The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-09-10
THE TURPEyTIYE WOODS.

A uay 'Work TOT Soou Steauy ho"' Is to cut one hundred boxes In the tur- pentine woods. What Is called A
 crop" for one man to work during a | season consists of ten thousand boxes. These boxes are oval, or V-shaped. cav ities. cut into the tree about six Inches deep, narrowing as they extend back: each box of a size to contain quart of the "gum," which oozes down from the tree above. The boxes are cut in the trees In January and February. as low down toward the base of the trunk as Is convenient for a man to fashion them. They are of uniform size, and as many of them can be made h a tree as the circumference of the trunk will allow, or Gin the event of the turpen- tine man not owning the land) as was contracted for when the pines were leased from their owner. Boxes are placed two or three inches apart, the bark on tho intervening spaces being left intact, in order to preserve the life and health of the tree. The next
 work after the boxes are made Is to 'corner" them-that Is, to go round
 with an axe and make an incision lead ing into both upper corners of the box,
 to guide the down-dripping sap into the cunning receptacle arranged to catch It.
 The boxes being prepared before the sap turns up in the trees in the spring
 box tlo 70 k,,,. takes place the full veins of the pines begin to exude and fill the saucer-like hollows waiting for the treasure. The first filling Is called the virgin" sap
 and the rosin obtained from these boxes is of far more value than any subse- quently made. The man who is work ing the crop now goes around to his boxes and hacks" them with a deli cately-curved, sharp-edged instrument, used only for that purpose. He does not strike deep, but only punctures the already bleeding trunk with sufficient force to cause it to bleed afresh. Going over his entire territory, he repeats his hacking process in a regular, me- thodical manner every two or three weeks, causing the liberal sap to flow profusely into the always-f1lling al- ways-emptying boxes. This hacking process is continued, with appropriate intervals, until September, OF until the sap in the trees begin to go down at the approach of winter.
 The hacker is chosen with regard to his Judgment and must exercise del icate discrimination in executing his work and have a thorough knowledge of the nature of the trees with which he deals. The province of the dip per-" who follows behind the hacker to relieve the boxes of their shining, trans parent, sticky fluid, is not charged with quite so much responsibility, and, though his work is aggravating, trying and difficult in the extreme, he is not paid nearly as much as his predecessor Wagon loads of empty barrels are dis tributed through the woods as near or as far apart as it is deemed necessary, and into these the pains-taking dip per" contrives by means of a metal spoon-like implement closely resem- bling trowel, and a handy, wide mouthed bucket, to pour or push the collected contents of the various boxes. Experts are able to judge very nearly the amount of raw gum to be obtained from a certain number of trees, but the ever-vigilant rider" makes the rounds to see that his employer is not defraud- ed and to encourage the men to active endeavor Careful owners of valuable timber land have the pine straw raked away from the roots of the trees previ- ous to commencing operations for tur- pentine making. Then, on some auspi- cious night, when there is no wind and | perhaps a suspicion of dampness in the air, they burn these heaps of straw and accumulations of burrs, sticks and un- derbrush. Two or three hundred acres l of heavy timbered land on fire--the tall dark columns of the pines outlined | against the blazing glare, the flames leaping and cracking in exultant glee Ifs a weird spectacle likely to arouse
 interest, admiration and wonder in the
 breast of the beholder. Those who rent their trees do not take this pre-. | caution, which is at once tedious ane
 expensive, and sometimes disastrout | fires, destructive alike to life and bus.
 mess, ensue in consequence. Nearly all woods in which the turpentint
 agents have been at work seem to sue cumb to the fire f1end eventually, being
 such tempting targets for the eagel sparks flying upward from some chance wayfarer's fire, kindled in all innocence
 of working mischief. .,,..
 The same crop of trees can be worked for number of years, usually Iron
 four to six seasons, when the whit
 ridges produced by the hackers extent
 as high up on the tree trunks as g. tai
 man can reach. But those whose pur
 pose is only to extort as much sal
 from the pine as possible. not intendinl
 to utilize the tree afterward for othe
 purposes, hack the long-suffering trunl
 as high as an ordinary house, aMxini
 the hacking instruments to long pole
 to execute their task at 8 great neigh
 from the ground. A great deal Of tur pentine is still made in South Carolina
 to which state the tar heelers mad
 their way from the pioneer turpentin
 ground of her twin sister. But Flori
 da, southwestern Georgia and Alaba
 ma are now the Mecca of the turpen
 tine distillers, those states possessinl
 vast areas of yet unbrcken forests
 When ground formerly planted but lei
 unused for years produces a fresl
 growth of pines they grow to 2 grea
 height and are vigorous and strong
 bat their hearts are not in proportiol
 to their size, and they will not yiel,
 much rosin or turpentine, though some | Al ~