THE WORK OF THE FOREST DEPARTMENT IN INDIA. 43 



of the maritime pine of the Landes should serve them as a 

 model, and so from the very start the conservative cup and lip 

 method in use in France was adopted, thus ensuring the best 

 possible yield of resin with the minimum risk of injury to the 

 tree. And so from small beginnings in the United Provinces, 

 and later in the Punjab, the industry has grown till to-day (for 

 the year ending on 30th June 1916) the annual resin collection 

 in the United Provinces and the Punjab amounts to 69,980 

 maunds net (2,592 tons), the operations covering 62,000 acres of 

 forest with 2,141,000 blazes or channels in work, giving employ- 

 ment to at least 2,400 operatives. 



In the last five years, in the United Provinces more espe- 

 cially, extensive and successful organization has brought the 

 harvesting of the resin to a high state of efficiency. Mr. E. A. 

 Smythies' interesting pamphlet on the " Resin Industry in 

 Kumaun " (Forest Bulletin No. 26, 1914) is available for those 

 who wish to study the question further. 



The work of setting up a crop of pots (or cups) and lips 

 preparatory to tapping pine trees for resin is simple, when pro- 

 perly organized, and the resin collection in the forests offers 

 exceptional opportunities to the surrounding villages to utilize 

 the old and the young for earning excellent wages. 



The bark of the tree to be tapped is first of all lightly 

 smoothed, then, as close to the base of the tree as possible, the 

 bark is entirely removed so as to expose the sap-wood on a strip 

 some 6" high and 4" wide. A galvanised iron lip 6" wide by 2" 

 deep is driven in at the lower end of this strip or gash and an 

 earthern pot, made by local village potters, is hung below the 

 lip, being kept in position by a nail or a hard wood peg. This 

 preliminary work is done in the winter months. 



The tapped forests are grouped into depots, sub-blocks and 

 blocks for purposes of control, the unit of work being a section 

 of 1,000 blazes (equivalent to an average of 700 trees, spread 

 over 25 to 30 acres of forest) in charge of a tapping coolie, and 

 the unit of control being a depot taking the produce of about 

 25,000 blazes or channels. 



The tapping coolie at the beginning of the tapping season, 

 sometime in March, cuts away the sap-wood on the already 



