COLLECTION FROM WOUNDS MADE IN THE WOOD. 181 



In Jaonsar it is given a depth of 4 inches near its lower extremity 

 (see Fig. 65 C). This depth is excessive, but it is impossible to 

 make a shallower cut with the wretched adze used. The adze or 

 abchot, whichever is employed, should always be almost as sharp as 

 a razor, as a blunt edge, instead of cutting the resin ducts with a 

 clean section, would bruise and lacerate the surrounding walls and 

 thus choke up the entrance to the cavities. To preserve the 

 edge of the tool, the dead, rough bark should be removed with an 

 ordinary axe, and all old dry resin scraped off with a khurpa before 

 using it. In Jaonsar the receiving pots were originally of iron, 

 but they were so frequently stolen, that they are now made of 

 ordinary baked clay, and are practically merely small flower-pots 

 of about one imperial pint capacity. 



As the gutter consists of only a thin flexible metal plate (^Fig. 

 64 A and C, g), a groove is made to receive it with a curved chisel 

 {Fig. 64 F). The metal plate is inserted into this groove and 

 driven home with light blows. 



Once a week, and even oftener when the resin flows very freely, 

 the blaze must be freshened, as some of the exudation dries on 

 the surface, thus clogging it and arresting the outflow of resin. 

 In freshening the wound, a thin slice of wood, not more than the 

 thickness of ordinary writing paper, should be taken off. At the 

 same time that the blaze is freshened, it should be extended up- 

 wards a small fraction of an inch at a time, so that the blazes 

 become generally longer with the advancing season. 



Our experiments in Jaonsar have now gone on for three years, 

 and there is still no point of any blaze either in Finns longifolia 

 or in F- excelsa from which resin is not still oozing out. In the 

 niche system too, in the case of F. longifolia, the aggregate outflow 

 during the second and third years exceeds that of the first year, 

 and is very nearly as large in the third as in the second year. 

 Such being the case, the extension of the blaze upwards should 

 be effected very gradually, and when the length of any blaze 

 becomes so great that the resin from the upper portion becomes 

 too thick to run down freely until it reaches the gutter, a second 

 gutter should be inserted about two feet above the first. The 

 resin from this gutter may be allowed to drop directly on to the 

 lower one, or a second pot may be hung on one side of the blaze 

 and the gutter so shaped as to carry the resin sideways into it. 

 It would not answer to suspend the second pot in a line with the 

 blaze, for then the continued freshening of the blaze would become 

 an impossibility, or would at any rate be extremely incommoded. 

 If experience shows that it is desirable to extend the blazes to a 



