196 FORESTRY IN THE LANDES 



The decrease in the width will be made gradually in such manner that the width at 

 the end of each year will equal that of the next year. 



The faces will be made . . . so as to divide the circumference of the tree in three 

 practically equal parts, the second face to be opened at the right (facing it) of the first. 

 The faces shall be raised by following the grain of the wood. The other non-conflicting 

 stipulation of Article 19 shall remain in force." 



The regular French specifications covering resin operations are given 

 in full, as are those for the United States and for British India, in the 

 Appendix. 



Each operator is informed that payment must be made annually for 

 a period of five years, that in the thinnings the pines to be tapped to 

 death are marked with two imprints of the State marking hatchets, one 

 on the bole and one on the roots, while trees to be tapped permanently 

 (gemmage k vie) with one face are stamped once on the bole; if two faces, 

 two stamps on the bole, one below the other. Contractors who do not 

 furnish the fire fighting tools (prescribed under "charges") must under- 

 stand that they will be bought by the Waters and Forests Service and 

 charged to their account. Foreign workmen can be hired only up to 

 10 per cent of the total number employed. A fixed price for the trans- 

 portation of products from Federal forests is agreed upon with the local 

 railways and the rates furnished the contractor. In some instances 

 the Forest Service has built both narrow and broad gauge railways on 

 State forests which are leased to the operator or to connecting lines. 



French Tools for Tapping and Their Use. — Fig. 18 ^^ shows the principal 

 French tools used in tapping maritime pine to secure the resin for the 

 manufacture of turpentine. The letters following correspond to those in 

 the figure. 



(a) Barrasquit d'Espourga. — This tool is used to shave off the bark 

 of trees to be tapped. This is a preliminary operation made at the 

 beginning of each year; the workman shaves the bark vertically from 

 top to bottom to remove the dry and hard superficial bark, so as to make 

 the tapping easier. The area cleaned is 11.8 to 13.7 inches wider and 

 3.9 to 5.9 inches higher than the dimensions of the proposed face. It 

 should be noted, however, that the shaving is usually done with an 

 ordinary axe for the first year of tapping, because the face is low and 

 easily reached; for the second year of tapping it is sometimes done with 

 an axe or with the short-handled barrasquit. Before the third or fourth 

 year, the cleaning is always done with the instrument shown in the 

 figure. The "barrasquit de barrasque," a similar tool, is used to scrape 

 the dry, solidified resin from the face at the end of the season. This 



«5 Adapted from Plate IX, Bulletin 229, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. The names of 

 the instruments have been added in the legend under the figure and the d^cription of 

 use materially changed and corrected. 



