RESINOUS PRODUCTS OF RUSSIA: PERFUME. 143 



or three inches wide to keep np some circulation and prolong the life of the tree, which, 

 after this, takes no growth of the trunk except at this place. The strip of bark left is 

 by preference on the north side. In the autumn following they take off the resin with 

 a scraper, getting about fourteen ounces avoirdupois from a tree. The next year they 

 take oft" the bark some sixteen inches further up; but this should not be done at oue 

 time, but successively, in narrow strips. The narrower and more numerous these can 

 be the greater will be the product, which may be brought as high as twenty-one ounces 

 to the tree. On the third year the same process of peeling is renewed, with similar 

 result. It is also done the fourth year, but the yield is then only fourteen ounces. On 

 the fifth year they take off at once a piece of bark 24 inches long, but the yield is then 

 hut small, and on the sixth year the peeling is stopped ; but they leave the tree stand- 

 ing three or four years longer, so that it may become filled with resin, for which it is 

 then cut and carried to the tar-oven. The operation, therefore, lasts from five to ten 

 years, but in late years this period has been somewhat abridged. The more slowly the 

 resin is drawn the more the wood is gorged and brown with resin when cut. It is for- 

 bidden to carry the peeling higher than 3.7 meters (13.8 feet), and there should always 

 be reserved a proper number of trees left for seed, and left without peeling. 



There are 136 tar-ovens in the district devoted to the working of resin, each holding 

 about 2 stferes (2.6 cubic yards) of wood, and yielding in a day and a half 132 to 147 

 kilograms (289 to 324 pounds) of tar, and over 33:^ pounds of yellow turpentine. The 

 tar is sent to Archangel, either crude or in the form of pitch, 25 quintals of tar yield- 

 ing 13 of pitch, and 164 kilograms (36H Ihs.) of turpentine. From the resin drawn 

 from the wood while standing they make colophony, and about 5 per cent, of the best 

 white turpentine. 



A reduction in the time allowed for the trees to stand after peeling is not wise, he- 

 cause the longer they are allowed to stand the more filled with resin they become and 

 the more profit can be derived. This fault in working is due to two causes, a wish to 

 distil the wood as soon as it gets charged with resin, and the manner in which the mode 

 of payment is required. The forest-tax is calculated by taking for its basis the amount 

 of products obtained, or to be obtained, or so much per ton for the tar. Besides, a control 

 somewhat difficult but necessary must be had as to the number of tons produced by each 

 oven, without taking account of the more or less quantity of wood distilled in reaching 

 this result, or the number of trees cut. On the contrary, were the peasants allowed the 

 use of a given area of land, they would devote their whole attention to making the 

 trees yield as much as possible. The tax in this case would be very easy to fix, because, 

 from a course of experiments made specially for this object, it could be ascertained how 

 much on average a given area would yield, or how much from a tree in certain condi- 

 tions. They estimate that 48..5 stfere3'(13.3 cords of 128 cubic feet) will make about a 

 tun (330 gallons) of tar. From 1862 to 1872 they obtained from 42,042 cords (of 128 

 cubic feet) 79,363 tuns of tar, from which a revenue of 64,525 roubles was derived, 

 and from the resin, 5,412 roubles, making a total of 69,337 roubles ($52,002 75). In 

 round numbers this was 7,000 roubles per annum for 80,000 hectares ($5,250 for 

 148,260 acres), or 3.6 cents an acre. It requires, however, much care to maintain the 

 trees that exist, for the growth in these northern regions is so slow that trees 8.5 meters 

 (28 feet) below the branches, and 5.1 inches through, often show more than 110 layers 

 of annual growth. 



PERFUME FROM PINE SAP. 



The Academy of Sciences, on tbe 14tli of September, 1874, received a 

 note from M. Hoffman, in which he announced that two of his pupils, 

 Hermann and Tiemaun, had succeeded in obtaining, by special chemical 

 reactions upon the sap of the pine, a perfume resembling the vanilla of 

 commerce; a tree of average size, without injuring the wood for use, af- 

 fording this product, worth 100 francs. It has since been obtained, not 

 only from the Pinus sylvestris, but from Abies excelsa and A. pectinata^ 

 and it is supposed that it can be got from other conifers. To obtain this 

 sap, the trees are cut down, peeled, and the sap scraped from the out- 

 side of the wood and inner side of the bark. This semi-fluid mass, which 

 soon tends to ferment, in order to be kept till it can be used, must 

 be boiled some minutes to coagulate the albumen, when it may be put 

 into barrels or tin cans, and sent to the manufactory, where it is sub- 

 mitted to chemical treatment, the details of which cannot well be here 

 given. Experiments are now being made to determine the various ele- 

 ments of cost and other facts that may tend to form the basis of calcula- 

 tions relative to production and use. The timber, it appears, can only 



