130 ON HARVESTING BARK. 
found that this rough outside bark does not easily part with 
the inner bark so early in the season as the inner bark rises 
from the wood ; but later, when the sap flows more copiously, 
it is readily removed. 
Before the trees are felled, a person advances with a bark- 
ing-iron or bill, and forms a circular incision, cutting through 
the bark of the tree close to the surface of the ground, and 
making a similar incision at the height of two feet ; between 
these the bark is removed. A woodsman follows and notches 
the tree about two inches deep all round the surface, which 
prepares it for being cut through by the common cross-cut 
saw. Immediately on the tree being felled, the smaller 
branches are cut with an axe or bill, into pieces about two 
feet long, from which, when tapped over a stone with a wooden 
mallet, the bark loosens, and is readily removed. The bark- 
ing-iron is applied in cutting through the bark around the 
trunk and main branches, at places about two feet apart, and 
with the aid of the mallet and barking-chisel the main tim- 
bers are peeled. The tools used in the various operations no 
doubt vary in form in different districts; a heavy axe and 
cross-cut saw for felling the timber ; a light axe and a hedger’s 
short bill for cutting through the bark—the former also for 
use as a mallet ; and barking-irons of various sizes, which are 
blunt duck-bill-shaped chisels, flat on one side and rounded on 
the other, are the tools commonly used in England. Women, 
in some districts, and boys, are employed, six or eight being 
superintended by a man, who lops the branches, and assists in 
turning the trees as the work proceeds. As the bark is raised 
from the tree it is classed into two sizes—the smaller into 
heaps, and the larger covering them, placed with the outside 
uppermost. 
We now come to the most important part, the process of 
drying, which in a great measure regulates the value of the 
produce, and in wet weather becomes very precarious. A 
bark drying-shed should occupy the most airy situation in the 
forest or in its vicinity. It should consist of a roof, which 
may be formed of deal, and supported on pillars ten feet high. 
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