CHAP. CXIII. CONI'FERiK. PiVus. 2259 



pool ; where, according to Michaux, it is called the Georgia pitch pine, and is 

 sold at 25 per cent or 30 per cent higher than any other pine imported from 

 the United States. The young trees, which have larger and more numerous 

 leaves than the old ones, are sometimes cut by the negroes for brooms ; and 

 hence the name of broom pine. P. australis supplies nearly all the resinous 

 matter used in the United States in ship-building. Formerly, tar was made in 

 all the lower parts of the Carolinas and Georgia; but at present this manu- 

 facture is confined to the lower districts of North Carolina. The resinous 

 products of this pine are, turpentine, scrapings, spirit of turpentine, resin, tar, 

 and pitch. Of these, turpentine is the raw sap of the tree obtained by making 

 incisions in the trunk. It begins to distil about the middle of March, when 

 the circulation commences, and it flows with increasing abundance as the 

 weather becomes warmer ; so that July and August are the most productive 

 months. The sap is collected in what are in America termed boxes : these 

 are incisions, notches, or cavities, cut in the tree, about 3 in. or 4 in. from 

 the ground, generally of a sufficient size to hold about three pints of sap, but 

 proportioned to the size of the tree ; the rule being that the cavity shall not 

 exceed one fourth of the diameter of the tree. These cavities are made in 

 January or February, commencing with the south side, which is thought the 

 best, and going round the tree. The next operation is the raking or clearing 

 the ground from leaves and herbage. About the middle of March, a notch 

 is made in the tree, with two oblique gutters, to conduct the sap that flows 

 from the wood into the box, or cavity, below. In about a fortnight, the box 

 becomes full, and a wooden shovel is used to transfer its contents to a pail, 

 by means of which it is conveyed to a large cask placed at a convenient dis- 

 tance. The edges of the wound are chipped every week, and the boxes, 

 after the first, generally fill in about three weeks. The sap thus procured is 

 used as turpentine, without any preparation, and is called pure dripping. 

 The scrapings are the crusts of resin that are formed on the sides of the 

 wounds; and these are often mixed with the turpentine, which, in this state, 

 is used in the manufacture of yellow soap, and is called Boston turpentine. 

 Long-continued rains check the flow of the sap, and even cause the wounds 

 to close ; and, for this reason, very little turpentine is procured in cold damp 

 seasons. In five or six years, the tree is abandoned; and the bark never 

 becomes sufficiently healed to allow of the same place being wounded twice. 



Spirits of turpentine are made principally in North Carolina; and are 

 obtained by distilling the turpentine in lai'ge copper retorts. Six barrels of 

 turpentine are said to affi^rd one cask, or 122 quarts, of the spirit. The" 

 residuum, after the distillation, is resin, which is sold at one third of the price 

 of the turpentine. 



All the tar of the southern states is made from the dead wood of P. 

 australis, consisting of trees prostrated by time, or by the fires annually 

 kindled in the forests ; of the summits of those that are felled for timber ; 

 and of limbs broken oif by the ice that sometimes overloads the trees. 

 (See p. 2137.) It has been already observed (p. 2108.), that, as soon as 

 vegetation ceases in any part of a pine tree, its consistence changes : the 

 sap wood decays, and the heart wood becomes surcharged with resinous juice, 

 to such a degree as to double its weight in a year; and that this accumulation 

 increases for several years. Dead wood is thus productive of tar for several 

 years after it has fallen from the tree. 



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

 dead wood : this is first collected, stripped of tiie sap wood, and cut into billets 

 2 ft. or 3 ft. long, and about 3 in. thick ; a task which is rendered tedious and 

 difficult by the numerous knots with which the wood abounds. The next 

 step is to prepare a place for piling the billets ; and for this purpose a cir- 

 cular mound is raised, slightly declining from the circumference to the centre, 

 and surrounded by a shallow ditch. The diameter of the pile is proportioned 

 to the quantity of wood which it is to receive : to obtain 100 barrels of tar, 

 it should be 18 ft. or 20 ft. wide. In the middle is a hole, with a conduit 



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