Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1856-03-01
The Turpentine Tree.

The State of North Carolina contains up-
wards of two millions acres of wild swampv
land, which is covered principally by heavy
growth of pitch pine timber. The trees are
generally of very great size and extend in un-
broken forests for miles and miles. These for
ests are more valuable to the State than all its
mines of golden ore, for they produce immense
quantities of tar, pitch, turpentine and rosin
The writer of letter to the Hampshire Ga
=ettc gives an interesting description of the
manner in which the rich juices of these trees
are procured and manufactured The first pro-
cess, he says, is to cut in the trunk of tree,
near the ground deep hole, or cavity, of the
capacity of about three pints. Above this, in
various places, incisons are made in the tree,
and shallow grove is cut in the bark, lead
ing from every inciSion to the hole, so that all
the sap escaping from the wounds will flow
down to the reservoir designed for its recep-
ton.
This process Of chipping is repeated every
week or two, to give a fresh surface from which
the juice exudeS, until after few years the
the trees are blazed on every side to a height
OF ten or twelve feet Lare forests of dead
trees are constantly seen, tall and erect, with
ont branch or bark, resembling a large ship
yard filled with tall dismantIed Masts Into
the boxes near the ground, the juice, crude
turpentine, begins to flow about the middle Of
March, slowly at first, but more rapidly as the
warm season advances, and slowly again in
autumn, uutl it ceases altogether in winter
The liquid about the consistence of honey, as
it flows, is removed from the excavations as
they are filed, and transferred to barrels, where
it becomes a. soft solid. The average yield of
these trees, as | was informed, is about five
gallons each year
A barrel of this sap contains usually seven
teen per cent. of oil or spirits of turpentine,
and this is distilled from it by means of rude
distiliing apparatus consisting of large iron
retort, capable of containing two or more bar
rels. The turpentne is placed in the retort,
the oil driven off by the process of distilation,
and storedaway, md rosiu is left as the residu-
um But the uses Of the pine tree do not cease
with its life
In the tree of the long-Ieaved pine the resin
Gus matter becomes concentrated in the interi-
or layers of the wood, when its vegetation ceas-
es This dead wood, known throughout the
south as light wood, is then selected for the
manufacture of tar. The tree is cut into biliets
of convenient size, which are placed togetherin
a pile and covered with earth, in much the
1S''hS IAoh hOOu IL pidICd III CHuiNOdi
kiln, in New England This 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 IA
cavity is formed, connected by little canal
with ditch which surrounds the mound
After the pile is ready to be ignited, fire is
placed in the centre of the top, and slow
combustion maintained until ali the resinous
matter is melted, running into q central cavity,
and from that into the outer ditch, where it is
collected, the tar of commerce. and placed in
barrels for expectation. These trees, when
cut green and sawed into boards, become the
valuable lumber so much used at the north for
flooring and other purposes. Thus, these for
eSts, yielded with little comparative labor and
expenditure of money so much that is valna-
bic and necessary in the mechanical arts, be
come sources of great profit and unattrac-
tive, dirty Wilmington. North Carolina, is the
great exporting city of these staples Of that
State Boston Weekly J0arRat.