494 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 
8,5 cents per bushel. All this work of cutting the wood and burning 
the charcoal is performed by contracts, so much being made per load of 
200 bushels of charcoal delivered at the furnace by the furnace teams. 
The special mode of charcoal making is more fully described sub- 
sequently ; it will suffice to say here, that it is all made in pits or 
piles, which are built convenient to the wood to be used, and within 
easy access to water, which is essential. ‘These piles contain about 40 to 
80 cords of wood, and the operation lasts about 21 days, yielding about 
38 to 40 bushels of charcoal per cord. From the hilly character of the 
country, and the general roughness of the roads, this method seems the 
one best adapted, as a team which could not draw a couple of cords of 
wood can easily haul 5 cords when converted into charcoal. The wood 
is usually felled in the winter, and the clearing takes place ir summer 
and fall. The charcoal is drawn to the furnaces, where it is stored in 
sheds, by large wagons holding about 200 bushels, and requiring often 
4 or 5 yoke of oxen. The loss from abrasion is consequently quite con- 
siderable, but the waste is utilized in burning the ores. 
The consumption of charcoal per ton of iron is given elsewhere for 
the furnaces as accurately as it could be ascertained, but the average 
consumption may be stated as 155 bushels, or allowing 20 lbs. per 
bushel, 31 cwt. per ton (2,268 lbs.) of iron with hot-blast, and 215 
bushels, or 43 ewt. per ton (2,268 lbs.) of iron with cold-blast. 
The coals used in this region are discussed in the report on coals, 
and will not be treated expressly here. Theuse of charcoal isso character- 
istic of this region that the above review of its manufacture is important 
in order to understand the economic relations of the charcoal iron in- 
dustry. A few additional data relative to the growth of timber and 
yield of charcoal, collected since the above was written, by Mr. Newton, 
may be added here. The growing scarcity of wood has led to the 
recutting of considerable of the land on which second and third growth 
timber is found. 
The timber land, as originally found, yielded about 40 cords to the 
acre, along and near the Ohio river; back in the country probably a 
little less. On recutting this same land, after an interval of 25 years, 
the yield was in the neighborhood of 20 cords to the acre, and according 
to the estimates given by the furnaces recutting timber, the annual 
increase over this figure for the next 20 years was about at the rate of a 
