76 
FOR BEST EESULTS. 
"For best results, tapping should be done during the first 
few days after the bark is removed, for the reason that other- 
wise the latex cells appear to dry up with the action of the 
air and soon wither. If the trees are not tapped during these 
first few days, they should not be tapped till after several 
weeks. Hence, before the tree can be thoroughly tapped, 
the new bark will have reached the stage w^here pricking can 
not well be accomplished. For this reason, removing the 
bark by paring over a space only wide enough to prick in 
the next two or three days, proves better than removing all 
the bark at once and then trying to prick for a long series. 
Also, by using the paring knife as above described — not going 
too deep — profitable tapping is made while removing the 
bark. 
*'Of course, objections have been made to pricking, but ob- 
jections have also bedn made by good authorities to paring, 
and would be made to any method of extraction. The only 
course open to us is to find the method that looks best and, 
if it has not already been proven objectionable, use it until it 
is shown to be so. It was thought at one time that pricking 
was responsible for injury suffered by some of the trees 
in a series of tappings last year, but later experience has 
brought the conviction that not the pricking, as pricking, but 
the removal of bark at that time, was chiefly responsible, aid- 
ed, no doubt, by the rather severe tapping that closely fol- 
lowed. 
''The system outlined here may be rather severe. In a 
herringbone with diagonals only six inches apart, the top 
of one cut extends above the lowest point in the cut above 
the lowest point in the cut next above it, and for this reason 
must interfere somewhat with the horizontal movement of 
materials in the bark. This objection, however, would be 
stronger in the case of the vertical cuts, and as the flow of 
materials in the bark is chiefly up and down or diagonally 
across, it is rather difficult to determine Avhat strength this 
objection would have. Also, since the paring is to be fol- 
lowed by pricking, the former is not as deep as it otherwise 
would be, and therefore does not interfere with the circula- 
tion as seriously as it might otherwise. The paring alone 
was expected to get all the latex. These close cuts have been 
made for several months, but not yet long enough to deter- 
mine Avhether they might be injurious. Of ciurse, the chance 
of injury can be lessened by the avoidance of too frequent 
tappings. 
