Am.  Tour.  Pharm. 
May,  1896. 
North  American  Conifer ce. 
245 
The  boxes  and  method  of  chipping  can  best  be  understood  by 
reference  to  Fig.  23,  taken  from  the  U.  S.  Government  previously 
referred  to,  which  shows  a  boxed  and  hacked  tree,  as  well  as  a  sec- 
tion of  the  same  in  outline.  While  this  illustrates  the  principle  of 
boxing  and  chipping  in  a  satisfactory  manner,  still  the  appearance 
of  the  trees  may  be  better  understood  from  Figs.  24.  and  25,  which 
are  reproduced  photographs  of  sections  of  trees  exhibited  at  the 
recent  exhibition  in  Atlanta,  and  now  to  be  seen  at  the  Commercial 
Museum,  Philadelphia.1  Fig.  24  shows  the  surface  of  the  chipped 
tree  covered  with  "  scrape  "  about  the  end  of  the  season,  when  the 
resin  has  ceased  to  flow.  Fig.  23  shows  a  tree  just  after  "  boxing  " 
and  "  cornering "  in  the  spring,  before  the  flow  has  commenced. 
These  boxes  are  cut  during  the  winter,  when  no  resin  is  running. 
The  instrument  used  is  a  peculiar,  long  and  narrow  axe.  The 
lower  edge  of  the  box  is  from  8  to  12  inches  above  the  ground. 
The  greatest  diameter  of  the  box,  d  to  e  {Fig.  2j),  is  14  inches  ; 
depth,  b  to  f,  7  inches  ;  width,  b  to  c>  4  inches ;  and  height,  a  to 
by  6  to  7  inches.  From  two  to  four  boxes  are  cut  in  a  tree,  accord- 
ing to  its  size. 
With  the  advent  of  spring,  about  the  1st  of  March,  the  resin  be- 
gins to  flow,  and  active  operations  commence.  Cornering  is  first 
effected;  this  consists  in  removing  the  bark  and  the  youngest  layer 
of  wood  from  two  triangular  spaces  immediately  above  the  box  to  a 
height  of  about  10  inches.  The  resin  exudes  rapidly  on  warm  days 
and  flows  into  the  box.  In  the  course  of  eight  or  ten  days  the  sur- 
face becomes  clogged,  and  two  diagonal  cuts  or  hacks  are  made  so 
as  to  expose  a  fresh  surface  ;  this  is  accomplished  by  a  peculiar  instru- 
ment, termed  a  hacker  {Fig.  26),  which  consists  of  a  curved  knife 
attached  to  an  iron  or  wooden  handle,  bearing  at  the  opposite  end  an 
iron  ball  weighing  about  4  pounds.  The  momentum  given  by  the 
heavy  ball  enables  the  skilled  workman  to  make  the  two  diagonal 
cuts  with  two  blows.  These  hacks  are  made  every  eight  or  ten  days 
from  March  to  October,  or  sometimes  until  the  middle  of  November. 
The  height  of  the  chipped  surface  is  increased  from  1  x/2  to  2  inches 
1  Our  thanks  are  hereby  tendered  to  Dr.  Charles  Schaffer  for  these  photo- 
graphs, as  well  as  the  one  illustration  of  the  Schuler  system  in  this  same  contri- 
bution; also,  to  Dr.  William  P.Wilson,  Director  of  the  Philadelphia  Commercial 
Museum,  for  the  special  effort  on  his  part  to  have  the  exhibit  set  in  place,  in 
order  that  the  illustrations  might  be  ready  for  this  article. 
