i2 4 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



and as Oak wood and Oak-bark will sell for more 

 than the same quantity of Oak wood alone, we 

 scarcely hear of such a thing as a winter-cut Oak. 

 In order to have both ; in order to have the skin 

 as well as the body, and to have the body sound 

 too, some persons have barked their OAKS stand- 

 ing, and cut down the trees the succeeding winter. 

 This was practised, sometimes, hundreds of years 

 back ; but, if it had been of any solid utility ; if 

 it really had, in the end, been attended with 

 profit, the practice would have become general ; 

 instead of which, I never saw an instance of it in 

 all my life. I have seen small OAK stuff, in the 

 hedge-rows in Cornwall and Devonshire, thus 

 skinned alive, and there may be here and there 

 a man that applies the practice to large trees. 

 But, at any rate, the practice is very rare, and 

 very rare it could not be, if it were unequivocally 

 profitable.' The method is only likely to be 

 tried experimentally in woods managed on busi- 

 ness principles ; and a few experiments would 

 soon show far better than any mere theoretical 

 opinions, pro or contra^ whether or not solid 

 advantages are to be gained by adopting such 

 processes. That the seasoning of standing trees 



