COLLECTION OP RE8LV. 53 



the forest does not profit thereby. Under the name of soutrage, this 

 brushwood vegetation is collected and sold at 50 centimes per cart- 

 load, containing about two cubic metres. One hectare may produce 

 from 5 to 12 cart-loads. 



" It is evidently a loss to the forest that the vegetable mould 

 should not be allowed to accumulate, but it clears paths for the 

 resiniers, and diminishes the danger from the fires, which desolate the 

 country in the summer months. This danger is so great that at 

 certain distances large trenches are dug from 10 to 20 metres broad, 

 which are kept open for five years. In new plantations, and 

 especially in the Dunes, these are made at every 1,000 metres distant, 

 so as to enclose squares containing 100 hectares. 



" There are two methods of tapping, le gem/mage d vie and le 

 gemmage h mart. In both the qitarres are opened thus : after having 

 cut away part -of the bark, it is pierced as far as the wood ; at about 

 ten centimetres from the foot of the tree an incision is made with a 

 habchat, a kind of hatchet, the head of which is slightly hollowed out, 

 and the handle is bent to the right. Once or twice a week the 

 workman scarifies the wound, and increases its height by one 

 centimetre. In the forests under the forest regime, the height of 

 4 metres, 14 centimetres, should never be exceeded. The regulations 

 also stipulate that the quarres should never exceed 12 centimetres in 

 size, or one centimetre in depth. 



" Trees to be gemme & vie, should have only one incision made at a 

 time, and it will tend to prolong the life of the tree that that should 

 be only 8 centimetres in size. The same incision is kept open for 

 five years, and is raised vertically, the first year 55 centimetres, 

 the three following, 64, the fifth, 67 centimetres. When the five 

 years are expired, another incision is made in the same way, and so 

 on, till the time when the tree is gemme A mart, previous to being 

 felled. The gemmage A vie begins when the tree is one metre in cir- 

 cumference. According to M. Lamarque it is good, especially at the 

 beginning, to tap for four years and then to allow the tree to repose 

 for one. The old incisions soon heal up, and after a certain time 

 others may be opened above them, on the protuberances of bark 

 which have formed, and which are called varies. 



" Here and there old pines may be found with a great number of 

 quarres. It frequently happens that the old incisions are exposed 

 owing to a want of adherence in the ourles. The latter aTirinV and 

 causes swelling, so that the foot of the tree resembles a spindle. 



