METHODS OF PEELING. 



645 



different districts, but are of an extremely simple character. 

 The most important instrument is the peeling-scalpel (Fig. 346), 

 a piece of wood, or bone, shaped like a chisel at one end, and 

 about 20 to 30 centimeters (8 inches to 1 foot) long. [In 

 France this is made from the tibia of an ass or horse, with a 

 sharp steel blade attached to its upper extremity (Fig. 346). Tr.] 

 This simple implement is preferable to those made of iron, 

 the best of which are : (Fig. 347) a peeling-iron used near the 

 river Saar, (Fig. 348) one used near the river Lahn, (Fig. 349) 

 Wohmann's peeling-iron. For felling and removing the 

 branches of the shoots, the hatchet (Fig. 350) is used in the 

 Odenwald, its back being also used in beating the bark ; 

 Wohmann's billhook (Fig. 351) is also an excellent instrument, 



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especially for peeling bark from standing stems. The shock, 

 owing to the beating, loosens the bark from the wood at other 

 points besides those beaten, but the peeling is not always so 

 easy that the bark can be removed in one piece from the wood 

 merely after beating it on one side ; in that case, the billet 

 must be turned and beaten all round, and the peeling-knife 

 brought into play. In every case, however, beating the bark 

 is a rough operation, always causing a loss of tannin, for the 

 cambium-zone which holds the most tannin, is crushed easily, 

 and if rain should fall, much tannin is washed away ; besides 

 this, the beaten places soon turn brown and become much 

 sooner mildewed than when the bark is not beaten. Consider- 

 ing that the loss of tannin, owing to beating, has been estimated 

 at about 20 per cent., it is desirable that beating should be 

 abandoned as much as possible, and wherever it is obligatory, 

 that it should be done with wooden mallets, and the shoot, 



