Evening star., 1919-01-05

vast number OF new buildings now
being constructed and it has its part
in scores of peace industries.
have dated this letter somewhere
on the south Atlantic coast. The eX-
act locality is not far from Bruns-
wick, but it would serve equally well
for almost any pine forest along the
coast of Georgia or Florida, and many
of the manufacturing conditions de
scrbed are to be found all along the
GuIf OF Mexico. The pine forests OF
the south produce more turpentlne
and rosin than those of all the rest
OF the world put together. our total
product ion has been worth forty or
trty million dollars year and from
now on it will be considerably greater
Both turpentne and rosin have their
part in both war ana peace, They
Were once so important to naval con-
struction that they were called naval
stores and today they are employed in
one shape or another in the ship
building plants all over the Union.
They had their place in the finishing
of every aeroplane that flew over the
battlctields, and in the automobiles
and motor cars that moved back ana
forth in the rear of the trenches. The
bullets of the shrapnel shells rest in
beds of rosin inside the steel, until
they are ready to be showered over
the enemy; and there is not bit OF
paint or varnish on any arm or mu-
milton of war that has not some of
the Juice of the long leaf pine in 1t.
The same stuff is used in the making
of soap, paper and printing materials,
and they arc now experimenting WIN
1t to make synthetic rubber, which,
1t is claimed. Will eventually. compete
with the gum from the wilds or thc
Amazon and the cultivated rubber
plantations OF Ceylon and Malaysia,
During recent trip through the
southern forests ! saw them making
turpentine here and there all the way
from Georgia to Texas. I visited a
number OF distilleries in Louisiana
and Mississippi. and here along the
south Atlantic the smell or burning
Tosin Is everywhere waited to my
nostrils, making one think that the
whole region must be engaged IN old-
fashioned fruit canning and that the
Josin Is burning.
The first turpentine and rosin made
in the United States came from the
Carolinas. Then the industry moved
down to Georgia. and, as the forests
began to play out, 1t went farther
south into Florida and MISSISSIPPI
j
ing point for shipping naval stores,
although the work of making tur-
pentine in the woods stiil goes on
almost everywhere. The turpentine
forests of South Carolina and Georgia
have been largely exhausted, but
they are now cutting down the dead
trees and blasting out the stuInps
and roots. and heating the wood in
retorts to extract the turpcntine ana
rosin. The gum of the pine seems
- L. f;.>nl lIx,i irI frr
today one of the chief exports of
New Zealand is from the gum of
kauri trees which died centuries ago.
The wood has long since disappeared.
but chunks of pure, clear. amber
like gum are still dug from the
swamps and sent to the markets.
But first let us visit a turpentne
farm. Getting out the turpentine is
known as turpentine farming. A tur-
pentine farm is a forest of pine trees.
each of which has been SO cut and
SCARED that the sap oozes out so
that ii may be collected for the
making of turpentine. There are
farms of this kind all along our
south Atlantic and gulf coast. A
single farm has thousands of trees
and where tapped long white scars
run from the roots up to the height
OF your waist. II you observe close
ly you will see that hole or box
has been cut out in each tree at the
foot Of the scars, and that the gum
or sap is oozIng out and running
down into the box.
The trees are not large around.
They are perfectly straight, and
often so tail that they reach the
height OF an eight story house be-
fore their branches begin. There is
hut little underbrush. and We walk
through the woods on carpet of
fallen pine needles. or on the wire
grass. so called from its leaves, which
look like pieces of wire.
AS we go On we see the men soaring
the trees and making boxes in their
turpentiue farm is known by the
number of boxes. Ten thousand five
hundred boxes make what is called IA
crop. There are turpcntine farms
which have millions of boxes, and on
which ii takes hundreds of negroes to
prepare the trees and gather the
sap. The cutting of the boxes is done
in November or December The men
labor under an oNcIsecT. in gangs,
and N4y are paid so much for each
box that is cut. Some of the best men
can earn from six to eight dollars
day. Two men usually work together,
and 1t is best to have right handed
man and a left handed man on the
same tree Each box will hold from
@ pint to a quart of the sap.
When the sap rises in the spring 1t