The Tarboro' southerner., 1871-01-12
The Long Leaf Pine and the
! Turpentine Trade.

a4
: A correspondent Of the. Springfield
Republican writes from North Carroll
ma some interesting facts concerning
the long leaf piue Of North Carolina
and the turpeutine trade. We extract
a portion of the letter:
The long leated pine is not widely
scattered. 1t is to be found in the
counties of eastern North Carolina and
South CaroliDa, te some extent, also,
in Georgia and Florida. The North
State" however, produces the great
bulk of naval stores consumed by the
whole world. The tree is yIelding it's
life fast to the demands that are made
upon it and will soon disappear. II
never appears On land from which it
has once becu cleared. Where forests
have stood Tor centuries and scattered
their seeds far and wide with every
passing year, one would expect to see
the fields, once cleared, grow up again
with the saE,e varsity of tree. But
when this pine dies, its successor is OF
another varlety-almost worthless for
any purpose.
The 6rst step in getting at the wealth
of the pine is to box" tie tree. In
the spring, the operator takes his axe
aud cuts cavity i'll the tree--a deep,
cup-ike receptacle which will hold per
haLs a quart of fluid. Then he chips
off the bark above the cavity 10 thr
height CT two feet, more or less, aud
rectifie,, the truok in such a fashion
that the exudatlons Of the tree shall
flow together into the box. Possibly
he may pat four boxes in Que tree
thus boxing the compass" as coup!ete-
iy as a sailor. This is the first thing
Millions OF trees on hundreds ui' sq uare
miles are cut in that way, being ru1eIy
called on to stand ana deliver, both
their moueJ and their life" These
boxes soon FL with crude turpentine
Mule carts aud bull carts 20 luu bering
through the woods and "a, her Up in
barrels the contents Of the boxes. Then
the teams are started for market in
the nelehborEood Of some turpentine
distillery. They go with one barrel
! each, or two, OF ten, ACCORDING to the
capacity of the team, distance Of ten
Or twenty miles. II they have the first
years product of their trees, it is ''vir-
gin turpentine," and will bring them
four or FIVE dollars barrel. If they
have the latter years crop, it is ''yellow
Dip" and will bring them some two
dollars or less per barrel. If any Gu
rious statistician wants to find q people
who do vast amount Of work, and
hard work, for small nmoHrft of.pay,
! il lie looks {ur cinss who are thorough
ly jusefed in being poor, let him make
the acquaintance Of the denizens Of the
turpeutine woods OF Carolina.
The manufacturer who buys the
crude ulateriai, produces from it two
staples oil commcrce-spirlts ofturpen
tine and rosin
The city of Wilmington is the heat
centre Of the trade in these products @
the pine. She seuds out nearly mil
lion barrels Of rosin and some fourteen
to twenty thousand barrels Of spirits 0
turpentine every year. An idea Of th'
army of people dependent on oue stag
or another Of this business may b.
gained from the fact that one still vii
work up the crude turpentine produce,
by three hunased thousand trees, en-
ploying twenty five to thirty men,
Here is an aggregate representing il
round plumbers the labor of six thous
and five hundred men, aud the produt
ton OF sixty-fve millions Of trees.
These pines will bleed some eight O
ten years, from early spring TIL late i
autumn. Every year the .cuttin
of the bark aud the decorating Of th
wood goes a little higher than tn
year before, SO that in some localitic
the scarifed portion reaches height {
twenty feet. The boxes arc visited an
the deposit of turpentine removed ono
week or fortnight according to tn
rapidity Of the flow. At the last {
, the season the slowly oozing gum har-
ems on the surface Of the scars Of tn
trees and forms kind of coat of mai
often pearly white, and in tormatio
J .resem bling the stalactities Of cave =
This last exudation is scraped from h
wood, and the trees are left to avail
for little while, the fresh hacking
and lacerations of another spring.
Tar is not dipped pin buckets frol
the Tar river, nor does it run as ni
tive element, in the streets Of Tarbor'
1t is necessary to make these statemen
because there is a probability thi
Mark Twain, that distinguished topt
prapher, whose war map locates Par
at the junction ot:the Rhine, the Sei'
and the Erie canal, vii. soon publish
geography Of the United States. if NJ
Of the world. Unless fnrestalled
will surely teach cou6ding youth th
tar is dipped or pumped up from tt
> Tar river. Such is not the fact.
The pines cannot shed all their bloc
After they have yielded all that th'
can of themselves surrender to salts
the greed Of men, there yet renal
some considerable amount Of fatness
their hearts and abeat the knots. r
Y tar manufacturer "goes for" tle ia
fron r. leares nothing.