234 MANUFACTURE OF RUSSIA MATS. 
two or three strips being laid one over the other, and kept 
straight by being tied down tolong poles. They are employed 
for making ropes in some parts of England, and for well-ropes 
in France. When required for use, they are steeped in water, 
and the cortical layers readily separate from each other. The 
best of these layers are those which are in the interior, 
while the coarser layers are on the outside. 
The manufacture of mats is nearly confined to Russia and to 
some parts of Sweden. Trees of from six inches to one foot in 
diameter are selected in the woods, and in the beginning of 
summer the bark is stripped from the trees in lengths of from 
six feet to eight feet. These are afterwards steeped in water, 
till the bark separates freely into layers; it is then taken out 
and separated into ribands or strands, which are hung up in 
the shade—generally in the wood where the trees grew from 
which they were taken; and in the course of the summer they 
are manufactured into mats. The fishermen of Sweden make 
fishing nets out of the fibres of the inner bark. 
The trees from which the bark is taken are cut down in the 
summer, and, properly cut, are burnt in heaps into charcoal. 
The sap is drawn off, and, when evaporated, yields sugar. 
The honey of the flowers is much sought after by bees. 
The Lime tree is principally produced in the government of 
Vialka, Kostroma, and those immediately contiguous; and in 
the months of May and June—the period when the bark is 
most easily detached from the stem—the villages in the govern- 
ments in question are almost deserted, the whole population 
being then in the woods employed in stripping the trees. 
The academician Képpen, who has carefully investigated this 
curious subject, estimates the average annual production of 
mats in European Russia, as follows: 
Government of Vialka ‘ 3 - 6,000,000 pieces 
* Kostroma . , - 4,000,000 ,, 
4s Kasan ‘ ‘ . 1,000,000 ,, 
‘5 Nijni Novgorod ‘ 1,000,000 __—,, 
so Vologda, Tamboff, Simbirsk, 
and Penza 4 BOD DOW 45 
Total . ‘ ; 5 - 14,000,000 __,, 
Képpen further estimates that about a fourth part of this 
