98 



FORESTS, FOREST LANDS AND FOREST PRODUCTS. 



collection. Not more than 17.9 per cent, of scrape is expected, as 

 against 29 in the American practice."* 



Figure 3 of Plate IV "shows safety fire strip along railroad; 

 a is the elevated roadbed, b is a strip of ground about twenty-five 

 feet wide, which is cleared of all inflammable material. Alongside 

 of this the wooded safety strip about fifty to sixty feet wide ; e is a 

 ditch five to six feet wide, a foot or so deep, the soil being thrown 

 toward d. Cross ditches are made through the safety strip every 

 300 feet. The total width of the whole system of the road on 

 either side is, therefore, eighty to ninety feet. The strip h may be 

 used for agricultural purposes if fit for it; strip c remains wooded, 

 but the forest floor is cleared out and freed of all inflammable 

 material, "t 



Chipping is done forty to fifty times a season, and by the end of 

 the first season the chipped surface has reached a height of twenty 

 inches; that is, while the face is carried in one season just about 

 as high in France as in the United States it is hacked from twelve 

 to fifteen times more in the former countr}^ than here. This cup 

 can be emptied easily and quickly by lifting it ofl" the tree, and to 

 prevent it being broken can be set aside while hacking and scraping 

 is in progress, which latter operation is done once a year, in the 

 fall. When work is begun on the second and subsequent years 

 the cup and gutter are moved up and refastened so as to be just 

 under the newly hacked surface. The face is rapidly carried up, 

 the tree being hacked more frequently, but a much thinner chip 

 being taken oft' than is required in the American practice, pre- 

 serving all the time about the same width and same depth, so that 

 at the end of five years it has reached a total height of twelve feet. 

 From one to ten such faces are put on the pines, according to their 

 size and age, and whether they are to be bled to death (gemmage a 

 mort), in which event the timber will at once be utilized, or bled as 

 long as the tree lives and an abundant flow of turpentine will per- 

 mit {^gemmage a vie). 



These faces are worked only five years and then the tree is allowed 

 to rest several years before new ones are put in. The new faces 

 must be put in so that they will be four inches from any other 



*Au. Rep. Secretary Agr., Washiugton, D. C, 1892, p. 350. f/did. 



