PRODUCTION OF YOUNG OAK-BARK. Wl 



effects on the stools. lu some localities in the middle Rhino- 

 valley leaf-fodder is unfortunately still utilized in oak-baik 

 woods. Even so, when only a moderate use of litter is practised, 

 the bark cracks at an early age, becomes encrusted with lichens, 

 and frequently no silver-bark is obtainable. Broom may per- 

 haps be removed carefully, but it is better to leave it, especially 

 where cereal crops are grown intermediately with oak-bark, as 

 the cereal harvest will be all the richer for the ashes left on the 

 ground when the broom is cut and burned. The Hauberge 

 near Siegeu affords a clear proof of the damage done by grazing, 

 the browsing of the cattle there often reducing most markedly 

 the quantity and quality of the bark. 



2. Ilarvestinr/ the Bark. 



The work of harvesting the bark may be divided into three 

 parts, preparatory work, peeling and drying. 



(a) Preparatory work. — As has been already stated, in most oak- 

 bark woods there is a mixture of other species with the oak. 

 Partly in order to obtain more room and time for the business of 

 peeling the bark, partly to avoid deterioration in value of the 

 wood of the mixed species if it is cut during the season of growth, 

 but chiefly in order to expedite the peeling operations, all the 

 mixed wood in an oak-bark coppice is felled at a sufficiently early 

 date so that it may be removed from the felling-area before the 

 peeling commences. This is usually during the winter before 

 the peeling. At the same time, in many places, all oak-wood 

 which cannot be stripped, epicormic branches and shoots grow- 

 ing more or less horizontally along the ground are removed. In 

 the Odenwald, the side-branches are removed from the oak- 

 shoots, as far as the wood-cutter can reach with his bill-hook. 



Where cereal crops are also cultivated, as soon as the mixed 

 wood has been felled and the soil is no longer frozen, the first 

 cultivation of the ground around the oak-stools is efi"ected. The 

 sods of grass or heather thus loosened dry better than if the work 

 was only undertaken at the end of the peeling, when the time 

 for sowing is approaching. Wherever there are standards over 

 the underwood, those intended to be felled are marked as soon 

 as the mixed wood has been felled. The felling of these 



