CHAPTER XV. 



RESIN TAPPING. 



IN chapter II a brief history of the evolution of the resin industry 

 in Kumaun has been given. In this chapter it is proposed to 

 describe the details of organisation and methods of tapping and 

 collection of the crude resin in the forest according to modern 

 procedure. The details of distillation, manufacture, and sale of 

 the refined products do not come within the scope of this work. 



1. Method of tapping. There are two principal methods 

 employed in the trade for extracting resin from conifers, i.e., the 

 American " box" method and the French " cup and lip " method. 

 That adopted in Kumaun closely follows the French method. 



During the cold weather all preparations are made for the 

 coming year's tapping operations ; in the new coupes the trees, 

 are enumerated and numbered, the various tools and implements 

 required are got ready, and the cups and lips fastened on the 

 trees. This work is now done on contract, and the total cost of 

 buying all implements required, and completely working a new 

 coupe comes to about one -sixth of the cost of working an American 

 coupe of the same size. 



In fastening on the lips and cups, a curved cut is first made 

 with a chisel, about 6 " above the ground, sloping slightly up- 

 wards, and into this cut the lip is fixed. The outer bark is 

 scraped off, and a nailjfixed in the centre, aud just below the lip, 

 from which the pot is hung (the pot has a small hole in the side 

 for this purpose). Thus all resin which falls on the lip, drains 

 into the pot. The top of the pot is covered with a lid (or suit- 

 able shaped flat stone), to prevent as far as possible (1) evapora- 

 tion of the turpentine oil, (2) inclusion of dirt, etc. The channel 



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