DENDROLOGY. 233 



spirits of turpentine are made in North Carolina : it is obtained 

 by distilling the turpentine in large copper retorts, which are of 

 an imperfect shape, being so narrow at the mouth as to retard 

 the operation. Six barrels of turpentine are said to afford thirty 

 gallons of the spirit. All the tar of the Southern States is made 

 from dead wood of the long-leaved pine, consisting of trees 

 prostrated by time or by the fire, of the summits of those that 

 are felled for timber, and of limbs broken off by the ice which 

 sometimes overloads the leaves. It is worthy of remark that the 

 branches of resinous trees consist almost wholly of wood, of 

 which the organization is even more perfect than in the body of 

 the tree. As soon as vegetation ceases in any part of the tree, 

 its consistence speedily changes ; the sap decays and the heart, 

 already impregnated with resinous juice, becomes surcharged to 

 such a degree as to double its weight in a year : the accumulation 

 is said to be much greater after four or five years. To procure 

 the tar, a kiln is formed in a part of the forest abounding in dead 

 wood : this is first collected, deprived of the sap, and cut into 

 billets two or three feet long and about three inches thick. The 

 next step is to prepare a place for piling it : for this purpose a 

 circular mound is raised, slightly declining from the circumference 

 to the centre, and surrounded with a shallow ditch. The 

 diameter of the pile is proportioned to the quantity of wood 

 which it is to receive : to obtain one hundred barrels of tar, it 

 should be eighteen or twenty feet wide. In the middle is a hole 

 with a conduit leading to the ditch, in which is formed a 

 receptacle for the resin as it flows out. Upon the surface of the 

 mound, beaten hard and coated with clay, the wood is laid 

 round in a circle like rays. The pile, when finished, may be 

 compared to a cone truncated at two-thirds of its height and 

 reversed, being twenty feet in diameter below, twenty-five or 

 thirty feet above, and ten or twelve feet high. It is then strewed 

 with pine leaves, covered with earth, and contained at the sides 

 with a slight cincture of wood. This covering is necessary in 

 order that the fire kindled at the top may penetrate to the 

 bottom with a slow and gradual combustion : if the whole mass 

 was rapidly inflamed, the operation would fail and the labor in 



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