Common Oak 335 



Bark 



The bark of the oak was until recently a valuable source of revenue in England, 

 but, owing to the introduction of other materials for tanning, has now fallen so much 

 in price that in some districts it hardly pays to take off, and large areas of coppice 

 oak in the western counties have become almost worthless in consequence. 

 Whether the leather made by these modern substitutes is as durable as that 

 produced under the old system is doubtful, but the comparative slowness of the 

 process of tanning by oak bark seems to be one of the chief reasons for the change. 



Professor H. R. Procter of the Leather Industries Department of the Leeds 

 University, whom I consulted on this question, tells me that though he agrees with me 

 that no tree at present grown in England is worth growing for the sake of its bark 

 alone, yet he thinks that it will be long before the demand for oak bark entirely 

 disappears. He considers that though leather tanned with oak bark alone is perhaps 

 the best for boots and shoes, the cost of the slow process is so much greater in 

 proportion to quality, that the leather so tanned is practically an article of luxury. 



In the Land Agents Record for October 29, 1904, there is an article on the 

 price of oak bark, which is stated to have fallen from ^8 a ton in the writer's 

 experience to 47s. 6d. ; and when the cost of peeling, which averages about 25s. 

 per ton, the cost of loading and delivering to the station, and the cost of railway 

 carriage is added, little or nothing is left for bark grown at any distance from its 

 market. Since then the price in some districts has risen a little, but in this case, as 

 in others, it is clear that chemically prepared substitutes are killing an industry 

 of much importance to landowners and labourers. 



Timber 



With regard to the difference in the timber of the two varieties of oak, we 

 have, strange to say, little or no certain experience in England. Laslett says that 

 though he agrees generally with the opinion then prevalent, that Q. sessiliflora 

 was slightly inferior to peduncidata, he feels bound to admit that during a long 

 experience in working them, he has not been able to discover any important difference 

 between the two varieties. He says that very fine specimens of long clean oaks of 

 the sessile form were found in the Forest of Dean, which, however, were liable both 

 to cup and star shake, and that he is inclined to believe that these defects are less 

 common in Q. pednnculata. 



Though little attention is now paid to the difference of winter- and spring-felled 

 oak timber, and it seems as if most users of wood will pay as much for the latter 

 as for the former, yet, considering the low price of bark and the importance of 

 durability, I should strongly advise the former being used for all first-class work. 



Laslett,^ who, as timber inspector to the Admiralty, had probably as much 

 experience as any man of his day, and more than any one at the present time, 



' By far (he best account that I know of is in Laslett's Tuiihcr and Thiiher Trcr:s, of which a new edition, revised by the 

 late Prof. Marshall Ward, was pubHshed in 1S94. 



