GATHERING NAVAL STORES. 469 



GATHERING NAVAL STORES. 



By lee J. VANCE. 



THAT portion of the Southern States known as the long-leaf 

 pine belt produces the bulk of all the naval stores used in 

 the world. There is an immense stretch of pine forest beginning 

 in North Carolina near the Virginia border, and it follows along 

 the Atlantic coast -to Florida, and along the Gulf coast as far as 

 Texas. This belt of long-lea-f pine varies in width from five to 

 one hundred miles, crosses six states namely, the two Carolinas, 

 Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana and covers an 

 area of about one hundred and thirty thousand square miles. 



All over this great forest territory the trees are tapped, or 

 " bled," for their sap, which furnishes what are known as naval 

 stores. The work on a " turpentine farm," as a division of the 

 forest is called, begins in winter with the cutting of the " boxes." 

 A broad gash about seven inches deep and fourteen inches long is 

 cut just above the base of the tree, making a kind of box. The 

 cut is V-shaped, slanting from the outside, and thus forms a 

 reservoir, which will hold about three pints of sap. 



Meanwhile, the ground around the trees is raked clean, and 

 the pine straw needles are gathered in heaps and usually burned. 

 This is done to protect the boxes from fires, and also to give the 

 ^' chipper " a firm stand when engaged in his work ; but, owing 

 to negligence, small fires are allowed to spread, and often they 

 become disastrous conflagrations, which run over thousands of 

 acres of valuable timber before they are finally checked. 



The turpentine season does not really open till early spring, 

 when the sap starts to flow in the trees, and "chipping" begins. 

 The chipper first removes strips about two inches wide, beginning 

 at the corners of the box and extending to a height of about ten 

 inches. Then the surface between the two strips is laid bare to a 

 depth of about one inch beneath the bark. 



After a short time the " chip " ceases to " bleed," and then from 

 time to time fresh cuts are made. This is called " hacking," and 

 is done with a peculiar tool called the " hacker." There are two 

 kinds of hackers the open and the closed hacker. Both are 

 quite similar in shape and size, except that one has an open, 

 strong knife with curved edge, and the other a closed knife blade, 

 fastened to a long iron handle. A heavy weight is attached at 

 the end in order to give momentum to the blows, and it is said to 

 make the work of the chipper easier. 



Once a week from March till October the trees are either 

 chipped or hacked. The size of the chip grows at the rate of 

 about two inches a month ; so that, by the end of the first season 



