96 



FORESTS, FOE EST LANDS AND FOEEST PEODUCTS. 



the trees again worked. This is called " back-hoxiiio-." There are 

 frequently three sets of boxes put on one tree. 



THE FRENCPI SYSTEM OF GATHERING TURPENTINE.; 



The original Fi'ench method merely removed the bark and a 

 thin layer of sap-wood from a space (face) about five inches wide 

 on each tree, and the resin as it exuded after the repeated chippings 

 ran into a receptacle placed at the foot of the tree to receive it, or 

 frequently into a hole dug in the sand. By the latter method, 

 which was ver}^ primitive, the turpentine was mixed with sand, 

 the spirits was absorbed and only a poor grade of rosin was made 

 from it. 



The method adopted in 1860, when the production of turpen- 

 tine was stimulated in France owing to the stoppage of American 

 exports by the blockades during the civil war, was very much in 

 advance of this. The new method, then adopted, may be described 

 in general terms as follows : At the end of February the outer 

 bark for a considerable height is removed on all trees which are to 

 be tapped that year, leaving onl}^ a thin layer of bark over the 

 sap-wood. This is to prevent loose bark from falling into the resin. 

 At the first of March, with a peculiar-shaped implement resembling 

 an adze with a bent handle and a curved blade, there is made near 

 the foot of the tree an incision which is four inches broad, two 

 inches high and only one-third of an inch deep. At the bottom of 

 this incision a curved gutter of zinc or galvanized iron, which has 

 a width of the hacked face and teeth on its inner edge, is driven 

 into the wood. This gutter turns the more liquid resin, which 

 flows down into an earthenware or zinc cup hung on a staple 

 immediately below the gutter. 



The accompanying illustration (Plate III), taken originally from 

 Professor L. Boppe's work on Forest Technology, but here repro- 

 duced Irom the Annual Report of the Chief of the Division of 

 Forestry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, for 1892, "represents 

 a pine two hundred years old, with more than fifty scars or chips, 

 without apparently any ill effects on the life of the tree. ""^ Some 



*Aii. Rept. Secretary of Agr., Washington, 1S92, p. 34S. 



