Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-06-04


Fourth year $50. ..... ...... 516.4S
SO striking and significant were the
results of the Ocilla experiments that
turpentine operators have eagerly
seized upon the discovery, and all
over the south the new method is
supplanting the old. DR.. Herty has
been constantly in the field this
spring, installing the equipment of the
new system under the direction of the
bureau of forestry. Up to the present
345,000 cups have been installed.
The unbroken forest of longleaf
pine that once extended from southern
Virginia through the south Atlantic
and the gulf states to eastern Texas
has been greatly depleted. More than
half the original forest has been ex-
hausted; and conservative turpentine
operators estimate a standing supply
of virgin timber sufficient only for
fifteen years of Lox cutting. The in
difference with which this destructive
method was everywhere once regarded
has been succeeded by a conviction
that something must be done for the
turpentine industry, that some method
must be found of extracting turpen-
tine which will not prevent similar
continued operations on the same
trees. The present method of boxing
is needlessly wastefuI of the products
and needlessly harmful to the forests.
A box" or cup-like cavity is cut in
the base of the tree to receive the
w hn
face above. The box itself does not
contribute any additional flow of
resin; on the contrary the deep cut, by
weakening the vitality of the tree,
really lessons the flow. 1t is an IN
necessary wound, inflicted in the most
vital part Of the tree, reducing it's
vigOr, lessening its power to stand
against the wind, exposing it to the
attacks of disease, and furnishing an
unnecessarily large amount of ex
posed infammable material to feed
the next fire that burns over the
forest. The future of the forest that
has been heavily turpentined by the
box system is speedy decay and
death
Briefly, the equipment of the new
system consists of an earthen cup at
tached to the tree beneath its scariied
face and serving to catch the resin
which drips from the two galvanized
iron cutters above. The earthen cup
takes the place Of the injurious box,
or hole cut in the tree, but the new
system may be applied to boxed as
we'll as to unhOyad timber
The cup-and-gutter sytem works to
great advantage 10th for the tur-
pentine operator and the owner of
timberlands. 1t assures the former an
immediate increased profit at very
little additional expense, and benefits
the latter by infiicting the least pos
sible damage to his timber. The new
system has many additional ad-
vantages. No change is necessary in
the labor of cutting faces on the trees,
in which the negroes of the turpentine
belt are especially slillful. The plac-
ing of the equipment, which is eX-
tremely simple in construction and
may be fitted TO trees of all sizes. is
easily done by the regular turpentine
laborer. 1t is held so firmly in place
as not easiy to be destroyed by ac-
cident, and yet it may be easily and
cheaply removed at the end of the
season.
Turpentine operators and timber
land owners who have seen the results
of the cup-and- gutter systems are en-
thusiastic about it. It means much
for the turpentine industry; much
also for the owners of southern pine
lands, who have seen their fine timber
land laid waste by the destructive
boxing. A method of turpentining
that in1icts so little damage on the
trees is a most important factor in
the problem, and as such it marks
another advance in the progress of
forestry.