43 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[I’lUiil'ARV, 
- c. .. . ~ 
to promote their laying: lie fed them regularly, 
kept them comfortable by allowing them free ac¬ 
cess to a warm dry cellar, supplied them with 
pure water, gave them occasionally a lot of 
pour, led oyster-shells, sprinkled fine gravel on 
the cellar floor, and varied their food as much m 
possible. He also made enticing nest-s for them, 
and made their roostsso that they could get up to 
them on convenient ladders without much flying. 
To the above, I will add another thing. He 
saved the droppings of the roosts in barrels, for 
use in his garden. He put a quart of hen manure 
into a tub of water, and made a powerful fertilizer 
for all growing plants. That man keeps hens to 
u profit, and others may do so. (Not) Burnham. 
How Charcoal is Prepared for Market. 
“ Ding-dong, ding-dong, charcoal! charcoal! 
charco-o-o-o-11 here we go.” This familiar cry 
we heard just now in the street from an immense 
cairyall, and with the thermometer at zero this 
morning, the charcoal man is likely to have a 
brisk market. 
The burning of wood for charcoal forms an im¬ 
portant item of business among a large class of 
small farmers, in almost all parts of the country. 
It is carried on most extensively in well wooded 
regions too remote from rrtarket to make it an 
object to cart wood. The coaling of the wood 
greatly reduces its bulk and weight, so that it 
can be profitably carried ten or fifteen miles to 
market, when it would not pay to carry wood half 
the distance. Many farmers who own large tracts 
of woodland on mountains, or in districts remote 
from, but not at too great a distance from cities 
or villages, find this the most available method of 
realizing money from their forests. The wood is 
worth little as it stands, either for fuel or for 
timber. Condensed into charcoal, it is readily 
transported and pays a handsome profit. The 
business is followed in the intervals of farm la¬ 
bor, and turns to good account time that would 
otherwise be of little value, or perhaps wasted. 
Sometimes men follow this as a business. They 
locate within a dozen miles of a city or village, 
where coal is worth from ten to fifteen cents a 
bushel. They either buy the woodland, and sell 
again when it is cleared, or buy the wood stand¬ 
ing, without the land. An ax, a pair of horses, 
and a coal cart is about all the capital that is 
needed to start the business. 
Preparation oe the Wood.— Any kind of 
wood will make charcoal, but there is a great dif¬ 
ference in the quality of the article prepared from 
di fie rent woods, much more than is usually made 
in the price. The kinds selected are usually those 
least valuable for fuel, especially in the districts 
where the carting of hickory and oak can be made 
profitable. Chestnut, maple, and birch, are usu¬ 
ally selected where these varieties abound ; hut 
any thing is taken that is not considered more 
valuable for wood or timber. A good deal of pine 
's used, hut it makes the poorest charcoal. Bass¬ 
wood and chestnut also make poor coal. White 
birch and maple are much prized by blacksmiths. 
The wood is first cut into billets of four feet, 
and if hired done, is let out by the job, and pack¬ 
ed up in piles, or corded, so that the value of the 
labor may he conveniently estimated. If the 
work is done by the day or the month, the wood 
is left lying upon the ground as cut. The chop¬ 
ping of the wood is carried on at all seasons of 
the year. Swamps are cut over, and the wood 
drawn to the coal pit in the Winter. 
Putting up the Coal Pit.— Seasoned wqod, 
or that which has been cut at least six months, 
is preferred, though green wood is often used. 
Fig. 1. 
The “ coal pit ” is no pit at all, but simply a cov¬ 
ered pile of wood upon any 
dry level spot in the forest. 
A place is usually selected as 
free from stones as possible, 
and where the soil is deep, to 
furnish loam for the covering. 
The first work is the chimney, 
which is made of billets of 
wood, about two feet long, and 
put up in the form of a cob 
house, as seen in fig. 1. It should 
be raised four feet or more, at first, so as to 
be out of the way of the first tier of wood. The 
chimney should he made of well seasoned wood, 
and it is a good plan to use old coal brands around 
the bottom which will readily take fire, when the 
pit is ready for burning. The cordwood is set 
up in a circle all around the center of the pit. 
The largest sticks are selected for the inner part 
of the pit. No sticks more than six or eight inch¬ 
es through should be put in. Logs of greater size 
should be quartered. The workman packs up 
the wood endwise, as seen in fig. 2, going round 
the heap, and keeping it as nearly in a circular 
form as possible. 
