The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1910-01-11
NAVAL STORES
IMPORTANT IN
HISTORY SOUTH
IT DERIVED ITS NAME BY BEING
COMMONLY USED TO MAKE
WOODEN VESSELS WATER
TIGHT, SAYS FOREST SERVICE
MAN.

MAN.
1.-THE naval stores industry is one
of the oldest industries in the United
States, deriving it's name from the fact
that in the early days pitch from pine
trees was commonly used to make
wooden vessels water-eight," says r.
S. kellogg, of the United States forest
service. THE term has persisted to
this day, although the products long
ago found other and more important
uses.
The turpentining of pine timber
began in New England with the
pitch or yellow pine of that region,
but 1t was in North Carolina that the
first extensive development of the ma
val stores industry occurred. The rec.
ords show that from 1853 to ITO the
average exports of naval stores to
England included SS,111 barrels OF
crude turpentine, 20,645 barrels OF
pitch, and 1886 barrels of tar. Most
of the crude was shipped to England
for distillation through the ports OF
Wilmington and Newbern.
The supplanting of the iron retort
by the copper still in 1884 greatly in
creased the output of volatile oil ana
gave much impetus to the industry.
However, previous to 1874 not over
one-half of the production in North
Carolina was distilled at home. Then,
because of the poor market Tor rosin.
the stills were transferred from the
ports to the woods, and a heavy on
slaught upon long leaf pine forests OF
the South began.
Surpassed by Florida.
North carolina reached it's maxi
mum in naval stores production in
1880, with an exporta.lon OF g.
279,250 gallons of turpentine, and $685.
957 barrels of rosin. A comparison of
this great expectation with total pro-
duction in North Carolina in 1908 OF
$4,000 gallons of turpentine and 49,
900 barrels of rosin tells the story OF
the exhaustion of the long leaf pine
in that state. South Carolina attained
its maximum output of naval stores in
1882, only two years after that of
North Carolina. The invasion of new
forests of virgin timber brought Geor-
gia 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 yearly output of the naval stores
industry. After following the long
leaf pine forests to their southern
limits, turpentining lwung to the
westward across Mississippi, Louis
lana and Texas, the latter state having
become 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 box.
Thousands of acres of splendid long
leaf pine forests have been abandoned
and destroyed after three or four years
of turpentlning, and the valuable tim
Der which they contained not utilized.
The earlier operations of the turpen-
timer were comparable in their de-
structiveness only to those which
swept The buffalo from the Western
plains. The buffalo was killed for the
hide and horns; the long leaf pine tree
for a gallon or two of turpentine and
few pounds of rosin.
Box Methods Destructive.
The destructiveness of the box
system at last became so apparent
and widespread that ito perpetuate
their industry, the operators were
forced to turn to other methods. Va
rious substitutes were proposed, and
experimental work of the forest SER
vice in methods of conservative opera
ton dates from 1901, when DR.. Herty
undertook the studies, with whose
splendid results you have long been
familiar.
The efforts of DR.. Herty and other
experimenters have demonstrated con-
clusively that improved methods, in
which a cup is USED to catch the crude
turpentine and the box done away
with, result in the production of a
larger quantity of turpentine and
rosin, higher grades of the latter,
longer life to the timber, and greatly
lessened damage from fire and wind.
The introduction of these methods is
the first step in conservative turpen-
timing.
Because of the increased initial
cost of the equipment, such methods
have not appealed to the smaller op-
orators who have little capital, and
whose operations extend over only two
or three years in given locality.
They are unquestionably profitable to
the larger operators and especially to
those who, working upon their own
timber, have the most inducement to
handle it carefully. Only within the
last five years have these improved
methods been introduced upon a COM
mercial scale.
Yet the fact that already one-sev-
enth of the entire output of naval
stores is by these methods; and that
in the newer fields and most up-to-date
operations they are used most largely
demonstrates that they have passed
far beyond the experimental stage"