Balata and the Balata Industry. 227 
But then the value of the sacrifice of capital that was 
made to gain that sum must be kept in mind, for the 
bullet-tree and the balata which it produces have about 
the same relative value of capital and interest ; and the 
history of the trade is the dissipation of the capital for 
the sake of collecting the small interest. This as I have 
before shown in all our forest work, is what is so desir- 
able to stop by such reasonable laws as, while per- 
mitting the use of the interest as now, will preserve the 
capital intact. With the rapid decrease of timber in the 
great centres of present supply, the day is probably not 
distant when all our best woods will realise their full 
value, and it is an obligation due to the state to see that 
they are not by want of thought or indifferent laws now 
or in the future wasted. 
I have already shown that information is very much 
wanted as to the influence of careful and judicious tap- 
ping on the trees, and have said that much might be 
gained by a special investigation of those parts of the 
Berbice bullet-tree forests which have been under the 
operations of collectors for the last twenty-four years. 
In the absence of any such reliable information, but with 
evidence of the unquestionable injury done by careless 
tapping, it is desirable that collecting should be limited 
to confined areas such as woodcutting grants, and that 
on these no trees should be allowed to be felled that are 
not required for timber. Collecting would therefore be 
confined to (1st) trees felled in the ordinary course of 
the timber trade, and (2nd) to standing trees not (say) 
under ten inches in diameter. In tapping standing trees 
the gutters should be made by holding the cutlass ob- 
iquely from the body of the operator and striking from 
DD 2 
