511 BARK. 



lii;,'li (juiility, the maintenance of oak-coppice is justifiaLlo, and 

 will pay its way in spite of bad prices. Wherever the nianaf^e- 

 ment is indifferent, half the crop mere firewood, the rotation 

 up to 80 or 35 j'cars, the fellin^^-areas shaded hy numerous 

 standards, no tending afforded, the bark-coppice expected to 

 yield plenty of wood and even litter, the preparation of the 

 bark defective, &:c., it cannot be wondered that the forest 

 owner is disappointed in his revenues ; he had then better turn 

 his attention to hop-poles or wood for paper-pulp, rather than 

 to bark. In such cases, one need not be surprised that the 

 tanner will offer only a low price, since it is always possible for 

 him to use some imported material as a substitute for oak- 

 bark. 



Ill the middle of the present century the question was raised, 

 owing to the outcry of the tanners, whether the increasing 

 demands for bark should be met by converting certain areas of 

 the State high forests into bark-coppice. The German Forest 

 Departments have almost unanimously resisted this demand, and 

 quite rightly, as is now recognized. Independently of the fact 

 that it is not statesmanlike to favour only a single industry, it 

 is evidently the duty of the State to manage its forests so as to 

 satisfy most fully all market demands, and render them in every 

 way most productive. Had the State forests been transformed 

 into coppice as was then suggested, they would now, with the 

 low prices of bark, be in a wretched financial condition. 



The cultivation of bark must be left chiefiy to communes and 

 private forest owners, especially as they are the principal owners 

 of the localities where bark fiourishes. 



In thus recommending the cultivation of bark in communal 

 and private forests, not only those areas already under forest are 

 referred to, but those numerous half-cultivated lands bordering 

 on forests, which owing to their position, remoteness, or inferior 

 soil are unsuitable for agriculture, and often afford merely a poor 

 pasturage, but owing to the climate of the locality are in many 

 cases admirably adapted for the production of bark. 



It appears as if the strenuous endeavours to manufacture 

 tannin have already proceeded beyond the experimental stage. 

 The initiative taken at Lyons and Nantes has been followed by 

 the establishment of large factories in France Austria, and 



