446 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Tlie diirerence in Aveight between peeled and unpeeled oak timbei* 

 is about IG per cent., and taking at lO.s. railway carriage and 5.s. 

 cartage rate as being fair mediunis for tbo purpose of calculation, 

 and reckoning 6 tons as the weight of the timber from which a 

 ton of bark has been produced, we have almost 15s. per ton to be 

 deducted from the £4, 5s. 6d. of total cost, or £S, 10s. Gd. per 

 ton of actual net cost of placing heavy oak bark in the market. 

 The vast proportion of oak bark brought into the market is 

 subject to a heavy railway carriage, which on an average may be 

 calculated at 12s. Gd. per ton. The avei-age price for the last year 

 or two for unchopped or whole bark being £5 per ton, leaves 

 £4, 7s. 6d. gross receipt, and less the oncost stated above of 

 £3, 10s. Gd. leaves a net balance of 17s. per ton — a profit that is 

 quite incommensurate with the risk and trouble involved. 



The market price of bark allowed for here at £5 per ton is one 

 that has only been reached within a very recent time, but even at 

 this advanced price, when a business calculation is gone into, it 

 is seen that the profit is small, the sum often given by forestei*s of 

 50s. per ton, net gain, being delusive in respect to standard oaks. 



In returning to the consideration of oak coppice wood as a 

 means of furnishing our supply of bark, we must look in a 

 greater degree to this source in the future. The expense of 

 stripping it is proportionately greater from having to operate on 

 smaller wood ; but in dealing with it, the usefulness of the timber 

 for the purposes to which it is put, such as charring, pitwood, 

 and such like, is in no measure deteriorated, although its value 

 for these industrial purposes has reached a point which leaves 

 little or nothing to the producer. The profit derivable from the 

 sale of its bark may be reckoned at fifty shillings per ton, and 

 is sufficiently great to warrant the cultivation of coppice wood 

 solely for the value of the bark, which will yield a good return 

 or rent for the land occupied in its growth. With the decreasing 

 supply of bark from matured timber, resulting from the lowness 

 of price brought about by the restricted demand, thereby en- 

 couraging more and more the felling of oak in winter, the atten- 

 tion of foresters and others interested should be directed towards 

 a greater development of oak coppice in districts specially adapted 

 for it. On a closer consideration by foresters and others of the 

 loss involved by the deterioration of the quality of prime oak 

 from being felled in spring to secure the bark, as we have pointed 

 out, the supply from this source will annually be still further 



