308 HAKK. 



are in mouiituinous regions, where on account of the climate 

 summer-felling prevails, and the wood must be peeled, owing 

 to the danger of insect-attacks, and the necessities of transport, 

 most of the ditiiculties which occur in utilizing oak-hark are 

 avoided. 



In order to obtain spruce-bark, the felled stems after being 

 cut into saw-mill butts, are peeled with the barking-iron or the 

 axe, so as, if possible, whenever the log is not too thick, to 



Fig. 278. 



remove the bark in one piece. The men, however, prefer peeling 

 the firewood blocks a meter long, to heavy logs and butts. 

 The bark is then spread-out on poles or placed on au incline to 

 dry, or arranged as in Fig. 278, the roof-like structure thus 

 formed being covered with numerous other pieces of bark, and 

 thus secured against the rain. In setting-out the pieces of bark 

 to dry, they are bent outwards so as almost to break along their 

 middle line in order to prevent them from rolling-up, otherwise 

 they would not dry thoroughly. 



As in all trees, the bark of young spruce contains more tannic 

 acid than that from old trees ; and the bark of trees grown wide 

 apart, or in the open, and of trees exposed to the south or along 

 the borders of a forest, is richer in tannic acid than those under 

 opposite conditions. 



In most countries dried spruce-burk is stacked like ordinary 

 firewood and sold by the stack ; a stacked cubic meter (35 cubic 

 feet) contains 0*3 cubic meters (10 cubic feet) of solid bark. 

 Well-stacked smooth middle-aged spruce-bark, when air-dried 

 weighs from 150 — 175 kilos per stacked cubic meter (-li to 5 cwt. 



