CONTINENTAL NOTES — FRANCE. 65 



forests, covered with scrub. The Holm oak {Quercus ilex) 

 occupies 28 "/o of the wooded area, the Corsican pine 25 7o> the 

 Maritime pine 23 7o> the beech 12 7o> the cork oak 3 7o> ^^^ 

 divers species 9 7o- Government took up the subject in 1856, 

 and began by tapping the Corsican pine for resin. This was 

 commercially successful during the American war, but afterwards 

 the trade fell to pieces. The out-turn was good, but there were 

 no local workmen [resiniers), and those brought from the flat 

 Landes did not like the steep ground and the loneliness. 

 Tapping also does not suit the Corsican pine, and much damage 

 has resulted from these early and crude workings. Of late 

 years they have started, with apparent success, the tapping of 

 the Maritime pine, which is the resin-producing pine of the 

 Landes. They used to work the Corsican pine on the Uniform 

 (or Successive fellings) method, and this is the method par 

 excellence for pine forests, which regenerate themselves easily. 

 It resulted in large areas clothed exclusively with young pine 

 woods, which, when one of the numerous fires occurred, were 

 destroyed — since the bark of young trees is not thick enough to 

 resist — and there were then no means of restoring the regenera- 

 tion. Accordingly they have fallen back on Selection, which is 

 not so convenient for resin-tapping as the original method (with 

 its concentration of work). A few standards — and but very few 

 would probably be ample — left purposely scattered throughout 

 the forest would, we think, meet the contingency, and allow of 

 the application of the better method of treatment. Of course it 

 is goats and fires that are the chief curse of the island. 



VIII. It may have occurred to some that additional revenue 

 might be made from our pine woods by tapping them for resin. 

 The chief resin-yielding pine in Europe is the Maritime pine 

 {F. Pinaster), and this tree, in the Landes, gives as much 

 revenue from its resin as from its timber. To decide whether 

 resin-tapping could be extended to other latitudes, with other 

 pines, the Research Station at Nancy has made very careful 

 experiments with the Scots and the Austrian pines, and the 

 results have shown that commercial success would be very 

 doubtful at that latitude (49° N.), and therefore, since heat seems 

 to cause a more plentiful flow of resin, it would almost certainly 

 not pay at home to undertake this work. The summer heat at 

 Nancy is higher^than in England. It is true that the price of 

 turpentine and^colophany (the components of resin) is nowadays 



VOL. XXVin. PART I. E 



