The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1909-04-29
TURPENTINE AND ROSlN
Something About Their Making and
Their Use.

something else than cotton. From
the great turpentine camps of the
Southern States goes the enormous
auantity of turpentine and its var
Ious products that supply the bulk
ii the world with naval stores.
Turpentine comes from the long
leaf pine tree, one of the most
valuable trees of the forest. Long
leaf pine is the excellent timber
that is called in some sections the
North Georgia pine, because the
mills of Georgia send a large
amount of sawed lumber to North
ern markets.
The long-leaf pine tree is tall,
clean and imposing, and cuts out
a high proportion of sound and en-
during lumber, which takes a nice
finish and is valuable for many
things in building, Unfortunately
tor the timber crop, the long-Ieaf
pine is also the turpentine tree,
and the production of turpentine
is the ruination of the forest.
No other of the pine family is
more stately or handsome than
the long-leaf pine, with its needles
that sometimes exceed a foot in
length. A forest Of longleaf foil
age waving against the sky gives
the appearance of a gigantic lace
work thrown over the tree tops,
and is very striking to the visitor
who sees ii for the first time.
The man who has a turpentine
forest does not look much at the
lacework of the tree tops. He is
more concerned in the bottom of
the tree trunk, which yields him
his living. In the spring
Oh, well, everything begins in
the spring, anyway.
The turpentine man gets an axe
that is made in Ridgway, Pa, and
cuts in each side of the pine tree a
deep pocket that he calls a box.
1t will hold about quart. Then
he scarifies the side of the tree a
foot or two up the trunk that it
may bleed When this is done
the tree begins to exude the sticky
laid that the stranger calls pitch,
and which the turpentine man
calls turpentine. 1t is turpentine.
Pitch is wholly different sub
stance.
The turpentine dribbles slowly
down the peeled surface of the
tree and finally fills up the box at
the bottom. From the box it is
dipped into buckets and carried
away to barrels, and from the bar
rels it goes to the stills. The Job
of gathering the crude turpentine
IS quite on parallel with the
maple sugar operations of the
North, except that turpentine is
wofully sticky. Molasses is
smooth and unctuous beside tur-
pentine.
From the woods to the still it is
a sticky job, and at the still is a
big tank enCased in brick, with a
fireplace below, and long copper
worm leading from the vat through
a condensing chamber holding
cold water. The distilling is
much the same whether it is tur-
pentine, whiskey, crude oil or
anything else.
AS the fires burn beneath the
tank. the material to be distilled
gives off vapor that is carried
through the worm and condensed
in the cold water. The LIQUID that
flows from the worm in the tur-
pentine still is the spirits of tur-
pentine of the drug store and the
paint shop.
After the turpentine is distilled
off, residuum is left which is
rosin. Rosin is about as widely
used as turpentine, and the chief
supply of the world is found in the
stills of the South. You can't
solder can, or wax the stick of
a fiddle without paying a tribute
i, to the pine forests of Dixie.
y A few years ago the fire depart
ment in Pittsburg saw fierce black
smoke CominU from the Sacond or