142 RESINOUS PRODUCTS OF FRANCE. 



variable, sometimes as low as 40 francs a cask (340 liters, or about ninety 

 gallons), but during tlie late American war, when supplies were cut off 

 from this source, it rose to 290 francs. The resin-tappers are paid by 

 the cask, usually thirty to thirty-five francs, which allows them to earn 

 from four to five francs a day. In distilling, the crude resin is melted, 

 strained, and conducted to the still, into which a thin continuous stream 

 of water is introduced by a funnel. The water becomes steam, which car- 

 ries over the turpentine vapor, when they are both condensed, and then 

 separated by decantation. The residuum is then passed through a sieve, 

 which separates it into two grades of rosin. The black rosin boiled 

 with tar forms pitch, and all of these special products have their special 

 uses in the arts. The residuary products of distillation, about pay the 

 cost of the process, leaving a small profit besides the spirits of turpen- 

 tine. By heating the black rosin to a high temperature, a double 

 decomposition takes place, resulting in the separation of certain vola- 

 tile oils used in varnishes, or of certain fixed oils that are used for 

 illumination, lubrication, impregnation of wood, the manufacture of 

 printer's ink, and other uses. 



Opinions are divided as to the effect of tapping upon the durability 

 of the timber. The flow of resin fills the sap wood and increases the 

 durability of this part, so far as it is affected. The annual layers be- 

 come less, and the proportions of fall growth relatively larger. But the 

 wood that forms over old " squares," is neither continuous or regular, 

 and it is unfit for lumber ; but being saturated with resin it is durable 

 and may be used for many purposes, such as staves for resin-casks, trel- 

 lises, &c. 



The maritime pine is used for railroad- ties, being the chief timber for 

 this use in the south of France and north of Spain. It is also used for 

 charcoal and fuel. Its cultivation, besides fixing the dunes and sandy 

 lands over nearly 2,000 square miles in the department of the Landes 

 alone, and about as much more in the Giroude, and furnishing the pro- 

 ducts above enumerated, has done still further service by reclaiming 

 low, marshy lands which had before been pestilential, and rendered 

 them healthy and productive ; introducing business, health, and com- 

 fort where there was nothiug but wretchedness, sickness, and poverty. 

 The intelligence which has wrought these changes will take care that 

 this region does not again become a waste of treeless moors and naked 

 sand-hills, which will only be remembered as things of the past. 



An account of the methods practiced in Kussia for the extraction of 

 resin, is given in our notice of the forestry of that country. The yield 

 is much less than in the forests of maritime pine in France. 



In the spruce, the resiniferous canals are found most productive in 

 the iber, and may be opened without wounding the wood. But this 

 more or less weakens the tree, and it then becomes an easy prey to in- 

 sects. For these reasons they are not much tapped for their resinous 

 products. 



Eesinous products of Eussia. — The extraction of resinous pro- 

 ducts in Northern llussia is regulated by specific rules, which are de- 

 scribed in an article from a Eussian journal as follows :* 



Two distinct methods of workinjr are simultaneously practiced in each series, accord- 

 ing as the material is obtained, directly or by distillation. For the direct production 

 of resin, they take trees when they have reached the height of about six metres (20 

 feet) and a thickness of three and one-half to seven inches, and remove the bark, for a 

 length of twenty-eight inches, from almost around the tree, leaving only a strip two 



iThis account is translated from the article as published in La Bevue des Eatix et 

 Forets, for September, 1876. 



