10;^ HAIIK. 



standards, if at all large, will naturally stand over until the 

 oak-coppice has been felled. 



(b) Season for Peeling. — Oak can be peeled at any time from 

 May till the middle of July, but peeling should be eflected as 

 soon as the buds begin to shoot, which, according to locality, is 

 from the end of April till the middle of May,* and at the first 

 appearance of the foliage, the bark is most easily peeled. In 

 extensive woods, as a rule, the work is commenced as soon as 

 the bark is removable after the first flow of sap, and is then 

 conducted as rapidly as possible : firstly, on account of the com- 

 parative ease with which peeling can be done early in the season ; 

 secondly, so that the young shoots may mature their wood before 

 they become endangered by autumn-frosts, and finally, because 

 it is probable that there is more tannin in the bark in spring 

 than in summer, after much of it has passed into the foliage and 

 young twigs of the coppice. 



The state of the weather has considerable influence on the 

 peeling. In damp, calm weather, especially Avhen accompanied 

 by light and warm showers of rain, the bark is most easily peeled 

 early in the morning and late in the afternoon ; this is also 

 the case when the soil is moist, rather than when it is dry : in 

 windy, dry or cold weather and at midday during hot weather, 

 peeling is difficult. The sessile oak is always more easily 

 peeled than the pedunculate oak, but the latter may be peeled 

 about ten days earlier than the former. Larger stems are 

 more easily peeled at the commencement of the season, smaller 

 stems at the middle and end of the season. Theodore Hartig 

 states that tannic acid is transformed into sugar soon after the 

 foliage has appeared, this begins in the buds and continues 

 with the leaf development. This fact is evidently in favour of 

 early peeling. 



In unfavourable localities, where damage by autumn-frosts is 

 inevitable, the forester is obliged to abandon the whole first 

 year's crop of shoots. The injured shoots are then either cut- 

 back in the following March, making way for a stronger growth 

 which repays the loss of the first year's wood, or the peeled oak- 

 stems are left standing till the succeeding winter, arc then felled 



* In England this is from the tliinl week in April till about the third week ot 

 -May, in Scotland abont a month lat< r. A. D. Webster, Practical Forestiy. 



