so low as 10s. At present (1800) the price of charcoal 
is upwards of 4/. per ton. So that at this period, although 
the effects of wood are three and a half times those of 
splint- coal coaks, yet the price of one ton of charcoal wood 
will purchase eight tons of coaks ; the quantity of the 
former limited to, and produced from, land which might 
be better applied to the purposes of agriculture ; the latter 
found in immense fields, and in tracts of country which 
are always augmented in value by the developemerrt of 
their mineral treasure. 
A charcoal blast-furnace which smelts the whole year 
round, and occasionally makes forge-pigs and carbonated 
iron to the amount of 1000 tons annually, will consume 
14,000 sacks of charcoal; which may be estimated at 1 
cwt per sack, or 700 tons, or 1,568,0001b. ihis divi- 
ded by 18.751b*. the pounds in a cubic foot, gives for the 
quantity of timber in cubical feet, 83.626. This is going ; 
upon a former calculation, and is supposing the wood to 
shrink but little during the process of charring. In the pre- 
sent state of the woods which are attached to iron- works, 
one acre will not yield more than 1200 cubical feet of tim- 
ber. To ensure the annual supply, = 69.69 acres of 
land would require every year to be cleared, or nearly 140t f 
acres would be requisite to form, with proper care, an 
unfailing source of supply ; and at the rate of 4k per ton, 
the fuel would cost 2,8001. 
Let this be compared with a blast-furnace manufactur- 
ing the same quantity and quality of coak pig-iron. The 
average quantity for each ton will be nearly six tons of 
splint, or, as they lose 50 per cent . in charring, 3 tons of 
coaks x 1000 tons of pigs — 3000 tons of coaks, which 
at the highest price stated, 11s. per ton, amounts to 1,650L 
or less than the charcoal, 1,150/. 6000 tons of splint- 
* According to Watson, water being I, dry oak is ,892, T. C. 
