The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-17
4 WONDERFUL INDUSTRY.
The Production Of Naval Stores and
Their Uses.

,,,ired to Produce the Crop-The Cost
production and the Purposes for
which Spirits and Rosin Are Used.
The annual production of naval stores
4, the southern states has reached for
.sveral years past the enormous output of
. no0 nl0 packages, in round numbers,
ooronrisiug about 400 900 barrels of spir-
It's Of turpentine, and 100000 barrels of
rosin.
What these figures represent in capital,
labor and industry will surprise
many not familiar with the sub
tect This amount of 100000 barrels
of naval stores weigh very nearly, if not
opite 100000 tons. Allowing $4,000
,ounds or twelve tons, to the car, it
would require 10000 cars to move this
bulk from the pine forests to the sea-
shore. Allowing twenty loaded cars to a
train. 1000 train loads year have to be
RIM Each train is about 800 feet long,
IN that 900 trains thus loaded would
represent a solid single file of 305 miles,
or reaching from Savannah to Atlanta
and fifteen miles beyond.
Placing hese 100000 barrels side by
side they would form an air line reaching
from savannah to New York, 767
miles long The cost of transporta-
ton averages 80 cents per barrel
Hence 81 900, 900 freight are an
nually paid to transportation companies.
Fully 50 per cent. more is paid for
freights on supplies consumed by tur-
peutine operators and passenger fares,
giving grand total of 81 100000 paid to
railroad and steamboat lines.
To distill these 100000 tons, at least 800
stills are kept busy eight to nine months
in the year. The average capacity of the
stills is 8 barrels, yielding ) barrels
of rosin and one to one and half barrels
OF spirits of turpentine. Three hundred
and thirty thousand charges have to be
run. employing 800 stillers and as
many assistants. Two thousand and
five hundred coOpers are employed to get
the material and to make the barrels.
To remove this amount of crude gum from
the forest to the stills and thence to the
shipping point, 5000 mules and $500 team
sters are steadily employed.
100000 IN THE BUSINESS.
The cost of the still, mules, wagons,
horses, tools and value of boxes already
cut, will exceed $4,000 to the still, repre-
seuting d capital of about s., 900, 900 in
vested in the turpentine business AL
lowing twenty crops of boxes, consisting
of lO,5O0 boxes each to the still, there are
los 100000 boxes in operation, Allowing
two boxes TO the tree, on an average,
there are $4,000, 900 pine trees being bled.
Every tree has to be ral5ed around every
year to prevent destruction by
fire Every box has to be chipped
once week for eight months in the year
every box has to be scraped by hand in
the fall of the year. Besides this, from
40OJOO00 to 50,0J0,0J0 new boxes have to
be cut to replace discarded, burnt or dead
trees. Every box has TO be dipped four
or five times during the season. All this
work is done by about thirty-fve to forty
hands to each still, thus employing from
10000 to $4,000 well-trained hands. This
force is Overseen by 800 woods riders or
mounted men, who watch closely that the
work is thoroughly and conscientiously
performed
six or seven hundred commissarie5 or
stores feed and clothe this army of &c, 600
men, and 1908 mules and horses.
AS large as this output of 1900, 900 bar
reIs annually may SEEM it does not by
any means represent the actual output of
crude gum from the prolific pine tree
twenty to % per cent. of the gum re-
mains on the trees on account of the crude
and imperfect way of scraping by hand,
and never reaches the still
10 produce 1000, 600 barrels of the dis
Titled product 100000 barrels of crude
gum Is necessary, and adding to this the
~ per cent. remaining on the trees, there
IS an annual production of 100000 bar
oelS OF 800 pounds each, produced by
oi,WO,OUO pine trees, or Is to 20 pounds of
crude gum to the tree.
-, The turpentine operator pays for a
three-year lease of one crop of boxes $500,
or On an average, 800 a year for l05OO
BOXES. Hence, the landowners receive
every year an income of about 81 800, coo.
u VIII be seen that 500 stills pay every
year, for freight and rent, $4,000 900, or
e9Hooo each-more than six times the in
vested capital
The COST OF MAKING NAVAL STORES.
Inc average wages paid will be some
H#hat over 3l5 per month for eight months
IA IA lle year, or 100000 per months, SO0,-
wv curing the season. The cutting of
ne" boxes, raking and scraping is all done
oy contract and will bring the total out
tdy OF wages to considerably over IS, OOO,-
w. 10 feed 1000 mules and horses costs
@oouU SIO month each, or S70,-
W. per month, or $4,000 is paid
oII Tor western hay and grain
;, Inc prices for rosin have ranged from
q 70 - per gauge barrelsof $50 pounds but
as Iue above hgnres are based on round
oatIeis OF nearly 800 pounds, the average
, TdIue OF rosin would not be less than So
Inc average value of a barrel of turpen-
uue IS ABOUT Sl3, so that.2, DOC, 900 barrels
would represent s5,200000 received for
spirits OF turpentine and S4,SGO 900 for
SSoSIn, making total value of the crop for
1oy9 "a OF SlO,000,0O0. Allowing 3 per
oouV commission, the factors along the
seaUoard received $500, 900 Sampling,
o1oIage and fire insurance will average
tU'et III cents per barrel or $500, 900, leav-
lug 10 the 500 stills about $500, 900 net. or
So'O per still. To this, however, should
VIC auueQ the profits on commissaries or
osoTes, through which the greater portion
~ 1uG y, 0OO,OO0 of wages are paid bring
ny the income of the average still to
ao9ut $4,000 or Sl2, 200. not counting wear
uuu Uedr and incidentals; so that this
$eat, there was hardly more than a living
Tor The operators.
dlannah is the largest naval stores
4sl"rKet IN the world, receiving between
rgeleIgnths and three-fourths of the total
piouuctlon, consequently Savaunah's in
r w. esU IS closely linked to the interests of
r ruo yurpentlne operators. If they pros
Pcr, savannah is bound to prosper pro-
9oLuonately Few turpentine operators
~ [Iu very few general readers of the
ntoRNiNG NEWS have any knowledge of
-" HaU becomes of this vast amount of
ism and spirits of turpentine An
.uuInera ton of the technical employment
'Ney OBTAIN will be of some interest.
WHAT TURPENTINE Is USED FOR.