The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-05 00:00:00

THE TURPENTINE TREE.

The State of North Carolina contains, it is said, up•
wards of 2,000,000 of acres of wild swampy land, which
is covered by a heavy growth of rich pine timber. The
trees are generally of great size, and extend in unbroken
forests for miles and miles. These forests are more raiz.
able to the state than all its mines of golden ore, for
they produce immense quantities of tar, pitch, turpen-
tine, and resin.

The juice of these trees is produced and manufactured
in this wise :—A. cavity is cut in the trunk of the tree
near the ground, capable of holding about three pints ;
above this, in various places, incisions are made in the
tree, and a shallow groove is cut in the bark, leading
from every incision to the hole, so that all the sap escap-
ing from the wounds will flow down to the reservoir de-
signed for its reception.
The process of chipping is repeated every week or two,
to give a fresh surface from which the juice exudes, un-
til after a few years the trees are blazed on every side to
a height of 10 or 12 feet. Large forests of dead trees
are constantly seen standing, tall and erect, without
branch or bark, resembling a large ship-yard filled with
tall dismantled masts. Into the boxes near the ground
the juice, a crude turpentine, begins to flow about the
middle of March, slowly at first, but more rapidly as the
season advances, and slowly again in autumn, until it
ceases altogether i❑ winter. The liquid, about the con-
sistence of honey, as it flows, is removed from the exca-
vations as they are filled and tran4ferred to barrels,
where it becomes a soft solid. The average yield of
these trees is about five gallons each year.

A. barrel of this sap contains, usually, seventeen per
cent, of oil or spirits of turpentine, and this is distilled
from it by means of a rude distilling apparatus, consist-
ing of a large iron retort, capable of containing two or
more barrels. The turpentine is placed in the retort, the
oil driven off by process of distillation. and stored away,
and resin is left as the residuum. But the uses of the
pine-tree do not cease with its life.
In the trees of the long-leaved pine the resinous mat•
ter becomes concentrated in the interior layers of the
wood when its vegetation ceases. This dead wood,
known throughout the South as light-wood, is then
selected for the manufacture Of tar. The tree is cut into
billets of convenient size, which are placed together in a
pile and covered with earth, in much the same manner
that wood is placed in a charcoal kiln.

The stack of wood is built, however, upon a mound
of earth prepared for the purpose, the summit of which
declines from the circumference to the centre, where a
cavity is formed, connected by a little canal with a ditch
which surrounds the mound. After the pile is ignited,
fire is placed in the centre of the top, and a slow corn•
bustion maintained until all the resinous matter is
melted, running into the central cavity, and from that
into the outer ditch, where it is collected—the tar of
commerce—and placed in barrels for exportation.—Cen-
tral Antlricait Advocate.

M. SoYEII.—A letter has been received from this
gentleman, dated the 22d, in which no mention is made
of his labouring under an attack of Crimean fever.
Last night a grand demonstration took place at
Blackheath, to celebrate the fall of Sebastopol. The
bonfire, which was nearly thirty feet in height, was
made about one hundred yards from the wall of Green-
wich-park. There were upwards of 60,000 persons
present.
The Vestry of St. Pancras have determined on prose-
cuting the authorities of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, for
the recent desecration of the dead in St. Martin's
Cemetery.

A RUSSIAN NOT ENTITLED TO SUE.—In the Wolver-
hampton County Court ou Saturday, Myers Faber sued
Benjamin llyams for 24 weeks' wages, at 4s. a•week,
which, as plaintiff alleged, defendant had agreed to pay
him for assistance in his business on Saturday night aad
Sunday. The plaintiff was examined through the me-
dium of an interpreter, and among the first questions
put to him were several relative to his birth and country.
From the answers it appeared that the plaintiff was a
Russian subject, having been born within twelve miles
of Warsaw, and having lived there until recently. Mr.
Underhill, for the defence, thereon objected that, being
a Russian subject, plaintiff's rights were in abeyance
during the war. After some little discussion the judge
sustained the objection, and the case was struck out.—
Wolverhampton Chronicle.

FELINE iTTACIIMENT.—Eighteen months ago an offs
cer of a vessel bound from Greenock for Melbourne got
a cat from a family residing in Greenock, and took it to
sea with him. The vessel was wrecked on the coast of
Ireland, but the crew and passengers were all saved, and
managed to get their luggage ashore. The officer landed
his cat in safety, leaving it at a farm-house near the
place where the vessel was wrecked. The astonishment
of the family to whom the cat belonged may be imagined
when, many months after the shipwreck, it walked into
their residence in Greenock. How it managed to find
its way thither from the Emerald Isle is a mystery.—
ecotsnian.

ASSAULT ON A RACE STAND.—A few days ago,gat
the
uNpVpe
es
r L
t Bromwichambou rn
,PBe tetryk Sessions,e, w h oMi
sr.
well Joseph Sax
on,
of x
in
sporting circles as the proprietor otlan extensive stud of
known
of
racehorses,
or
appeared on a summons, charging him with
h
assaulted Mr. Bolton, landlord of the New Inn,
HandSworth. The complainant stated that he visited
Lichfield races, and whilst one of the races was being
run, be stood upon the Grand Stand looking through his
glass at it. In the course of the contest he remarked to
himself that one of the horses engaged in the race, called
Cleveland, which is the property of Mr. Saxon, was in
difficulties, and to show that the remark he had made
was correct the horse directly afterwards broke down. A.
remark to that effect was made by a bystander, and Mr.
Bolton remarked that Cleveland had been trying to
win the race. Mr. Saxon, who stood near, instantly
gave him a severe blow on the face, and threatened
to repeat the same conduct if one blow was not enough.
Mr. Bolton replied that the one blow was sufficient ; he
should make defendant pay for that. Mr. Saxon ad-
mitted having struck the complainant, but justified the
assault by saying that the complainant imputed that he
was not running his horse honestly. If on a future oc-
casion he heard the complainant or any person make a
similar observation, he would repeat the same conduct.
He had lost CO/. in bets on the race ; and, besides, his
horse, for which he had been offered 300/., had broken
down, and he afterwards sold it for Si. The Bench in-
flicted a fine 0f,405. and costs, and ordered the defendant
to find two sureties in 251. each. The expenses, amount-
ing to 51. 12s. 10d., were immediately paid, and two
friends of the defendant, who were in court, were bound
over for Mr, Saxon's good conduct.