PRODUCTION OF YOUNG OAK-BARK. 493 



and the succeeding crop shoots up early in the spring. This 

 custom is followed in some valleys in the western Schwarzwald. 



[In order to be independent of the natural movement of the sap, 

 H. Maitre, in France, in 1864, adopted with good results, a system of 

 peeling oakwood after steaming it, the wood being removed in billets 

 with their bark to the factory and there steamed in closed retorts, after 

 which the bark is easily removed. This system was improved in 

 1871, by de Normaison, an engineer, who used for the purpose an 

 apparatus weighing only 5 cwt., which supplies a blast of superheated 

 steam. This is used on the felling-area, and by the help of 3 men 

 and a boy, 15 to 18 stacked cubic meters (10 to 12 loads) can be 

 peeled in a day and yield a ton of bark. A load of wood and 

 130 gallons of water are used, and the cost is about £2. The 

 advantages of this method are that the wood may be felled in winter 

 when labour is cheap, and that the bark may be i-emoved and stacked 

 in dry sheds instead of being exposed to the weather or the felling- 

 area. Pieces of wood may also thus be utilized which could not 

 otherwise be peeled. The increased cost of carriage of the wood with 

 the bark on has, however, to be considered.* Gayer states that 

 though there is hardly any loss of tannin due to this method, yet that 

 the leather produced by tan froui steamed bark is soft and fine and 

 excellent for saddlery, but not so good for the soles of boots. — Tr.] 



(c) Method of Peeling Bark. — The hark is peeled either after 

 the stems have been felled, half severed or knicked, or from 

 standing stems. 



Peeling felled wood is the method which prevails in Germany ; 

 it is followed in the Odenwald, Frauconia, the Palatinate, Baden, 

 Wiirttemberg and many other districts. The workmen, divided 

 into small parties, commence felling the coppice-shoots, and 

 should he careful to cut them smoothly and close to the ground. 

 All the crop should not at once be felled, but only as much 

 as can immediately be peeled. It is reckoned that a skilful 

 woodcutter can keep two men emplo.ved in peeling. It should 

 he a rule, that every evening not a piece of felled wood 

 remains unpeeled ; for only from wood which has just been felled 

 can the hark be readily peeled, whilst from poles which have been 

 lying felled for 24 hours, the bark can he removed only by 

 knocldng it with a mallet. As soon as a lot of oak coppice- 



* Boppc, 02}. cit. p. 105. 



