SPRUCE-BAKK. 659 



be dried. For this purpose usually it is placed horizontally 

 on a stage made of poles, with the cambium side downwards 

 to protect it against rain. As soon as it is dry it is piled like 

 firewood between stakes, being well trodden down in the 

 stacks. If, as is usually and most conveniently the case, the 

 bark is sold in stacks, they should be made by an employee of 

 the forest-owner ; in Wurtemberg, bark is packed in bales for 

 transport. The bark may be sold also at so much a tree. 



A stacked cubic meter of old oak-bark weighs 130 to 200 

 kilos (4 to 6 cwt. per load of 50 cubic feet) and more, according 

 to the amount of moisture it contains. More fresh bark than 

 dry bark goes to a stack, for it is easier and softer to pack in 

 the former case. 



Sale by the amount of peeled wood is more uncertain than 

 in the case of young bark, owing to great variability in the 

 proportion of bark to peeled wood. There is nearly as much 

 tannin in the branches of trees as in coppice-shoots. 



[In England it is considered that 1 ton of bark comes from 

 120 cubic feet of wood, and at 3 a ton, the value of the bark 

 pays for the felling and leaves some margin of profit over. 

 Kailway-companies also charge for the bark that is on the 

 logs they transport, so that peeling reduces the freight. In 

 France, only standards over coppice are peeled, not high forest 

 oaks. Tr.] 



SECTION V. SPRUCE-BARK. 



Spruce-bark is harvested much more extensively than old 

 oak-bark, and in eastern and southern Germany and the 

 adjoining Austrian districts, when mixed with Knoppern galls, 

 valonea and silver-bark, it is used largely for tanning. It can, 

 however, be used only in the preliminary stages of tanning, or 

 for tanning thin skins ; thick skins are tanned with spruce- 

 bark only when largely mixed with other tanning materials. 

 As most spruce forests are in mountainous regions, where, on 

 account of the climate, summer-felling prevails, and the wood 

 must be peeled, owing to the danger of insect-attacks and the 

 necessities of transport, many of the difficulties which occur in 

 utilising oak-bark are avoided. 



In order to obtain spruce-bark, the felled stems, after being 



u u 2 



