APPRECIATION OF THE NEW SYSTEM. 



The rapid introduction of the cup and gutter system by turpentine 

 operators proves beyond a doubt that the experimental stage has been 

 passed. No stronger confirmation of the value of the results obtained 

 at Ocilla, Ga., could be given than the fact that by far the greater 

 portion of the cups placed during the past winter were on farms where 

 the cup had been tested on a small scale during the preceding season. 

 Not all operators are yet convinced; there are still doubters and scoff- 

 ers, but their number is rapidly diminishing. 



In the hands of a few the system has been abused. The fact that 

 under it the trees are not weakened and made subject to overthrow by 

 windstorms, as boxed trees are, has induced some operators to largely 

 increase the number of cups per tree as compared with the average of 

 boxes. The returns from such trees prove that there is a distinct 

 limit to the sap surface which can be removed without weakening the 

 vitality of the tree and lessening the flow of resin. The practice of 

 overcupping results, therefore, in a financial loss. 



In addition to the increased returns from the use of cups, the naval- 

 stores industry has been benefited in two other lines by the develop- 

 ment of the cup system. In many cases timber owners have made 

 decided concessions in their leases to operators, on condition that the 

 cups be used and no boxes cut. In other instances large tracts of 

 timber have been brought under turpentine operation by the cup sys- 

 tem, though their owners have persistently refused to lease them for 

 box cutting. 



The rapid rise in the value of turpentine timber within the past 

 few years has contributed largely to its more conservative treatment. 

 A thing of little value in the past, it has received only a small amount 

 of care. Its rapid enhancement in value, and the strong probability 

 of a still further increase, gives the turpentine operator every reason 

 to treat his timber carefully. Formerly it was an easy matter for an 

 operator to work hastily through a place, then move a short distance 

 and develop a new place on timber just as inexpensive as that on 

 which he had been working. But now the operator knows that when 

 his present location is exhausted he is certain to experience difficulty 

 in finding a new location, and equally certain that a largely increased 

 price must be paid for it. This natural operation of the law of supply 

 and demand is rapidly bringing serious and earnest thought to the 

 question of how best to preserve the present holdings. The cup and 

 gutter system with its great economies is doing much to solve the 

 problem. 



Approved : 



W. M. HAYS, Acting Secretary. 



WASHINGTON, May 27, 1905. 



O 



