WOODS AND COPSES. 



BARKING OAK WOOD. 



We mall fuppofe that the forefler, with his 

 bed inftru&ed men, are bufily engaged in the re- 

 fpe&ive works noticed in the preceding article, 

 according to the circumftances of the age of the 

 copfe or plantation ; and that he has procured a 

 proper number of barkers* according to the extent 

 of his undertaking. A piece of vacant ground, 

 at a convenient fide of the wood, is to be looked 

 out, to which the large and finall wood is to be 

 carried, here to undergo the operation of barking. 

 The barkers are furnimed with light fhort- 

 handled mallets made of afh-wood, the head about 

 eight inches long, three inches in diameter at the 

 face, and the other end blunt, but fomewhat 

 wedge-ihaped ; and with fharp wedges, made of 

 the fame fort of timber, fomewhat fpatula-fhaped: 

 thefe, from their form, may either be drove by 

 the mallet, or pufhed by the hand. The barkers 

 are alfo provided with a fmooth whinftone, about 

 fix or eigh: inches in diameter on the face, and 

 four or five inches thick. 



The young faplings, fmall branches or twigs, 

 are held by one hand on the ftone, and with the 

 other beat by the mallet until the bark be fplit 

 on the \vood : it is then peeled off, and laid re- 

 guiarly a5.je, till a bundle of confiderable fize be 



The 



