1. A well-balanced tree with a good head will yield about 6 cwt. of bark for every ton of measurable timber, if branches down to an inch in diameter are peeled. 2. Hedgerow trees usually yield about a ton of bark to every three tons of timber. 3. Trees growing in close woodland are usually thin barked, the yield being about a ton of bark to every 4½ tons of timber. 4. Oak poles will average five tons of timber to a ton of bark. Tall, clean stems, as are produced when the poles are grown thickly together, with small heads, give the smallest yield in proportion to the quantity of timber, and short stems with spreading heads the largest. The cost of production is as follows:— £ _s._ _d._ Labour, peeling and harvesting 1 10 0 Cartage to railway station, including loading (this is the average from six districts) 0 7 6 Loss on four months’ delay in selling the timber, which, but for the bark, would have been felled in winter at 5 per cent. 0 5 0 Customary terms of payment, less 2½ per cent. 0 2 0 Superintendence, etc. 0 1 6 ——————————— £2 6 0 It has been carefully estimated that there is a loss of fully 12 per cent. of wood, caused by felling the oak during the barking season. In other words, the proportion of sap wood to the whole tree is about 14 per cent., which, for the majority of purposes to which oak timber is applied, is rendered by the peeling of little or no value. We may say, however, that 2 per cent. can be profitably utilized, which still leaves us with a considerable loss on the whole tree. The average price of the best oak is 2_s._ per ft., 12 per cent. of which is as nearly as possible 3_d._ per ft., or £1 17_s._ 6_d._ per ton of bark to 150 ft. of wood. This, with the £2 6_s._ per ton cost of production, brings the total to £4 3_s._ 6_d._, leaving a considerable balance on the wrong side at pre-war prices. CHAPTER XXIV THE MANUFACTURE OF CHARCOAL Amongst dead or dying industries of our woodlands that have been revived by the war, none is at present receiving a greater share of attention than the manufacture of charcoal.