118 Journal of the Mitchell Society. [Nov 



ticability in the simple apparatus used. This led the writer 

 during- the following- winter to accept a commission from the 

 Bureau to undertake field experiments on a commercial scale 

 to test further the usefulness of the appartus in the hands of 

 the average turpentine laborer, and to determine the import- 

 ant question of whether or not the cutting of the box 

 decreases the productive power of the tree. 



Crude turpentine (resin) is a pathological product, result- 

 ing from the wound given the tree in scarification. It is nec- 

 essary to wound the tree to get the flow of resin, but the cut- 

 ting of the "box" is an unnecessary and intense wound and it 

 seemed reasonable to expect that in comparative experiments 

 trees which are not "boxed" would, with all other conditions 

 equal, show an increased yield. 



These field tests were carried out at Ocilla, Ga., on the 

 place of Messrs. Powell, Bullard & Co. About twenty-five 

 thousand trees were used during the first year. From one- 

 half of these the resin was collected in the usual "box"; on 

 the other half cups and gutters were placed. Four distinct 

 sets of experiments were made corresponding to first, second 

 third and fourth years of operation, five thousand cups and 

 five thousand boxes in each set. Every precaution was taken 

 to insure uniformity of conditions between the two halves of 

 each set, or "crop" as designated in turpentine operating. 

 Careful record was kept of the yield from all of the eight half 

 "crops", each being separately distilled and the products sold 

 separately. The results of the year's tests were published 

 by the Bureau of Forestry as Bulletin No. 40, entitled "A 

 New System of Turpentine Orcharding". 



After the first year, the experiments were continued only 

 on one of the four sets, that designated "first" above, for 

 only in this set did full conditions for comparative results 

 obtain, one-half of the trees in this set never having been 

 "boxed", while in the other three sets, all of the trees had 

 been boxed in previous years of operation. 



After conducting the tests three years, the experiments 



