IMPROVEMENT IK TURPENTINE ORCHARDS. 163 



The orchardist's own interest, if he owns the forest and proposes to make the most of it ? or 

 the owner's interest, if he leases it for turpentine orchard, would dictate the following considera- 

 tions, which I have formulated into a set of instructions : 



(1) Attend to the firing of the brush, when preparing for orcharding, at a season and time 

 when a smoldering fire can be kept up which will not kill young growth and will not consume to 

 ashes the vegetable mold. 



(2) Abandon the " boxing" system and substitute the movable pot with cover and lip. 1 (See 

 PL XXX, fig. 1.) By this the tree is less injured or liable to injury, and a larger amount of valuable 

 dip and a smaller proportion of scrape is insured. The cost of making and cornering boxes — a 

 wasteful operation — averages about 1 J cents per box, while the cost of pots is very much higher 

 (heavy tin or zinc iron pots might be used more cheaply); but if the orchard is worked for longer 

 time, as proposed in the following, the cost per year will be reduced and amply repaid by better 

 yield. 



(3) Tap only trees large enough to make a good saw log, not less than 12 inches at the butt. 

 Not only will such trees yield in better proportion to the labor expended, but the younger trees 

 when left, after the saw timber fit for the saw has been taken, will assist in the reforestation by 

 shedding their seed, and will in a few years have grown to proper size both for profitable tapping 

 and profitable lumbering. 



(4) Reduce the chip in breadth to not over 3 inches, and rather work more chips at a time on 

 the same tree, if good sized ; not more, however, than one for each foot in circumference simul- 

 taneously, so that a tree 1 foot in diameter would carry, say, three of these narrow chips, evenly 

 distributed. Thus the tree will be kept in full activity and yield more turpentine for a longer 

 time. 



(5) Before starting the chip remove the rough bark down to a thin (reddish) skin for the 

 breadth of 4 inches and, say, 2 feet in height, or a little wider than the chip is to be, and as high 

 as it is to be worked for the season; this is for the purpose of keeping your pots clean of bark 

 particles. Start the chip with as small an opening and as low down at the foot of the tree as is 

 practicable for attaching the pot, and cut it triangular at the base, so as to allow any water to 

 readily flow off, preventing its collection and consequent fungus growth. 



(6) Do the chipping as gradually as possible, remembering that the flow depends mainly upon 

 the number of longitudinal ducts cut through transversely and kept open. A rapid increase in 

 height of the chip is a useless waste; the chipping is done simply to remove the clogged-up ends 

 of the ducts; the removal of one-fourth to one-third or at most one-half inch of new wood every 

 five to eight days, according to the weather, will accomplish this end. As to depth, it is useless 

 to cut deeper than the sapwood, since the heart does not yield any resin. Whether the French 

 method of deepening the chip gradually and only to a depth of one-half inch at most or a cut 

 through the entire sapwood at once is, on the the whole, more profitable, comparing labor and 

 yield, remains to be ascertained by trial. Where trees are not to be managed for continuous 

 bleeding, but are to be exhausted prior to their cutting for saw logs, it would appear proper to 

 cut at once through the entire sapwood, using perhaps a sharp chisel for the work of chipping. 

 When we have arrived at a time when the orcharding is done in young plantations managed for 

 the purpose the more careful chipping of the French may be indicated. 



(7) Do not collect the scrape more than once a year, in August or September, or early enough 

 to give the trees a chance to protect their scars before winter sets in; but reduce the amount of 

 scrape by using pots and lips and keeping these as close as practicable to the top of the chip. In 

 this way the superior yield will pay for the greater care. 



(8) Remember that it is more profitable to prepare for operating a given area for ten to fifteen 

 years instead of three to four years, since many necessary expenditures remain the same whether 

 the operation is carried on for the shorter or longer period, and hence in the latter case are dis- 

 tributed through a longer term. With the above methods and proper care an orchard may be 



1 Since the above was written (m 1892) the pot or cup system has "been experimentally tried "by J. C. Schuler of 

 West Lake, La., the patentee of a special pot, described m Bulletin 13, Division of Forestry. The patentee admits 

 the extra cost for a crop of 10,000 cups for two seasons as $460 against $190 under the old system, but the increased 

 yield of crude turpentine for the two years is claimed as 195 barrels at $3.50 per barrel or $410 m favor of the cup 



system. 



