Connecticut western news., 1889-06-26
BARK PEELERS.
A Day Among the Woodsmen
 of the Catskill.
The Work of the Choppers,
 Flxers and Spudders.

The men were at work some distance up the side of the mountain, which was aspur of gre,t Peakamoose, and I was guided by a man who was taking them some addition to their dinners. The road ceased altogether, soon after we left the shaaty, and it was not long be- fore even the path disappeared, so that we hsd to force our way through the thick woods up the steep slope, guided only by the sounds of chopping and the crash of fallin trees which came to our cars.
 Most of the men were young fellows, with tall, strong, active frame, aud frank, honest face. One or two of them wore red flannel shirts which looked very picturesque among the green trees, and all of them made SO merry over their hard work that the felling of huge trees and looping of stout branches seemed rather play than labor.
 When bark -pee.ers go into the woods they divide themselves into parties of four or five who work together. Each one of these parties contains choppers fxers and spudders.
 The beginning of operations belongs to the first class. The chopper chooses the first good-sized hemlock that is seen, and it is attacked near the root with sharp and skilfdl axe until it tum- bles headlong in just the desired direc- ton. The fall of one of the,e trees, es- pecially if it be large ono, is an i'm pressive sight. The chopper cuts broad opening on one side fully half through the great trunk, yet tho tree stands firm and pays no attention to the blows, nor to the heavy chips that con- tinually fly away from its dark, red heartwood. Then the chopper goes around on the other side, and cuts new gash, little lower than the first one, since he intends the tree to fall to that side. Here, too, he cuts deep in before there are any signs of conquest. As the axe begins to touch the center, how ever, the topmost limbs are seen to tremble, then to sway, and a cracking sound follows the repeated blows which warn the poor tree that it's time has come. Then there is tottering, it- tie leaning toward the weaker side, which has the lower cut, and the wood man, keeping his eye upward and his feet ready to jump, hurls one last pow erful stroke into the overstrained fbers. They fly apart with loud noise, the great crown bows toward the earth, gains swifter motion as it desccnds, and comes crashing down upon the weak and resistless brushwood with noise like the muffled roar of whole battery and force which shakes the earth.
 Now comes the work of the '.6xers." They leap upon the but of the fallen giant, and, striking at tho lowest limbs, first cut off every branch until all are Topped away to where the trunk grows too narrow to be worth trimming. As fast as little space of the trunk is cleared, one of the men cuts notch through the bark and around the trunk -''rings" it, as he would say. Four ho and then slits the bark lengthwise from one ring to the other, on three or four sides of the treo. This goes on every four feet, as fast as the tree is trimmed, until the whole length has been thus '.tixed."
 Last of all comes the ''spudder," whose duty it is to pry off the great flakes of bark which have been notched and split for him. He takes his name from the tool he uses, which is sort of small, heavy, sharped-edged spade, with short handle; perhaps to call it round blade chisel would describe it more nearly. To pry off the bark in this way seems very easy, but they told me it was the hardest work of all, and that it required considerable skill to do it properly.
 When the bark has been removed it must be made up into regular piles so as to be measured, for it is estimated aud sold by the cord. This is hard work, for the green and juicy bark is very heavy and rough to handle. Some times tree will be found so large as to furnish cord, or even more, alone; but the average rate of yield is much less, so that experts calculate that four trees must be cut down to obtain a cord of bark.
 It is only when the new wood is form ing just underneath, and the cells are soft and full of sap, that the bark can be stripped from the log in large pieces. Feeling, therefore, can be carried on only during May and June. The cords of bark piled then are left to dry all the summer and fall, aud are hauled out in winter by OK teams with sleds, when the deep snow makes smooth track over even so terribly rough road as the one have mentioned.
 The bark peelers were very jolly lot of fellows, singing and joking as they worked, and at dinner there was one 1 incessant rattle of stories and fun