< t >rALITY OF BARK. 637 



stocked with oak-coppice are required for its production, 

 and both in quantity and quality far outvie the yield of 

 older oak-trees. For that reason, a separate account is 

 given here of the production of tan from young oak-trees, 

 as compared with that produced by old oaks and other species 

 of trees. By young oaks are meant both seedling and coppice 

 growth up to a limit of 25 years. 



Before considering the mode of harvesting oak-bark, it will 

 be useful to give a short account of the various conditions 

 which affect its quality. 



1. C<milit'n>ns d/cctuin (lie (Jualiti/ f Bark. 



(a) Species. Oak coppice-woods in Central Europe are 

 stocked partly with the sessile oak and partly with the 

 pedunculate species. In the best localities for oak-bark, the 

 Odenwald, the Bavarian Palatinate, the Hundsriick, Taunus, 

 the valleys of the Neckar, and hills of the Middle and tipper 

 Ilhine-Valley, it is, with very few exceptions, the sessile oak ; 

 only in the lower lands, near the watercourses, does the 

 pedunculate oak take its part in these woods. In the North 

 German plain (as in British lowlands), the pedunculate 

 oak prevails ; also in the neighbourhood of the Harz and 

 Siegen, in Silesia and in most oak-bark coppices in Austria. 

 Each of these species yields the largest quantity and best 

 quality of bark in the locality that is best adapted for it. 

 In South and Central Germany, the bark of the sessile oak 

 is preferred ; in this region also it is much the easier of the 

 two oaks to peel. 



(^urn-US ]mln'f><'<'nx, which thrives in the warm countries of 

 Hungary and Slavonia, yields as much tanning bark as the 

 above two oaks. (juercua Ilc.r in the south of France is 

 managed (Huffel) as coppice, and is rich in tannin. Boppe 

 states that (J. Tnzza is useful. The Turkey-oak (Q. Cerris) 

 is used here and there in Austria for the production of bark, 

 but on account of its forming, at an early age, a deeply-cracked 

 rhitiduiiH', or dead bark, and because its numerous bundles of 

 bast penetrate the sapwood deeply, and render peeling very 

 difficult, it is of little value. Of foreign oaks, the American 



