the operation of producing charcoal can 

 be more readily controlled, and the loss from radiated or condensed heat 



