How to speed up firewood drying

[Ianab]

I heard a story, maybe a legend🤔 of Canadians to the north of here dropping paper birch, and then running a kerf the length of the tree with a chainsaw. The bark would curl away from the cut and let the wood dry

Makes sense. If the wood you are trying to dry has a layer of bark, it has to slow the drying. Wood loses moisture fastest through the end grain, so getting it bucked into 12-18" lengths will be the most use. But splitting / peeling the bark must do "something" to speed the drying of log length wood. 

[Wood Shed]

In my experience leaving a tree sit with the leaves intact to dry naturally will definitely lower the moisture content, have read that it will lower it to 20%, have not checked that but I have read that somewhere (probably here).  Split and stack off the ground like on a pallet in an area that it will get air circulation and protection from rain.    

[OddInTheForrest]

i have done this with white birch here in norway, but then left it for 4months. Was ready to burn after splitting.

There is a way, used in the small circles around restoration of old log buildings here, called "Ring-barking". 
They cut of a 1m / 3ft piece of the bark at the bottom of a standing tree, and leave it for about a year. It dries the tree up, and makes it ready for axe-work and shaping rigth after its cut.

I have speculated in doing the same with a few trees in my firewood block, but havent gotten around to it yet.