METHODS OF PEELING. 64-3 



labour is cheap, and that the hark can be removed and stacked 

 in dry sheds instead of being exposed to the weather on the 

 felling-area. Pieces of wood also may be utilised which could 

 not otherwise be peeled. The increased cost of carriage of the 

 wood with the bark on has, however, to be considered.* 

 Experience in Paris has proved that there is hardly any loss 

 of tannin due to this method, and that the leather produced 

 by tan from steamed bark is soft and fine, and excellent for 

 saddlery, but not so good for the soles of boots. Tr.] 



(c) Method of Peeling Bark. The bark is peeled either 

 after the stems have been felled, half severed or knicked, or 

 from standing stems. 



Peeling felled wood is the method prevailing in Germany ; 

 it is followed in the Odenwald, Franconia, the Palatinate, 

 Baden, Wtirttemberg and many other districts. The work- 

 men, divided into small parties, commence felling the coppice- 

 shoots, and should be careful to cut them smoothly and close 

 to the ground. All the crop should not be felled at once, but 

 only as much as can be peeled immediately. It is reckoned 

 that a skilful woodcutter can keep two men employed in 

 peeling. It should be a rule, that every evening not a piece 

 of felled wood remains unpeeled ; for only from wood which 

 has just been felled can the bark be peeled readily, whilst 

 from poles which have been lying felled for 24 hours, the 

 bark can be removed only by knocking it with a mallet. As 

 soon as a lot of oak coppice-shoots has been felled, freed from 

 tops and side-branches, and the parts to be barked set aside, 

 the operation of peeling is commenced. This is done differently 

 in different countries. In the Odenwald, the Palatinate, 

 Wurtemberg, etc., the coppice-shoots and all other wood fit to 

 be peeled are cut into round billets of the length customary in 

 the district ; the workman then takes each billet and removes 

 the bark, as far as possible, without tearing it. In order to 

 do this, he lays each billet on a stone or log, beats it with the 

 back of a small hatchet along a certain line, so that the bark 

 opens-out and separates from the wood along this line. In 

 case the shoots are to be used in their full length, as stakes, 

 for hurdle- wood, etc., they are supported at one end on a 



, op. ci(. p. 105. 



T T 2 



