The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-05

the sap from the boxes is called dipping, It IS done about once a week during the spring and summer. fresh cuts being made from time to time at the top of the scared places to cause more sap to ooze out. The scars are recut the next year. and the trees may be tapped five or six years at profit. The sap for the second year is not so white or transparent as that of the first It grows darker from year to year, and at the end of six years the tree is about ready to die. It is then sold for lumber.
 It is estimated that a tree in foul years should yield 60 pounds of crude tnrpentine, and about 30 pounds of good rosin and in addition certain other by products. Of late they have been get ting more sap hy better methods of gath erins. Instead of cutting the boxes al the root of the tree, they hang little cups of galvanized iron on nails driven in the base of the tree. and the gum is guided into these cups by strips of sheet iron tackled along the scared surfaces This weakens the tree much less than the old way of cutting boxes into the trunks
 I am told that turpentining does not injure the lumber and that recent ex- perimentsN of the United States for estry service show that the wood from trees so treated is as strong as that from trees that have never been boxed.
 But let us follow the barrel of pine sap on its way to the distillery. As the sap oozes out 1t is of a waxy. gummy na- ture It contains both rosin and turpen- tine and the question is how to get the turpentine out and leave the rosin in the best shape for the market
 Tt will take eight barrels of sap to make two barrels of turpentine, and the most Of what remains will be rosin.
 We can tell we are nearing the dstiI- iery by the aromatic smell of the rosin. This smell grows stronger as we ap- proach the big shed which has been knocked up in the forest not far from the railroad. Inside the shed is fur. mace, over which rests a big copper ket tie or boiler. The barrels are emptied into the boiler and the top is shut down Then fire is started. The gum. which IS Of waxy, crystalliZed nature and con- tains considerable water, soon melts and begins to boil. A steam rises. and this is composed of the turpentine vapor and water vapor mixed together. It flows off into a coil of pipes, such as is used in tho distillation of whisky. The pipes are kept cool by water flowing over them. and as the vapor strikes against the cold metal it is condensed and turned to a liquid which runs out as turpentine. or rather, turpentine and water. The two are mixed together as they flow out, but they are easily separated as the turpen- tine is drawn off into barrels The rosin which is heavier than the turpentine is left in the kettle From time to time d,,r. ing the process of boiling water is la, into the kettle to aid in getting the tur. pentine vapor out of the gum
 After all the turpentine has been tsker out, the liquid rosin is skinned. aftn,. which it is drawn from the kettle througb spigot at the bottom. It is then strained through wire netting like that of window screen, and is run off into bar rels, where it cools and hardens. If is now ready to be shipped to the ma ts for the making of shrapnel, for woodon