506 



BAKK. 



Fl(i. -21 



wliich are most liable to damafje. Even then, tliinniiifijs, pre- 

 l>aratory fellin^^^s, extraction of old trees from younger woods and 

 eeeding-fellings in high forest will still yield much bark for use 

 if required. 



In some districts in Hesse and Hanover, old oaks are peeled 

 standing in the spring, left standing till winter and then felled. 

 This method [also employed in the Forest of Dean. — Tr.] gives 

 superior timber to that felled in the spring. As a rule, bark is 

 peeled from old oak trees after they are felled, and 

 here also only as many trees should be felled as can 

 be peeled during the day. The men engaged in 

 peeling, who are usually employed by tanners, or 

 merchants, follow close on the woodcutters. 



The workman makes a cut down the stem and 

 through the bark with the barking-iron (Fig. 277). 

 The bark is then peeled in large flat pieces by means 

 of the iron and the workman's hands. It can seldom 

 be removed without constant beating. Wherever the 

 bark is sold stacked, the pieces are then cut to the 

 required length (say one meter). The less common 

 method of barking standing trees is easier to effect, 

 although ladders are required. 



The most troublesome part of the work is to peel 

 the crooked knotty branches which must always be 

 beaten. Sometimes, instead of the barking-iron, the 

 common felling-axe alone is used. If the weather is 

 favourable an experienced workman will peel 4 or 5 



I large oak trees in a day. Trimming the bark, how- 



1 ever expensive it may be, greatly increases its value. 



Jli The more thoroughly the cracked and dead outer bark 

 or rhitidome, which in old trees forms 50 to (50% of 

 the bark, is removed from the iimer and more sappy bark, the 

 more valuable will be the produce ; the percentage of tannic acid 

 in old bark would not be so low as compared with young bark, 

 were all the hard outer bark removed. Wherever trimming is 

 done it should always precede peeling, and is best effected on 

 standing trees. 



The peeled bark is then carried to a neighbouring blank to be 

 dried. For this purpose it is usually placed horizontally on a 



