1885.] LETTERS TO THE EDITOH. 391 



Betters to the Editor. 



PEELING OAK STANDING. 



SIR, — I offer the following remarks for the benefit of your cor- 

 respondent who asks some questions on this subject iu your 

 September issue, as well as for other of your readers interested in 

 the seasoning of oak timber, for sale or for estate purposes. 



Peeling oak standing is not only practicable, but is practised to a 

 considerable extent in Yorkshire, as well as in some neighbouring 

 counties. During summer, passengers by the East Coast route 

 between London and Edinburgh may see the bare stems of oak trees 

 standing at various points between Eetford and Berwick. 



Not only is the plan adopted by managers of estates for home 

 consumption, but timber merchants who buy large falls of timber 

 standing, treat the oak in this way, finding it beneficial to their 

 trade to do so. I have known purchasers of one or two thousand 

 pounds' worth of oak timber have all trees, above eight or ten feet, 

 peeled standing. 



The work is mostly done by piece, and is worth five shillings per 

 ton more than peeling the trees after being felled. The modus 

 operandi is for one of the most active of the workmen to climb the 

 tree, armed with a small axe and peeling-iron. He cuts off the 

 branches at a convenient distance from the trunk as he ascends, and 

 if the top runs up very high he also cuts it over where most 

 convenient, and when he has thus cleared the trunk of all branches, 

 he starts at the top, and opens up one side of the bark with his 

 axe, and then applies the peeling-iron in the same manner as if the 

 tree was laid down. 



The operator does not trouble to cut the bark into equal lengths, 

 but tears it off in such lengths as he can get, dropping it to 

 the ground as he proceeds. In the meantime others of the squad 

 are dissecting the limbs or branches which were cut off, so that by 

 the time the climber reaches the ground, the party are ready to 

 proceed to another tree. Men used with the work can strip the 

 bark off much quicker than strangers to the operation would think 

 possible. 



In the case of taU trees, clear of branches for thirty or forty feet, 

 ladders are used ; and above the height reached by these, iron 

 spikes of a peculiar form are driven in at suitable distances for the 

 climber to ascend by. To drive in the spikes he uses his hatchet, 

 which has a head suited for that purpose. As he descends he 



