288 THE UTILISATION OF WOODLAND PRODUCE. 



are being converted into highwoods. Osier-holts, cut over 

 from January onwards when the land is not inundated, yield 

 green rods, fresh and unpeeled, brown rods, drying in skins, 

 which later on are put with the cut ends in water and then 

 peeled to form white rods; but if brown rods are boiled for 

 peeling, then they become buff in colour. Oak-Barking is no 

 longer so usual or so profitable as formerly, although Oak and 

 Larch are still peeled, and the bark sold for tanning. The largest 

 amount of tannic acid is contained in smooth or silver bark of 

 14- to 16-year-old Oak-coppices (giving 15 to 20 per cent tannin 

 when seasoned), while seconds, or medium quality bark from 

 poles and branches beginning to fissure, give 10 to 15 per cent, 

 clean bark from older stems 8 to 10 per cent, and coarse rough 

 bark only 5 to 8 per cent. Sessile Oak has thicker bark and 

 more tannin than Pedunculate Oak ; but the amount of tannin 

 depends greatly on the quality of the soil and the situation, 

 warm exposures producing the most and the thickest and best 

 bark. Alder contains 16 to 20 per cent, but is not used, as it 

 blackens the leather. Larch-bark contains 10 to 15 per cent 

 tannin, Spruce-bark about 8 per cent, Silver Fir 5 to 6 per cent, 

 while Willows have 5 to 7 per cent (used for Russian leather), 

 and Osier-baric 8 to 13 per cent (used for glove leather). 



The best time for bark - stripping is during warm, damp 

 weather, when the young leaves are just flushing ; and the bark 

 peels better in the morning or evening than in the daytime. 

 The later the stripping is delayed after the sap begins to flow, 

 the less is the amount of tannin contained in the bark. 



In copse with standards the underwood is felled and the Oak- 

 bark stripped first, before the standard Oak-trees are felled and 

 barked. The coppice -rods are lightly beaten with a wooden 

 mallet against a smooth stone, when the bark can easily be 

 loosened ; but trees have to be felled, marked off in sections of 

 2J or 3 ft., and bark loosened with a barking-iron, the mallet 

 being used as little as possible, because malleting means injury 



