THE KESIK INDUSTRY IN KUMAUN. 



41 



1911 to Es. 3-5-0 per maund in 1916 and to Es. 5-12-0 per maund 

 in 1919. It was hoped that large scale production would cheapen 

 the cost of distillery charges per unit, but the great increase in 

 the cost oi all factory stores, receptacles, etc., have increased 

 the costs of distillation even faster than the costs of tapping 

 and they have risen from Ee. 1 per maund in 1911 to Es. 3 in 

 1915 and to over Es. 8 in 1919. During the war years 1916 19 

 the selling rates for the manufactured goods had increased faster 

 than the rise in expenses, i.e., from Es. 7 per maund in 1911 to 

 Es. 11-5-0 in 1915 and Es. 17-6-0 in 1917, resulting in handsome 

 profits, but such boom prices cannot be anticipated in future, and 

 since 1920 material decreases in the sale values of rosin and 

 turpentine have occurred, which, if they continue to fall, may 

 necessitate the abandonment of the more distant resin tapping 

 areas, with a corresponding fall in output (unless material savings 

 can be effected in distillation charges to counteract the fall in 

 sale values). However there can be little doubt that the resin 

 industry will continue in the future, as in the past, to be a source 

 of steady income to the finances of the province as well as to the 

 inhabitants of Kumaun, provided that senseless and wanton orgies 

 of incendiarism do not recur to ruin the valuable pine forests of 

 the hills. 



The following extract from an American publication will be 

 of interest to Indian foresters : 



The possible annual production of naval stores in India seem 

 small, indeed, when compared with the average production in the 

 United States, namely 500,000 tons of rosin and 30,000,000 gallons 

 of turpentine, valued at from $ 30,000,000 to $ 50,000,000" 

 annually. It is of great interest to Indian foresters in this connec- 

 tion, as it is to us, that the duration of the American source of 

 supply is doomed to early extinction." The article quotes from the- 

 Capper report the estimates of the remaining period that the present 

 production can be maintained, as follows : Alabama, 5 years, 



