ii'i'Z 



CHAPTER Vlir. 



RESIN-TAPPIXG. 



[In Germany, only the spruce is tapped for resin, and though this 

 pnictice was formerly carried on in all extensive German spruce 

 forests, it is now becoming obsolete on account of the great damage 

 it causes to spruce-trees, and because the yield of resin from the 

 spruce is insignificant, when compared with that from the maritime 

 jtine in France, and other pines in America. As the question has a 

 certain importance fur India, where profitable resin-tajiping has been 

 introduced, the account of this important industry given by Boppe in 

 his Techiwlofjie foreitiere will be followed here with some additional 

 information gained by the translator during his visit to the Forest of 

 La Teste, near Arcachon, in 1894. — Tii.] 



Section I. — General Account. 



Crude resin is a viscous substance flowing from incisions iu 

 the bark of certain conifers (also from some broad-leaved trees * 

 in tropical countries) which penetrate slightly into the wood, the 

 operation being known as resin-tapping. 



Among European species, the maritime or cluster pine {Pin us 

 Pinaster, Sohind.) may be tapped most advantageously for resin ; 

 this pine yields resin most abundantly near the sea-coast 

 between Bayonne and the mouth of Charente, chiefly among 

 the sand-dunes and landcs (waste, sandy tracts) of Gascony. In 

 other parts of France, where the maritime pine grows either 

 naturally or artificially, resin -tapping is not sufficiently 

 remunerative to be practised. 



Although other conifers also yield resin, they do not furnish 

 it in sullicieut quantities for resin-tapping in their case to 



• Vide Fernandez, Utilization of Forests, p. 176. 



