Indian Forest Records. 
6 
[Vol. Y1 
only trees of some size (about 6 feet breast-girth) can be tapped every 
year for the reasons specified above.” 
During the months of March and April, the oleo-resin does not flow 
readily, so that the tapping must be confined to the months specified 
in the above account. Sir D. Brandis gives the following account of the 
method used in the Shan States, taken from Watt’s Dictionary of the 
Economic Products of India ” :— 
“ The trees which have been tapped are at once known by trian¬ 
gular scars about 9 inches long, and 5 inches broad, the apex pointing 
downwards. On some trees we counted 40-50 of these scars, and some 
of them at a height of 30 feet. To work the higher scars, the Shans 
use a most ingenious ladder which is permanently attached to the trees. 
It consists of a long upright bamboo, with holes cut through at intervals 
of 2-3 feet. Through each hole are passed two flat bamboo sticks driven 
with their pointed ends into the bark. These form the spokes of the 
ladder and are about 12 inches long. The scars or notches, to extract 
the varnish, are made with a peculiarly shaped chisel about 15 inches long; 
the handle is of iron, of one piece with the chisel and about 9 inches 
long ; the lower end thicker, hollow, and closed with a bamboo plug. 
The chisel is wedge-shaped, about 6 inches long (the edge half an inch 
broad), and forms an obtuse angle with the handle. 
With this instrument two slanting slits, meeting at an acute angle, 
are made upwards through the bark, and the triangular piece of bark 
between the two slits is thus slightly lifted up, but not removed. A 
short bamboo tube about 6 inches long, with a slanting mouth and 
a sharpened edge, is then horizontally driven into the bark below the 
point where the two slits meet, and the black varnish which exudes 
from the inner bark, near its contact with the wood, runs down into the 
bamboo tube, which is emptied at the end of 10 days, when it ceases to 
flow. A second cut is then made so as to shorten the triangular piece 
of bark which has been separated from the wood when the first cut was 
made. A shorter triangular piece of bark remains, ending in an angle 
less acute than before. The bamboo tube is then removed a little higher, 
and the edges of the original cut are cut afresh. 
The varnish then runs out for another ten days, after which the 
scar is abandoned. The trees vary in yield exceedingly ; a crooked 
tree, with scanty foliage, which we examined was said to yield a good out¬ 
turn, while some of the largest trees were said to yield very little. We 
saw trees tapped which has a diameter of only 9 inches. Moungmyat 
informed us that one man could make and look after 1,200 scars : that 
he could do 200 in a day, so that the whole number occupied 6 days, 
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