AmdctoberPl895m• }     Future  of  the  Turpentine  Industry.  539 
into  which  the  resin  or  crude  turpentine  is  conducted  by  a  gutter.  He  makes 
only  a  small  chip  about  three  or  four  inches  wide,  and  this  is  enlarged  from 
time  to  time.  After  five  seasons'  working,  the  trees  are  given  a  rest  of  several 
years,  and  so,  by  alternating  periods  of  tapping  and  of  rest,  a  tree  can  be 
profitably  worked  for  fully  fifty  years.  The  French  also  take  measures  to 
regenerate  their  pine  forests  and  to  keep  the  trees  strong  and  uniform. 
If  our  turpentine  workers  understood  the  first  principles  of  forestry  they 
would  modify  their  destructive  methods.  With  more  knowledge  based  on 
experience,  the  day  will  come  when  the  Southern  people  will  see  that  good 
husbandry  consists  in  management,  not  destruction,  of  their  forest  resources  ; 
that  some  precautions  and  some  protection  are  necessary  against  fire,  as  well  as 
individual  greed  ;  that  the  present  policy  of  the  turpentine  workers  is  lament- 
ably wasteful  and  short-sighted  ;  in  other  words,  that  it  is  more  profitable  to 
work  the  pine  forests  for  fifty  years,  instead  of  five  years  ;  and,  finally,  that 
the  lumber  and  turpentine  industries,  while  changing  the  face  of  Nature,  and 
even  the  climate  of  the  country,  are  slowly,  but  surely,  making  loss  and  trouble 
for  this  and  succeeding  generations. 
According  to  the  Agricultural  Gazette,  of  New  South  Wales,  the  true  opium 
poppy  can  be  easily  and  successfully  grown  in  that  country,  where,  in  favorable 
seasons,  the  plant  will  flower  in  about  fifteen  weeks  from  the  time  of  planting. 
As  soon  as  the  flower  falls,  the  capsule  is  slightly  cut  across  one  side  in  the 
afternoon  to  let  out  the  milky  juice.  About  four  wounds  are  made.  The  next 
morning  the  milky  juice  will  have  hardened  into  a  thin  gum,  which  is  scraped 
off  with  a  blunt  knife,  and  transferred  from  the  knife  into  a  clean  tin  vessel. 
The  unwounded  side  of  the  capsule  is  operated  on  the  following  afternoon. 
The  collected  gum  or  opium  is  made  into  thin  cakes  and  carefully  dried  in  the 
shade.  The  work  of  opium  collecting  is  one  which  can  be  done  by  careful 
women  and  children.  When  nothing  but  the  seeds  or  heads  are  required  the 
poppy  is  planted  broadcast  and  hoed  out  or  thinned  to  a  distance  of  nine 
inches  apart.  About  40,000  heads  can  be  gathered  to  the  acre,  and  when  dried 
they  are  worth  about  $5  per  1,000.  The  seed  bring  25  cents  an  ounce  in 
Sydney. — Garden  and  Forest. 
In  a  lecture  on  The  Adulteration  of  Drugs,  Dr.  Willis  G.  Tucker,  Director 
of  the  New  York  State  Board  of  Health  Laboratory,  closed  his  remarks  with 
the  following  sensible  statements  : 
"  I  have  little  sympathy  with  the  sensational  revelations  that  are  made  in  a 
spasmodic  way  from  time  to  time  by  the  newspapers,  and  occasionally  by  State 
officials.  They  are  so  often  exaggerated  and  unjust  that  they  accomplish  little 
good  and  sometimes  do  much  harm.  They  cast  reproach  upon  a  reputable 
body  of  men,  and  the  motives  which  instigate  these  exposures  are  not  always 
above  suspicion.  The  cause  of  sound  pharmacy  will  not  be  advanced  by  sen- 
sational disclosures  in  the  public  prints,  and  only  as,  by  gradually  effected 
changes,  we  weed  out  the  incompetent  or  restrict  their  privileges,  and  put  a 
premium  upon  competency  and  ability,  and  secure  for  those  who  enter  upon 
this  calling  a  better  training  for  the  work  and  magnify  its  importance  and  its 
responsibilities,  can  we  hope  to  raise  the  standard  of  American  pharmacy  to 
the  high  plane  which  it  should  deservedly,  and  in  my  belief  will  eventually, 
occupy." 
