New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-08-23
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE.
BY SOLON ROBINSON.
VII
TAR-MAKING AND THE FEELING OF TREE

NESS DOING IT on A LARGER sCALE--RECKLEss
WASTE OF LUMBER.
Tar-making formerly a very considerable
Southern industry, generally connected with farm
ing as the farm laborers could devote portion OF
their time to this branch of piney- woods produc-
tons. Some of the poor whites who owned no land
sometimes eked out existence by the sale of few
barrels of tar obtained in most primitive manner
suitable spot of firm ground being selected it is
encircled with slight ditch and cross-cut bitches,
and another outside the circle leading to a lower
spot of ground, where a barrel can be set under
wooden spout. There the pine knots and wood rich
in pitch, being piled and covered exactly like
charcoal pit and fired distil the pitch from the
wood and it flows while hot into the barrels, the
ditch beng kept clear of ashes loose dirt and
trash. If the taE-pt is near a town, the charcoal
affords additional profit. 1t was necessary to To-
cate tar-pits navgable stream, and this busl-
ness gave the name to Tar River and Tarboro, In
North Carolina. and also to several other places
with a "tar" prefix. OF late years this branch Oh
business seems to have been almost discontinued In
sections where 1t formerly furnished a very con-
siderable portion of the exportable products. For
merry too North Carolina furnished more turpen-
tine for the NewYork trade than all the rest of the
country. Now Georgia. Florida and Alabama are
engaged in the great work of the destruction of pine
forests which, immense as they appear at present,
will at last disappear Just the white pines of the
Connecticutand tributaries in New-liampshire Yer
mont and Massachusetts, have done and also the
Delaware and Susquehannain New-Iork and PENN
sylvanIa and as will soon be the case In Wisconsin,
Minnesota Michigan and Maine over all of which
the white pine destroyer stalks, in hand, sweep
ing these beautiful trees from the face of the earth
and so he Will sweep away the vast pitch pine
forests Of the South.
THE SOUTHERN LUMBER BUSINESS.
1t is the lumber business far more than the manu-
facture of turpentne that is denuding the country
of pine trees. The ong-leaf pine affords the best
lumber In the world for many purposes and there
fore has market almost as broad the earth GER
tanly as broad as its value will afford cheap water
transportation, as many of the mills driven by
steam are so situated that the largest European
ships can lay right alongside of the mills while
taking in cargOes. Judging from what have seen
of lumber vessels loading at Georgia mills should
say that France was the best transatlantic GUS
toner. particularly for large square timber either
sawed or hewed and it is extremely difficult TO sup
ply this demand. owing to the fact that not one
long-leaf pine in ten thousand will afford stick OF
timber eighteen inches square by forty feet long,
Indeed timber of that length over twelve inches
SQUARE is difficult to obtain free of sap. 1t may be
observed by any railway traveller as he passes
through hundreds Of miles of pine woods and sees
numerous saw-mIlls aud logging establishments
that he rarely sees a fortyfoOt log nothwithstand-
ing the umbermen always cut their trees in one
piece as long as they can get salable sut so That
boards and scanting at the mills twenty or thirty
feet long cost no per thousand than when only
half that length. while stuff that is less than ten
feet being vaueless for shipping. is generally
near large towns, thrown upon the ssb-carrer and
ptched into the fire which is constantly consuming
the waste Of the mill.
When first came TO jacksonville. there were
five or six largo saw-nills cutting lumber for ship
ping, mostly to New-York. with small local demand
as extensive building had not then begun. With
my feelings intensified by years of talk and study
how TO savo waste Prnducts tina RAIDER can imaGi
how was grieved to see thousands upon thousands
Of feet Of straight square-edged boards. often
soundheart stuff. sent constantly into the fire pile
for no other fault than their short length. After
began building houses set cartmen at work haul
ing hundreds of loads of this waste lumber, giving
the mill laborers small bonus to throw it aside
instead of putting it upon the slab-carrier and fire
heap In this way l got for only the cost of cart
age all the lumber / could of short lengths and
freouently long boards that were shaBy or some
what sappy at the top end, so as to make them I'M
fit for shipping At some Of the mills, where this
kind of lumber was allowed TO accumulate In
waste pile instead of being burnt as fast as sawed
have known sales of such piles in bulk at prices
not estimated over 81 or So per thousand, aud at
one mill few miles from town bought several
piles of what are termed seconds" that were
piled while cutting frsts" for shipping to the
West Indies at SO thousand actual measure
This was mostly acknowledgements flooring, three
TO six inches wide, and good, sound stuff, with
little strip of sap on edge, often not more than
four or five feet long, shake, or split, or kuot
or STAIN either of which caused board to be sent
70 the pile of seconds" while loading vessel for
almost any foreign market
1t is the immense waste Of timber, more than It's
legitimate use. that is rapidly destroying The
forests of lOng-eaf pine from the Potomac to the
MIssissippi for upon ali the streams that enter the
sea between those points, and upon all their tribu-
taries where a log can float. the water is bearing
away logs or lun ber and the land once denuded OF
its natural growth will not produce that growth
again. for tie young pines, where they do start are
soon DESTROYED by fire: and besides that, there APP
pears TO be natural tendency in all pine forests,
when cleared of the first growth, to produce oaks
Instead of pines If left untouched, or else to pro-
duce only grass palmetto scrub among lhe
scattering trees which were too small or defec-
tive when the loggers carried away all the largest
handsome and most valuable trees.
METHODS or THE DEsTRoYERs.
When these NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. first invade q fer
rtory the most usual practice is to cut all the
largest and handsOmest trees nearest the stream or
railway thaC is TO bear the logs millward and they
are not at all careful how many smaller trees are
destroyed in telling the large ones. Very often
only the butt cuts are taken. such as will fill some
specified bill All the remaining portion of the
tree is left to waste. After while another set OF
loggers go over the ground and gather the next
best crop still leaving great many trees and
"top cuts" which almost anywhere in New-Ene-