SPRUCE. 



64-5 



Fro. 292 



them (fig. 292). 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 afterwards 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, however, the usage be re- 

 stricted 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 

 pounds of galipot and 43 pounds of crude resin per acre. 



mm 



30 



3. Larch. 



Most commercial larch-resin comes from Austria, where two 

 methods for its extraction are employed, as reported by 

 Marchand.t 



(a) The Styrian Method. — A hole, 2-i centimeters (1 inch) in 

 diameter and 80 to 120 centimeters {2| to 4 feet) long, is bored 

 with an augur into the trunk of a tree as near the ground as 

 possible, sloping upwards and passing across the axis of the 

 tree. Crude resin exudes through this hole into a pot placed at 

 its entrance, from which it is guided to the pot by a piece of 



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

 resinous when tapped. 



t Mission forestiere en Autriche. Arbois-Jarel, 1869. 



