SASSAFRAS. 33 



In the Southern States it is commonly found in old fields and 

 on thinly \yooded slopes, and the land-owners are generally willing 

 to allow it to be taken from the land without charge if the diners 

 fill up the holes and cut, pile, and leave on the land the trunks of 

 the trees. Many farmers get large pieces of new ground cleared 

 and grubbed without cost in this way. The roots, after being 

 cleaned, are generally saleable at the rate of 20 cents, per 100 lbs.,* 

 and eyerything that grows beneath the surface is good, but the 

 buyer has to see that the stump is not cut higher than the surface 

 of the ground and that all the earth and stones are knocked out 

 from between the roots. If they are not thoroughly cleaned the 

 custom is to deduct from 10 to 25 per cent, from the gross weight 

 to coyer such losses. The roots may be dug at any season, though 

 those dug when the sap is down yield the most oil They are 

 drawn out of the soil by leyers and split up with axes and wedges 

 to about the size of a man's leg, and are then fed into the chopping 

 machine, which is a heayy iron disc or wheel, usually about three 

 feet in diameter, firmly keyed to a strongly journaled shaft which 

 reyolyes at about 600 turns per minute. The wheel carries from 

 one to four steel cutter blades set in slots like a plane bit, the 

 number of cutters being determined by the power ayailable. A 

 25 h. p. engine driving a 4-cutter wheel will chop about 20,000 

 lbs. of root in three hours, and this quantity, in slices about a 

 (juarter of an inch thick, will fill a wooden tank ten feet in 

 diameter and eleven feet high. Some of the large roots when 

 brouo'ht in weicrli over 1,000 lbs. each, but the smaller roots yield 

 the largest percentage of oil. The cutter is fixed to a heavy 

 wooden frame, and up against the inner face of the wheel a heavy 

 oak piece is bolted about 14 inches square and long enough to 

 reach across the frame, — about 4 feet. In this block a sort of 

 chute is hollowed out, with the bottom inclined toward the cntter 

 blades. This chute is lined with hardened ^-inch saw-steel, and 

 when the wheel is in motion the roots thrown into this chute are 

 carried down the steel-shod incline and cut very rapidly. The 

 tank (which constitutes the still) is made of 3 inch kiln-dried pine, 

 which should be free from pitch. The staves are 4 to 5 inches 

 wide, 12 feet long, tightly jointed, and strongly banded wuth six- 

 iron bands about 3 inches wide and ^th inch thick. The upper 

 and lower heads of the tank are made of the same materials as the 

 * Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter, 14 Sept., 1891. 



