BARILLA. 



BARK. 



only make the request that they no longer urge 

 their opinion on abstract and general grounds, 

 nntil they have collected the result of impar- 

 tial observation and careful experiment." 



The Rev. Dr. Singer, in the Trans. Hi^h Sac., 

 vol. vi. p. 340, in considering the barberry as 

 the cause of rust or mildew on corn crops, 

 says, when quoting the survey of Dumfries- 

 shire, " On one farm alone, that of Kirkbank, 

 the tenant lost about 100/. in his oat-crops 

 yearly; and altogether the annual damage in 

 the county was considerably above 1000/. The 

 :f Sir Joseph Banks, and of some intel- 

 ligent practical farmers, relative to the evil 

 influence of the Berheris rtt/^nrf.", induced the 

 lafc A-l'uiral Sir William Johnstone Hope to 

 give orders for the total extirpation of the 

 barberry bushes which grew intermixed with 

 thorns in his hedgerows; and since that was 

 done, and for above twenty years, no such dis- 

 temper has appeared in these fields. The same 

 ihiii'j has been done in some parts of Ayrshire, 

 am! the like result has followed. These facts," 

 adds Dr. Singer, "appear to indicate some con- 

 nection between the occurrence of rust or mil- 

 dew on growing corn and the neighbourhood 

 of hnrberry bushes.'* Phillips inquires (Pom. 

 Brit.), whether the blighting effects of this 

 shrub may not in some degree be accounted 

 for by its May-flowers alluring insects, which 

 breed on the branches, and then feed their 

 ry on the nutritious juices of the sur- 

 rounding blades of young cornl 

 BARILLA. See SODA. 

 BARING Rot* of Trees. A practice former- 

 ly much adopted, but which later experience 

 ha 1 - ^hown to be highly injurious ana hurtful 

 to their growth. 



BARK (Dan. barcTt,- Dutch, berck; from the 

 Teutonic bergen, to cover). The rind or cover- 

 ing of the woody parts of a tree. The bark of 

 trees is composed of three distinct layers, of 

 which the outermost is called the epidmni*, 

 the next the parenchyma, and the innermost, or 

 that in contact with the wood, the cortical layer*. 

 The epidermis is a thin, transparent, 

 membrane ; when nibbed off, it is gradually 

 reproduced, and in some trees it cracks and 

 decays, and a fresh epidermis is formed, push- 

 ing outwards the old : hence the reason why 

 so many aged trees have a rough surface 

 The parenchyma is tender, succulent, and of 

 a dark green. The cortical layer, or liber, con- 

 sists of thin membranes encircling each other 

 and these seem to increase with the age of the 

 plant. The liber, or inner bark, is known 

 its whiteness, great flexibility, toughness, and 

 durability: the fibres in its structure are lig 

 neous tubes. It is the part of the stem through 

 which the juices descend, and the organ MI 

 which the generative sap from whence all the 

 other parts originate is received from the 

 leaves. The bark in its interstices contain 

 cells which are filled with juices of very vary 

 ing qualities ; some, like that of the oak, re 

 markable for their astringency; others, like 

 the cinnamon, abounding with an essential oil 

 others, as the Jesuits' bark, containing an al 

 kali ; some mucilaginous ; many resinous. Se 

 reral of these barks have been analysed b 

 tar'ous chemists: they have found them t 



onsist chiefly of carbon, oxygen, and hydro 

 ;en, with various saline and earthy substances. 

 Thorn. Chem. vol. iv. p. 231.) 

 M. Saussure (Chem. Rec. Peg.) found in 100 

 'arts of the ashes of the barks of various 

 rees the following substances : 



From this analysis the farmer will see that 

 he earthy and saline ingredients of the bark 

 f forest trees must be considerable fertilizers : 

 t is only to the slowness with which refuse 

 anner's bark undergoes putrefaction that its 

 icglect by the cultivator must be attributed. 

 t might certainly, however, be mixed with 

 "arm-yard compost with very considerable 

 advantage, as has been often done with saw- 

 lust and peat, in the manner so well described 

 y Mr. Dixon of Hathershew (Journ. of Roy. 



ng. Agr. Soc. vol. i. p. 135), see FARM-YARD 



AXURE ; and in its half putrefied or even fresb 

 state it produces on some grass lands very ex 

 cellent effects as a top dressing; and in in 

 stances where carriage is an object, even its 

 ashes would be found, from the quantity of 

 earthy carbonates and phosphates which they 

 contain, a very useful manure. 



The different uses of barks in tanning and 

 dyeing are numerous and important. The 

 strength or fineness of their fibres is also of 

 consequence : thus, woody fibres are often so 

 ough as to form cordage, as exemplified in the 

 ^ark of the lime, the willow, and the cocoa- 

 nut; the liber of some trees, as for example 

 the lime and the paper mulberry, is manufac- 

 tured into mats ; and it is scarcely requisite to 

 refer to hemp and flax for spinning and weav- 

 ing. The bark of the papyrus, or flag of the 

 Nile, was first used for paper; that of the 

 mulberry is still employed in the cloth of Ota- 

 heite ; that of the powdered Swedish pines, as 

 bread for the poor peasants of Scandinavia. 

 In England, the bark of the oak is used for 

 affording tannic acid in the manufacture of 

 leather ; but other barks, such as that of the 

 Spanish chestnut and the larch, are also em- 

 ployed. The following table of Davy will 

 show the relative value of different kinds of 

 bark to the tanner: it gives the quantity of 

 tannic acid afforded by 480 Ibs. of different 

 barks in that great chemist's own experiments 

 (Lect. p. 83.) 



Average from the entire bark of 

 Middle-sized oak, cut in spring - 

 -- cut in autumn 



Spanish chestnut - 



Leicester willow (large size) - 



Elm -------- 



Common willow (large) 



Ash ------- 



Beech * ? 



Horse chestnut - - - - 

 Sycamore - - - - - 

 Lombardy poplar 

 Birch ------ 



Hazel 



Blackthorn - - - - 



Coppice oak - 



Larch, cut in autumn - - - - " 



White interior cortical layers of oak barK 



- * 

 " II 



I 33 



- 13 



- 11 



- 10 



- 9 



- 11 

 . 1ft 

 . 8 



- 14 



- 32 



- 8 



