TAPPING SPRUCE AND LARCH. 



719 



i*Afiw 



through the bark of the trees down to the cambium-zone. As 

 a rule, two grooves are thus cut on opposite sides of a tree, 

 and when the supply of resin from them falls off, two more 

 are opened between them (Fig. 384). The 

 crude resin pours over these grooves from 

 the large radial resin-ducts and gradually 

 covers them with a hard crust of resin. 

 About a year after tapping, in the second 

 summer, the workman removes this crust 

 with a special iron implement, scraping it 

 into a conical basket, made of spruce- 

 bark, placed below the groove ; he after- 

 wards empties the basket into a larger 

 one, in which the resin is well pressed 

 down. 



The callus, which forms over the wound, 

 is cut about every four years to expedite 

 the exudation of resin. 



The process of resin- tapping causes 

 decay in spruce trees, and by depriving 

 the wood* of its resin reduces the quality 

 of both timber and firewood. If, how- 

 ever, the usage be restricted to the last 

 10 years before the trees are felled no 

 damage is apparently caused, except the reduction in size of 

 the logs, due to the grooves cut in the stem. 



The annual yield of resin from spruce trees in Thuringia 

 80 to 100 years old, when tapped during the last 10 years 

 before they are felled, is 30 pounds of galipot and 43 pounds 

 of crude resin per acre. 



3. Larch. 



Most commercial larch-resin comes from Austria, where 

 two methods for its extraction are employed, as reported by 

 Marchand.f 



(a) The Styrian Method. A hole, 2J centimeters (1 inch) 



* The wood of the black and maritime pines, on the contrary, becomes more 



aa when tapped, 

 t "Mission forustii-re en Autriche." Arbois-Jarel, 1869. 



Fig. 384. llesin- 

 in spruce. 