Whether a second or third tier of wood is used 
depends upon the quantity to be burned. The 
aim should he, to keep the pit nearly in the form 
of a half globe, a little sharpened at the apex or 
top. Any quantity of wood may be burned, from 
five cords to a hundred «in a single pit. From 
twenty to sixly cords will make a pit of conve¬ 
nient size. The outside of the pit is finished off 
with the small wood or trimming, making the sur¬ 
face as smooth as possible, to shed off rain. 
The Covering. —The object of this is to keep 
up a slow combustion, driving off the water and 
gases from the wood, without reducing it to 
ashes. The more perfectly the air can be ex¬ 
cluded during the burning process, the less loss 
there will he. The pit is first covered with for¬ 
est leaves, or with any cheap hay or litter, to pre- 
Fig. 3. 
vent the earth from sifting down into the wood. 
A plow is then run around the pit, breaking up 
the sods two or three yards wide. The sods are 
put grass side down upon the leaves, or litter, 
and the loose earth is thrown on top of these with 
the shovel, making a covering six to ten inches 
in thickness. The chimney is left uncovered, and 
holes are li ft for ventilation around the bottom 
in six or eight places, half a foot in diameter. 
See fig. 3. The holes arc shown loo large here. 
The Burning. — The Summer months arc con¬ 
sidered the best for this process, as the fires are 
more easily managed, and there is less waste of 
wood. It is done, however, at any season of the 
year, except in the coldest weather—as the burn¬ 
er has to be up frequently in the night, and to 
give the closest attention to his business, which 
would be very uncomfortable at this season. 
The pit is fired by putting blazing brands into 
the top of the chimney, and letting them fall to 
the bottom. All the apertures are left open, un¬ 
til the wood is well caught, when the chimney is 
stopped. The burner will now show his skill in 
keeping up a steady, slow, combustion, until the 
whole heap is carbonized uniformly in all its parts. 
He lias some power in hastening or retarding the 
burning, by means of his ventilators. If the fire 
burns too much toward the wind, the apertures 
must be closed upon that side. The process of 
carbonization is first completed in the middle and 
on the top of the mound. It should then be con¬ 
ducted evenly down on all sides. The vapor from 
the wood first passes off in a thick, yellowish 
smoke. After this, the smoke becomes of a 
lighter hue, and then black and dense, giving out 
the smell of pyroligneous acid, which grows 
stronger to the end of the process. As the pro¬ 
cess is completed, a light blue smoke is given off 
which finally ceases. The length of lime taken 
to burn a pit, depends somewhat upon the condi¬ 
tion of the wood, green or dry, the size of the 
pit, and the skill of the burner. As a rule, the 
slower the process, the more charcoal in propor¬ 
tion to the wood. A pit of three hundred bushels 
of coal should have at least six days for burning. 
Sometimes large holes in the covering will drop 
in, as the wood consumes beneath These may 
be stopped by throwing in a few billets of wood, 
and immediately covering with fresh earth. The 
burner walks about the mound, using the hoe 
and the shovel in stopping cracks as they appear. 
Drawing Out. —The pit stands a day or two 
after burning, to cool off. The coal is then drawn 
out with a rake, the earth that formed the cover¬ 
ing falling down to the bottom. The sparks of 
fire that are left in the coal are put out. with wa¬ 
ter. The utmost vigilance is required in this 
operation, as a little neglect would expose all the 
coal drawn out to a total loss. On tins account 
it is always desirable to have the pit near a well 
or brook. Tuc drawing out is usually attended 
to in the evening, when the fire is more easily 
seen, though it can he done during daylight. 
The yield ofcoal from a given amount of wood 
depends somewhat upon the dryness, of the wood, 
and the time of combustion. The more water 
there is in the wood, the more fuel must he 
burned to expel it. Hence there is very great 
economy in using well seasoned fuel for this 
purpose. A common yield is a hundred bushels 
ofcoal for three cords of wood ; chestnut, oak, 
maple or birch. A skillful burner under favora¬ 
ble circumstances, will sometimes get forty or 
fifty bushels to the cord. A common charge for 
burning, after the wood is delivered at. the pit, is 
two dollars and a half a hundred bushels. As 
the producer of charcoal seldom gets more than 
ten to twelve cents a bushel, and often less, after 
carting to market and peddling it out, it will ho 
seen that it is only where wood is very cheap 
that he can make it profitable. 
“ Captain, what’s the fare to Saint Louis 1” 
“What part of the boat do you wish to go on— 
cabin or deck!” “Git out with your cabin,” said 
the traveler; “I live in a cabin at home; give 
me the best you've got here.” 
Good intentions will not justify evil actions 
