12 
WATTLES AND WATTLE-BARKS. 
Wattle-Barks in General. 
(a). TIME OF YEAR FOR STRIPPING. 
Wattle-barks are often gathered all the year round, whereas they should 
only be stripped for three or four months in the year; (the months recom¬ 
mended are September, October, November, and December)* out of that 
season there is usually a depreciation of tannin in the bark. In these months, 
also, the sap usually rises without intermission, and the bark is easily 
removed from the tree. The impression appears to have prevailed amongst 
bark-strippers that whenever the bark would strip it possessed full tanning 
properties, but this is erroneous. After a few days of rain during other 
seasons of the year, a temporary flow of sap will cause the bark to bo easily 
detached from the trunk, but then it is greatly inferior in quality. (Report 
Victorian Board). 
Mr. A. I.. Thrupp, in a paper read in March, 1890, before the Congress of 
Agricultural Bureaux in Adelaide, carefully warns tanners and others 
against receiving wattle-bark damp, pointing"out that bark in that state 
engenders mould ki ofa most virulent form,* ’ is liable to spontaneous combustion 
if stacked in the hold of a vessel, and, while bark received green will tan 
hides as fast as bark received dry, still, there is the undeniable fact, in nine 
cases out of ten, that leather produced from bark so received, so stacked, and 
used for tanning purposes is spotted, and therefore of second rate or third 
rate value. 
Apart from the intermittent supply already alluded to, it is owing to the 
greedy and ^discriminating way in which wattle-bark has been gathered, 
and tlie moist condition in which it has often been shipped, that purchasers 
in England, finding the quality variable, have not entered into its regular 
employment as largely as might have been expected. 
It should be purchased in the stick or bundle. “ In this form its quality 
can be more readily judged ; but when the supply of mature trees became 
diminished, nearly all the bark was chopped or" ground prior to shipment, 
good and inferior being bagged together.” 
Mr. Thrupp states that if the bark of a wattle-tree of three or four years 
be slit down on the south side with a sharp knife, from root to first branch, 
the increase in the bulk of the bark will be considerable. This has been 
tried in the Montacute District of South Australia successfully for years. 
Spring is the proper time for this work. ( Journal , South Australian Bureau 
oj Agriculture^ November, 1889.) A correspondent of mine, engaged in 
wattle cultivation in the Blue Mountains, has also practised this method 
with success. He has instituted comparative experiments, and is convinced 
of the advantage of the process in increasing hulk of bark. He performs 
the operation in the early winter (May or June). 
The best wattle-barks contain comparatively little fibre. A good bark 
will, as a rule, grind to an impalpable powder, while one which with the 
same treatment forms a fibrous substance is, as a rule, to be avoided. I have 
not, however, come to any conclusion with respect to the connection 
between percentage of tannic acid and fibre. 
No fixed time, applicable to all parts of New South Wales and to varying seasons, 
can be given. Farmers and others will have to find the best time from their own 
experience, supplemented, of course, by assays of bark stripped at various periods. 
