646 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS. 



which is being barked, supported on a broad log or stone, as 

 is done in places along the river Moselle. The smaller and 

 knotty shoots always must be beaten, as well as all the thinner 

 branches, which in the Odenwald are peeled down to 

 1 centimeter in thickness (*4 inch). 



Peeling nicked shoots is customary near Burgen, Aschaf- 

 fenburg and the Hundsriick ; it consists, as is shown in Fig. 352, 

 in cutting the stem (b) half-through and peeling it, after its 

 base (a) has been peeled standing. 



A considerable advantage results from this method as only 

 a little beating is necessary. Then the bark is peeled, usually 

 in long strips, as in the following method. 



Peeling standing shoots is employed at Lorch on the river 

 Taunus, in some of the Schwarzwald valleys, many oak-bark 

 districts of Austria, and in France almost universally. 

 The branches are lopped from the stem as high as 

 the men can reach, and a strip of bark 2 to 4 centi- 

 meters (about an inch) broad is peeled either with 

 the bill-hook (Fig. 351), or the peeling- scalpel 

 (Fig. 346). These strips are rolled into loose 

 bundles and hung from the trees to dry. The rest 

 of the bark is peeled with a scalpel, without 

 girdling the tree, and is left hanging on the stem 

 153 to dry. Generally a ladder is used in order to peel 

 the upper part of the stem. Thus the bark is not 

 beaten, but that on the branches is not utilized. 



In many districts in Austria, all the bark on standing stems 

 is cut longitudinally in strips, and these are then peeled. 

 It would be supposed that in peeling standing shoots they 

 should first be girdled close to the ground in order to protect 

 the roots from being peeled. Often this precaution is omitted, 

 not without prejudice, as may be imagined, to the reproduction 

 of shoots from the stools. 



[It is now customary nearly all over France in peeling 

 oak-bark, to make a circular cut through the bark of the stem 

 at a suitable height (say 3J feet) from the ground and a 

 similar one level with the ground (Fig. 352) ; a longitudinal 

 cut is then made between these two marks and the bark 

 removed by means of the bone-scalpel (Fig. 346) in a single 



