NOTES ON THE TAPPING OF THE CLUSTEB PINE. 261 



round the foot of the tree leading one and all into 

 the same trough. These canals are necessarily cut 

 right into the wood, and thus soon kill the tree. 



Besin-tapping is carried on only in the interval 

 between the 1st March and the 15th October ; but 

 the gradual thinning off of the bark is begun as 

 early as the 10th February. 



Kesin is most abundant in trees which measure 

 at least sixteen inches in diameter. A pine of this 

 size yields annually three litres by the process of 

 gemmage d vie. Taking into consideration the con- 

 tinual diminution in number of the trees, we may 

 reckon that an acre yields annually about thirty gal- 

 lons, whatever be the age of the forest. It is not so 

 easy to calculate the yield by the process of gemmage 

 a mort. Still it is generally admitted that from 

 eighty to a hundred pines eight inches in diameter 

 will also yield annually the same quantity, and that 

 for three years. On the estate of M. Marcellus, near 

 Biscarosse, I saw a pine thirteen feet in girth and 

 thirty-six feet high up to the first branch, which had 

 ten quarres worked on it simultaneously, and which 

 still yields seven or eight litres of resin annually. 



The price of the raw resin is necessarily very 

 variable. Sometimes it is as low as 40 francs a 

 barrique (340 litres). During the American war it 

 rose to 290 francs. At Mont de Marsan, where it is 

 converted into the different resin products of com- 

 merce, the actual price of a barrique is 120 francs. 



The resin-tapper is paid so much per barrique, 

 usually from 30 to 35 francs ; which gives an average 

 of four or five francs a day. 



