There was a time, and not so long ago, when the merry voice and ring of the charcoal burner’s axe were familiar sounds in some of the Kentish and other forests of Southern England; but keen foreign competition, aided by preferential carriage rates, have caused this time-honoured industry to slip from our hands; indeed, it was almost forgotten till again called into existence for the battlefields of France and Flanders. The trenches must be warmed without apprising the enemy of the existence of our men, and in order to do this and prevent soaring signals of smoke, the tent brazier is filled with glowing charcoal. Except, perhaps, in Kent and Surrey and the English Lake district, where small quantities of charcoal are annually produced for the hop kilns and iron smelting, charcoal burning is a thing of the past. The expert charcoal burner is now a difficult man to find, and an independent, highly-paid workman when you have found him. Successive members of the same family in Kent have been known to follow the occupation of charcoal burning for fully a century and a half, and it is distinctly a skilled industry, and confined to few. Usually the men work in threes, and, having selected a piece of ground sheltered from the prevailing winds and in a position to which easy access with wood can be obtained, a rough hut is erected for the accommodation of these nocturnal workmen. Water, sand or sawdust and turf are other requisites that must be provided as the work proceeds. A couple of large tarpaulins and half a dozen straw-covered hurdles are other necessities. From the point of economy in carting the wood to the kilns it may seem that shifting the position of burning from one part of the woodland to another is to be recommended. Such is, however, not the case, as the hard, dry, ash-covered site, where charring has already been carried out, has its advantages, and the cost of transferring the workmen’s hut and tools from one position to another must also be considered. Several methods, largely dependent on the quantity and quality of charcoal to be obtained, are adopted, but in order to procure that of the best description the following system, which has been successfully carried out on a large estate for the past hundred years at least, is recommended. The timber carted to the charcoal yard consists of all kinds of hardwoods, preferably not under two inches in diameter.