et ee +3 
KAURI GUM. 35 
timber and resin are of at least twice the value of Maritime-pine, can 
for sixty years have allowed the population and wealth of Gascony to 
slip through its fingers; and, what is worse, the forest to be destroyed for 
(taking Puhipuhi figures) less than 1 per cent. of its present-day value 
as a dividend-earning forest estate ! | 
The Maritime-pine forests of Gascony were lost during the wars and 
misgovernment of the Dark Ages, but have been replanted in modern 
times, the cost of replanting being about the same as the cost of inter- 
planting Kauri in New Zealand forests. The French have spent over 
£2,000,000 in planting and roadmaking there since I was a boy, and they 
now draw £18,000,000 yearly in resin and timber from these forests, the 
resin being the most valuable product. This great forest work was begun 
on the initiative of a peasant, and then taken up by the Government 
through its Forest Department. The story is well told in a charming 
French novel, ‘‘ Maitre Piérre,’? by Edmond About, 
A short account of the French system of resin-tapping is given in 
Recknagel’s ‘‘ Working Plans,’’ p. 142.* The resin is kept pure and 
clean by being caught in cups. Trees are not tapped till they are 11 in. 
diameter, and not more than three cups are put on one tree at any time. 
The shits are made narrow and gradually extended up the trunk for six 
years to a height of 7 ft. or &ft. above the ground. The tree then has 
three years rest. Then three more fresh slits are made between the old 
slits, and gradually lengthened as above. Thus each tree goes through 
twelve years’ resin-tapping with a rest of three years in the middle. 
making fifteen years the total resin-tapping period for each tree. Then 
the trees are cut for sawing into timber, sleepers, or pit-props, the 
timber being improved by the resin-tapping, which has the effect of 
making sapwood nearly as durable as heartwood. 
Portugal.—The forest of Leiria, north of Lisbon, is the pride of 
Portuguese foresters, and one of the best-managed forests in southern 
Hurope. Maritime-pine (Pinus pinaster) is there grown for timber, not 
for resin, and the timber. is unsurpassed in quality. Nevertheless trees 
going out in the thinnings are regularly resin-tapped for three years 
previous to felling. A big cut about 3in. broad, 18in. high, and 1 in. 
or 14 in. deep, is made at the foot of the tree—two or three of these cuts 
each year according to the size of the tree. I counted six resin-cuts on 
a 22-in,.-diameter free. I have a photo showing eighty-year-old trees 
that have been resin-tapped for three years and will be felled next winter. 
Germany.—In Saxony, where the forests have been systematically 
managed for two hundred, and sometimes three hundred, years, Spruce, 
which is full of resin, has long been systematically tapped. Twenty- 
seven years ago, when I[ visited these forests, the tapping was coming 
to an end, because it did not pay compared with the yield of resin from 
more southern forests, Cluster-pine in Gascony. and theeLong-leafed Pine 
in the southern United States. The tapping sometimes caused rot in 
the Spruce, possibly because the slits were made too broad in the 
endeavour to get a paving crop. 
India.—In India resin-tapping is being practised increasingly and 
with the best results. (See Forest Bulletin No. 26 of 1914, ‘‘ The Resin 
Industry’ of Kumoan,’’ and “‘ Indian Forest Memoirs: Pinus longifolia,”’ 
by R. 8. Troup, F.C.H. The latter is in the Lands Department Forest 
Library.) Chir (P2nus longifolia), the most important Indian pine tree, 
covering an area of two or three million acres, yields an average of 

2* * Also Veitch’s Coniferae, p. 93. 
