66 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



rising, but it fluctuates, and therefore renders outlay on the 

 construction of factories too risky. Very occasionally, as during 

 the American civil war, the prices obtained from the products of 

 resin-tapping have been very high. The Nancy experiments 

 showed that the Austrian was a little better than the Scots for 

 the production of resin, but the amount of resin per quarre 

 (or groove made for the tapping) was only 12 to 13 oz. a year. 

 The pine in the Landes produces from one to two litres 

 {i litre = 176 pint) per quarre per annum. 



IX. M. Chancerel points out that whereas the fabrication of 

 woodpulp for paper uses up immense quantities of timber, and 

 the demand constantly increases, the pines, and especially the 

 Scots and Maritime pines, are too full of resin to make good 

 paper. He suggests, therefore, that if the resin can be got rid of 

 a very large addition to the supply of wood available will be 

 made. He says that the resin can be got rid of either by dis- 

 solving or by neutralising it. For dissolving it he proposes, after 

 rejecting several solvents that are dangerous or costly, the use of 

 medicated {denature) alcohol The alcohol is heated in a water- 

 bath, and the vapour of the alcohol, when cooled and liquified, 

 passes through the wood-fibre and back into the original vessel, 

 carrying with it the resin (in the form of turpentine and colophany) 

 and such other organic matters as are soluble in alcohol, but 

 these are small in amount. The wood is completely purged of 

 resin. The neutralising process is even simpler and cheaper. 

 The turpentine is first removed by passing steam through the 

 wood fibre, after which the fibre is boiled with a solution of soda, 

 which neutralises all the acids present, as well as the colophany. 

 To test this we may distil the fibre with alcohol, and if the 

 alcohol dissolves nothing it is clear that the resin has been got 

 rid of. 



X. The French Parliament is discussing the placing of 

 private woods under the surveillance of the State — not, it is 

 thought, the forcible placing of them under the State, but 

 whether private proprietors should be at liberty to obtain for 

 their woods, to a greater or less extent, the assistance of the 

 Government, as represented by its forest officers. The object 

 is, of course, to encourage afforestation, for the idea includes the 

 formation of new woods as well as the maintenance o those in 

 existence. The subject is worthy of our consideration. The 

 first step has been made here by the appointment of advisory 



