PRODUCTION OF TANBARK. 



13 



covered up by the tops of the tress, but even with this precaution, 

 here and there bark piles are left whenever the peelings are extensive. 

 Chipped bark, which comes chiefly from the base or "rump" of the 

 tree, is the richest of all in tannin, and, on account of its greater weight 

 and smaller bulk than coil bark, particularly desirable. But it is 

 much more likely to be scattered and overlooked in the woods, and 

 it would be better woods practice if this bark were piled immediately 

 on peeling and sacked just before the coil bark is bunched. The cost 

 would be no greater than- in all probability not as much as by the 

 present method. The tannin quality of rump bark is shown in 

 Table 5: 



TABLE 5. Analyses of the tannin quality of rump baric. 



On the Sonoma and Mendocino coasts the tanbark is usually trans- 

 ported to the ocean by the steam logging railways, which follow the 

 courses of the numerous rivers and creeks. These roads were built 

 primarily to carry redwood, but have cars with frames for tanbark. 

 The Mendocino coast is rockbound and there are no real harbors, but 

 only open roadsteads or half-sheltered coves. The cars are run out 

 upon a headland, and the frame, with its load, is lifted by a steam 

 derrick and transported by a cable to a schooner offshore. A schooner 

 that carries 200 cords of bark may be loaded thus in a very short time. 

 Nearly all of the bark shipped by schooner from the Mendocino coast 

 goes to the San Francisco Bay tanneries. 



Sometimes tanbark is transported to the coast by four-horse wagons, 

 which have a capacity of from 2 to 4 tons. 



The bark delivered for shipment must be air-dry and, according to 

 the rules, must not include any "paper bark" or "snake skin" that 

 is, bark less than half an inch thick. In practice, however, thin bark 

 is included in the shipments without arousing protest, provided there 

 is not too much of it. In the hot, rainless summers of the Coast Range 

 there is no difficulty in meeting the requirement that the bark be 

 air-dry. Bark rarely reaches the market in less than from four to 

 eight weeks from the tune of peeling. Heavy bark loses from 25 to 

 30 per cent of water in this period, medium bark from 30 to 35 per 

 cent, second growth and paper bark from 35 to 40 per cent. There 

 is also a slight loss, from 0.5 to 1 per cent, due to breakage in han- 

 dling and shipping. 



