COLLECTION FROM WOUNDS MADE IN THE BARK. 177 



folia and some of the Acacias, especially A. arabica. The yield of 

 gum is largest after a forest fire, which not only reduces the vitality 

 of the trees, but also enlarges existing cracks and creates new ones. 

 The prolonged hot dry weather which precedes the setting in of the 

 summer rains, however, suffices to produce a large quantity of the 

 degradation product, chiefly in the more unhealthy trees ; and we 

 have thus a means, -without setting fire to our forests and injuring 

 growing timber, of deriving some sort of utility from trees, which, 

 although they hold out no promise in respect of wood production, 

 cannot, for some cultural reason or other, be removed. 



Abticie 2.— Collection feom wounds made in the baee. 



This mode of collection is employed chiefly in obtaining the kino 

 of Pterocarpus Marsupiurn and Butea frondosa, the gum of Bauhi- 

 nia return (semla), and, in poor forests, also of Anogeissus laiifolia, 

 and the exudations of the Garcinias. In the case of all but the 

 last, vertical rows of parallel, slightly oblique gashes, a few inches 

 long and about 6 inches apart and penetrating as far as the wood, 

 are made in the bark, all round the stem, and also round the main 

 branches of small trees. The exudation collects generally in long 

 or globular tears. It is allowed to harden on the wounds and is 

 then broken or scraped off. 



The semla is subjected to a very systematic utilization. The 

 trees are tapped twice in the year, viz., during the dry seasons pre- 

 ceding respectively the summer and winter rains. The gashes are 

 cut in March-April and September-October, and the gum collected 

 in May-June and November-December. A rest of from one to 

 two years after each year of exploitation suffices to enable the 

 wounds to heal over and the trees to recover completely. Accord- 

 ino- to Babu Karuna Nidhan Mukerji, the average yield per tree is 

 about 5 seers of gum, which sells in the Dehra Dun bazar at an 

 average rate of Rs. 3 per maund of 82 lbs. The semla gum, like 

 that of Anogeissus, is used in calico printing and is also eaten. 

 The yield of kino from Butea frondosa is about the same as the 

 yield of gum from the semla, while that from Pterocarpus trees, 

 which often attain an enormous size, is, no doubt, very much 

 jaro-er. The firs give resin only from the bark, but the yield is so 

 small that in the present state of the market it does not pay to tap 

 those trees. 



The true gamboge is not collected in India, although the tree 

 which produces it, Garcinia Morelta, grows in the forests of South 

 India. In Ceylon the tree is tapped thus. Thin slices are cut off 



2 A 



