658 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS. 



In some districts in Hesse and Hanover, old oaks are peeled 

 standing in the spring, left standing till winter and then felled. 

 This method [also employed in the Forest of Dean. Tr.] gives 

 superior timber to that felled in the spring. As a rule, in 

 Germany, bark is peeled from old oak trees after they are 

 felled, and here also only as many trees should be felled as 

 can be peeled in a day. The men engaged in 

 peeling, who are employed usually by tanners, or 

 merchants, follow close on the woodcutters. [In 

 Britain, the trees are peeled partly before being 

 felled, and the woodcutters, who do all the work, 

 are paid for both operations according to the 

 quantity of bark they obtain. Tr.] 



The workman makes a cut down the stem and 

 through the bark with the barking-iron (Fig. 357). 

 The bark is then peeled in large flat pieces by 

 means of the iron and the workman's hands. It 

 can be removed rarely without constant beating. 

 Wherever the bark is sold stacked, the pieces 

 are cut to the required length (say one meter). 

 The less common method, of peeling standing 

 trees, is easier to effect, although ladders are 

 required. 



The most troublesome part of the work is to peel 

 the crooked knotty branches, which always must 

 be beaten. Sometimes, instead of the barking- 

 iron, the common felling-axe alone is used. If 

 ^ e wea ^ ner i s favourable an experienced workman 

 Barking-iron. wn "l P ee l 4 or 5 large oak trees in a day. Trimming 

 the bark, however expensive it may be, increases 

 its value greatly. The more thoroughly the cracked and 

 dead outer bark, or rhitidome, which in old trees forms 50 to 

 60 per cent, of the bark, is removed from the inner and more 

 sappy bark, the more valuable will be the produce ; the per- 

 centage of tannic acid in old bark would not be so low as 

 compared with young bark, were all the hard outer bark 

 removed. Wherever trimming is done it should precede peeling, 

 and is effected best on standing trees. 



The peeled bark is carried to a neighbouring blank to 



Fi 357 



