As the bark is removed it is gathered up in piles and left for a few days to dry. Having been weighed, it is next carried either in wagons or on the backs of burros to the boiling stations, where it is stacked and allowed to season for a few weeks. It is then ready for the boiling process, which at times is postponed until the crude material reaches Seville or some other shipping point.
Trimming the Sheets of Bark at Seville
But if the forest is distant, the water supply adequate, and the quantity of bark ample to justify such procedure, the vats are erected at a convenient spot and this operation carried out on the ground.
The outside of the bark in its natural state is, as may well be imagined, rough and woody, owing to exposure to the weather. After boiling, this useless outer coating is readily scraped off, thereby reducing the weight of the material almost twenty per cent. The boiling process also serves to remove the tannic acid, increases the volume and elasticity of the bark, renders it soft and pliable, and flattens it out for convenient packing.
Corner of One of the Sorting Rooms at Seville
After being roughly sorted as to quality and thickness the bark is then ready for its first long journey, and, as the forests are generally located in hilly or even mountainous country, the faithful burro must again be called into service. Truly the Spaniard’s best friend, though the worst treated of all, these patient little animals present a most grotesque appearance when loaded from head to hind quarters with a huge mass of the light bark.