The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1909-12-03
1SOUTH'S INDUS
TRIAL HISORY
Closely Allied With the Ma
val Stores Trade.
Though the Article Of Southern
Export Have Increased in Ia
riety their Naval is Same.


States, deriving its name from the
fact that In early days pitch from
pine trees was commonly used to
make wooden vessels water-tight, -
says r. S. Kellogg, of the United
States Forest Service. "The term has
produces long ago found other and
more important uses.
1.-The turpentining of pine timber
began In New England with the
pitch" or yellow pine, of that re-
gion, but 1t was in North Carolina
that the first extensive develop
ment of the naval stores industry
occurred. The records show that from
1868 to 1770 the average exports Of
naval stores to England included So,
Ill barrels of crude turpentine, 20,646
barrels of pitch, and SS,366 barrels Of
tar. Most of the crude was shipped
TO England for distillation through
the ports of Wilmington and New
bern.
THE supplanting of the iron by
the copper still in 1884 greatly in
creased the output of volatile oil
and gave much impetus to the in
dustry. However, previous to 1874 not
over one-half of the production in
North Carolina was distilled at home
Then, because of the poor market
for rosin,the stills We're transferred
from the ports to the woods, and
a heavy onslaught upon long leaf pine
forests of the South began.
North Carolina reached its max
imum in naval stores production in
1880, with an expectation of g.
279,250 gallons of turpentine, and $685.
967 barrels of rosin. A comparison of
this great expectation with a total
production in North Carolina in 1908
Of 732,3O0 gallons of turpentine and
663,967 barrels of rosin. A compar-
ison of this great expectation with
, total production in North Carolina
in 1908 of 7S2,SOO gallons of turpcn-
tine and 131, 900 barrels of rosin tells
D the story of the exhaustion Of the
longleaf pins in that State. South
Carolina attained its maximum out
put of naval stores in 1882, only two
years after that of North Carolina.
The invasion of new forests of virgin
timber brought Georgia to the front
few years later, but recently that
State has been surpassed by Florida,
which now is producing nearly one
half Of the total value of the year
ly output of the naval stores indus
try. After following the longleaf pine
forests TO their southern limits, tur-
pentining swung TO the westward
across Mississippi, Louisiana, and
Texas, the latter State having be-
come a considerable producer only
within the last seven years.
until recently naval stores were
entirely produced by one of the
crudest and most destructive systems
of forest exploitation ever devised.
Great damage by fire and storm has
always followed the turpentine dox.
Thousands of acres of splendid long
leaf pine forests have been abandon
ed and destroyed after four years
of turpentining, and the valuable
timber which they contained not utdl-
lied. The earlier operations of the
turpentine were comparable in their
desructiveness only to those which
swept the buffalo from the western
plains. The buffalo was killed for tn
hide and horns; the longleaf pine
tree for a gallon or two of turpentine
and few pounds of rosln.
The desruciveness of the box
system at least became so appar-
ent and widespread that to perpetu-
ate their industry, the operators
We're forced to turn to other methods.
Various substitutes were proposed,
and experimental work of the Forest
Service in methods of conservative
operation dates from 1901, when DIR.
Herty undertook the studios, with
whose splendid results you have long
been familiar.
1.-THE efforts of DR.. Herty and other
conclusively that improved methods,
ia which a cup is used to catch the
crude turpentine and the box done
away with, result in the production
of larger quantity of turpentine
and rosin, higher grades of the latter,
longer life to the timber, and greatly
loosened damage from fire and wind.
TIE introduction Of those methods
is the first step in conservative
fturpentining.
Because of the increased cost OF
the equipment, such methods have
not appealed to the smaller opera
tors who have little capital. and who's
operations extend over only two or
ftroa vaarc IN a ofvon locality They