BAKKING. 



BARKING. 



The difference of seasons makes a consider- 

 able variation in the produce of tannic acid ; 

 it is the least in cold springs. The tannic acid 

 most abounds when the buds are opening, and 

 least in the winter; 4 or 5 Ibs. of good oak 

 bark of average quality are required to form 

 1 Ib. of leather. The consumption of oak bark 

 in Great Britain is about 40,000 tons, more 

 than one half of which is imported from the 

 Netherlands. 



Cork is the outer bark of a species of oak, 

 which grows abundantly in the south of Eu- 

 rope. The average quantity imported annually 

 is about 44,551 cwts. 



The quantity of Quercitron bark, which is 

 the production of black oak (Quercus nigra'), 

 is 22,625 cwts. 



The quantity of Cinchona, or Peruvian bark, 

 is on an average about 300,000 Ibs., but the 

 consumption does not exceed 45,000 Ibs. : the 

 remainder is re-exported. 



The bark of trees is best cleansed from the 

 parasitical mosses with which it is wont to be 

 infected, by being washed with lime-water or 

 a solution of common salt in water (4 oz. to a 

 gallon), applied by a plasterer's brush. 



BARK-BEETLES, see PINE-TREE BEETLE, 

 or WEKVII. 



BARK-BOUND. A disease common to 

 some fruit and other trees, which is capable of 

 being cured by making a slit through the bark, 

 from the top of the tree to the bottom, in Fe- 

 bruary or March ; where the gaping is pretty 

 considerable, fill it up with cow-dung, or other 

 similar composition. 



BARKING IRONS, are instruments for re- 

 moving the bark of oak and other trees. They 

 consist of a blade o^ Knife for cutting the bark, 

 while yet on the trunk, across at regular dis- 

 tances, and of chisels or spatulae, of different 

 lengths and breadths for separating the bark 

 from the wood. 



BARKING OF TREES, the operation of 

 stripping off the bark or rind. It is common 

 to perform the operation of oak-barking in the 

 spring months, when the bark, by the rising of 

 the sap, is easily separated from the wood. 

 This renders it necessary to fell the trees in 

 these months. The tool commonly made use 

 of in most countries is made of bone or iron. 

 If of the former, the thigh or shinbone of an 

 ass is preferred, which is formed into a two- 

 handed instrument for the stem and larger 

 boughs, with a handle of wood fixed at the end. 

 The edge being once given by the grinding- 

 stone, or a rasp, it keeps itself sharp by wear. 



In Europe, two descriptions of persons are 

 usually employed in this business, the hagmen 

 or cutters, and' the barkers. The latter chiefly 

 consists of women and children. The cutters 

 should be provided with ripping-saws, widely 

 set, with sharp, light hatchets, and with short- 

 handled pruning-hooks. The barkers are pro- 

 vided with light, short-handled, ashen mallets, 

 the head being about eight inches long, three 

 inches diameter in the face, and the other end 

 blunt, somewhat wedge-shaped; with sharp 

 asher wedges, somewhat spatula-shaped, and : 

 which may either be driven by the mallet, or, 

 br mg formed with a kind of handle, may be 

 pushed with the hand ; and with a smooth- 



' skinned whin, or other land-stone. The cut- 

 ters are divided into two parties ; hatchet-men, 

 who sever the stem, and hook-men, who prune 

 it of small twigs, and cut it into convenient 

 lengths. Small branches and twigs are held by 

 one hand on the stone ; the bark is then strip- 

 ped off, and laid regularly aside, as in reaping 

 of corn, till a bundle of convenient size be 

 formed. The trunk and branches, as large as 

 the leg, &c. are laid along the ground ; the bark 

 is started, at the thick end, by thrusting or 

 driving in the wedge, which, being run along 

 the whole length, rips it open in an instant; 

 the wedge is applied on both sides of the in- 

 cision, in the manner of the knife in skinning 

 a sheep. A skilful barker will skin a tree or 

 branch as completely as a butcher a beast. 

 But the point most particularly to be observed 

 in this art is, to take off the bark in as long 

 shreds or strands as possible, for the con- 

 venience of carriage to, and drying it on, the 

 horses. These are formed of long branches ; 

 and pieces of a yard in length, sharpened at 

 one end, and having a knag at the other to re- 

 ceive and support the end of the former. 



The horses or supports may stand within 

 four or five feet of each other, and are always 

 to be placed on a dry, elevated spot, that the 

 bark may have free air in drying. At the end 

 of each day's work, the bark is carried to, and 

 laid across, the horses, to the thickness ot 

 about six or eight inches. The large pieces 

 are set up on end, leaning against the horses, 

 or they are formed into small pyramidal stacks. 

 Due attention must be paid to turning the bark 

 once, or perhaps twice a day, according to the 

 state of the weather. Good hay weather is good 

 barking weather. Gentle showers are bene- 

 ficial ; but long continued rains are productive 

 of much evil; nor is the bark the better for 

 being dried too fast. A careful hagman will 

 take pains to lay the strong pieces of the trunk 

 in such a manner as to shoot off the wet, in 

 continued rains, from the smaller bark of the 

 extremities ; at the same time, preserving as 

 much as possible the colour of the inner bark, 

 and consequently the value of the whole, by 

 turning the natural surface outwards. For it 

 is chiefly by the high brown colour of the inner 

 rind, and by its astringent effect upon the pa- 

 late when tasted, that the tanner or merchant 

 judges of its value. These properties are lost, 

 if through neglect, or by the vicissitudes of the 

 vreather, the inner bark be blanched or ren- 

 dered white. 



After it becomes in a proper state, that is 

 completely past fermentation, if it cannot con 

 veniently be carried off the ground and housed, 

 it must be stacked. An experienced husband- 

 man who can stack hay can also stalk bark. 

 But it may be proper to warn him against 

 building his stalk too large, and to caution him 

 to thatch it well. 



The method of drying bark in Yorkshire is 

 generally the common one of setting it in a 

 leaning posture against poles lying horizontally 

 on forked stakes. But in a wet season, or 

 when the ground is naturally moist, it is laid 

 across a line of top-wood, formed into a kind 

 of banklet, raising the bark about a foot from 

 the ground. By this practice no part of the 



