1912] The Naval Stores iNDusTRt 119 



In the early days of the North Carolina industry, no effort 

 was made to distill the product, but gradually it became clear 

 that it would be better to separate the crude turpentine into 

 spirits of turpentine and rosin by distillation in the woods. 

 For this purpose iron stills were used at first, but results were 

 unsatisfactory until the introduction of copper stills, which 

 were less liable to crack and could be heated with greater uni- 

 formity and better control. 



The industry now began to grow rapidly and before many 

 years it was found that the supply of available timber in North 

 Carolina was rapidly decreasing. This led many of the opera- 

 tors to transfer their operations to the virgin forests of the ad- 

 joining state of South Carolina, where the same destructive 

 methods were applied by the same men or their descendants. In 

 this way, and for these reasons, the center of the industry has 

 gradually moved southward and then westward as evidenced by 

 the relative prominence of the ports for exports of the pro- 

 ducts ; first Wilmington, N. C, then Charleston, S. C, then 

 Savannah, Ga., and now the latter, together with Jacksonville, 

 Fla., and the gulf ports, Tampa, Fla., Pensacola, Fla., Mobile, 

 Ala., Gulf port, Miss., New Orleans, La., and others. 



FRENCH IMPROVEMENTS. 



The steady growth of the American industry received a seri- 

 ous check during the Civil War. The consequent scarcity of 

 the products was accompanied by an abnormal increase in their 

 value. This enhanced valuation led Hugues, a Frenchman, to 

 propose a less wasteful method for the French forests than the 

 hole dug in the sand. He proposed as a substitute a clay pot, 

 holding about one pint. The pot was supported on its bottom 

 by a large nail driven into the tree and on one side of its upper 

 rim by a strip of sheet zinc, approximately 2" x 4'', slightly 

 curved and driven into a correspondingly upwardly inclined cut 

 in the wood. This spout served to direct the oleoresin into the 

 pot. At first his proposition was scoffed at and the peasants 

 amused themselves by breaking the little pots. It is a pitiful 



