BAR 



BAR 



for separating the bark from the 

 wood. 



BARKING OF TREES. The oper- 

 ation of stripping off the bark or rind. 

 It is common to perform the opera- 

 tion of oak-barking in the spring 

 months, when the bark, by the rising 

 of the sap, is easily separated from 

 the wood. This renders it necessa- 

 ry to fell the trees in these months. 

 The tool commonly made use of in 

 most countries is made of bone or 

 iron. If of the former, the thigh or 

 shin bone is preferred, which is form- 

 ed into a two-handed instrument for 

 the stem and larger boughs, with a 

 handle of wood fixed at the end. The 

 edge being once given by the grind- 

 ing stone, or a rasp, it keeps itself 

 sharp by wear. 



The cutters should be provided with 

 ripping saws, widely set, with sharp, 

 light hatchets, and with short-handled 

 pruning hooks. The barkers are pro- 

 vided with light, short-handled ashen 

 mallets, the head being about eight 

 inches long, three inches diameter in 

 the face, and the other end blunt, 

 somewhat wedge-shaped ; with sharp 

 ashen wedges, somewhat spatula- 

 shaped, and which may either be 

 driven by the mallet, or, being formed 

 with a kind of handle, may be pushed 

 with the hand. 



The large pieces are set up on end, 

 or they are formed into small pyrami- 

 dal stacks. Due attention must be 

 paid to turning the bark according to 

 the state of the weather. Good hay 

 weather is good barking weather. 

 It is chiefly by the high brown colour 

 of the inner rind, and by its astrin- 

 gent effect upon the palate when 

 tasted, that the tanner or merchant 

 judges of its value. If these proper- 

 ties be lost through neglect, or by the 

 vicissitudes of the weather, themner 

 bark becomes blanched, or rendered 

 white. 



After it is in a proper state, that 

 is, completely past fermentation, if it 

 cannot conveniently be carried off 

 the ground and housed, it must be 

 stacked. An experienced husband- 

 man who can stack hay can also stack 

 bark ; but it may be proper to warn 



him against building his stack too 

 large, and to caution him to cover it 

 well. 



BARK LICE. Scale insects. In- 

 sects of the genus Coccus, many of 

 which yield a rich dye, as the C. cacti, 

 or cochineal of Mexico. They are of 

 an oval or roundish form, and small in 

 size, rarely exceeding one fourth of 

 an inch. They infest the young bark 

 commonly, but are also found on the 

 leaves and roots of some plants. The 

 female undergoes no winged trans- 

 formation, but the male does. In the 

 spring the lice are found like dead 

 shields on the young branches, ar- 

 ranged in rows ; under these appa- 

 rently inanimate bodies the eggs of a 

 new generation are concealed, which 

 shortly put on life, and come forth 

 of the oval figure of the family ; they 

 insert their slender beaks into the 

 young bark or leaves, and begin to 

 draw the sap with such activity that 

 it drops from them and the punctures 

 to the ground, attracting ants to as- 

 cend the tree. After a season, the 

 cocci attach themselves to some spot 

 on the bark, and emit downy threads 

 to make fast. Here a transformation 

 ensues, which gives wings to the 

 male, and only a new coat to the fe- 

 male. After a time, differing with 

 the species, the male comes forth re- 

 •duced in size, but the female is sta- 

 tionary. Impregnation ensues, her 

 body swells, the eggs are placed un- 

 der her, she dies, and the crust of her 

 body forms their winter protection. 

 But in some varieties two generations 

 appear in one year. The apple-tree 

 louse hatches from the end of May to 

 the middle of June : they are whitish ; 

 in ten days they fasten themselves, 

 and begin to throw out bluish down ; 

 and there appears two broods in the 

 year. 



They are destroyed by birds of the 

 wren genus, ichneumon flies, and by 

 washing the bark early in June. See 

 Bark Cleaning. When they infest the 

 roots, applications must be made to 

 those parts. 



BARK MILL. See Mill. 



BARK, SPENT, from the tanners, 

 forms a good manure when rotted 



67 



