656 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



which when you do, you will 

 much oblige me by requesting 

 that both may be examined, in 

 the hope that this small trial may 

 meet with the approbation of the 

 very highly respectable, and truly 

 useful Society of Arts, Manufac- 

 tures, and Commerce ; and if con- 

 sidered likely to prove useful, that 

 they may induce some person who 

 has the means and opportunity of 

 doing it, to make a trial on a larger 

 scale, so as to fairly ascertain 

 whether turpentine can be obtain- 

 ed in this country from the very 

 large and numerous plantations of 

 Scotch firs now in the United 

 Kingdom, previous to the trees 

 being cut down, either to thin 

 plantations, or where ground is 

 designed to be cleared, as taking 

 the turpentine from the trees pre- 

 vious to their being cut, does not 

 at all injure the wood, but by 

 making the hollow in the trunk 

 of the tree about six inches from 

 the ground, it would waste but a 

 very small quantity of timber. 



I have taken the liberty of an- 

 nexing a copy of memorandums I 

 made when in North Carolina, 

 respecting the modes of collecting 

 turpentine, and making tar and 

 pitch, in hopes they may afford 

 the society some little information, 

 as they are not, I apprehend, very 

 generally known. They are co- 

 pied from memorandums which I 

 actually made on the spot. I 

 would have sent the memorandum 

 books with this, had not the re- 

 marks been mingled with others 

 relative to my commercial pur- 

 suits ; but I shall have no hesita- 

 tion in allowing any person to 

 examine them, or to afford any 

 information in my power to any 



persons willing to make experi- 

 ments in this way, if they will 

 favour me with a call. I am well 

 satisfied in my own mind, that 

 very large quantities of tar might 

 be obtained from the knots and 

 limbs of the Scotch fir when cut 

 down, and that the charcoal made 

 from it would not be injured by 

 the tar being first extracted ; and 

 as I was in Norway, Sweden, and 

 Russia, in 1789, and 1790, and saw 

 no tree from which I consider 

 that tar could be extracted, ex- 

 cept the Scotch fir, or red deal, 

 which is one and the same tree, I 

 am persuaded that the refuse of 

 that tree must be what they make 

 the tar from in those countries, 

 though I had no opportunity of 

 seeing the process there. I sus- 

 pect that the Swedish tar-kilns 

 must be constructed of brick, or 

 some sort of masonry, as the tar 

 from thence is much clearer, bet- 

 ter, and more free from extra- 

 neous matters than that of any 

 other country. 



I have observed the tar from 

 North Carolina to have fre- 

 quently a quantity of sand in it, 

 which is easily accounted for, 

 from the soil in which the kilns 

 are made ; it would, in the care- 

 less way in which they take it out 

 of the hole dug in a sandy soil, 

 be very likely to be mixed with 

 the sand. In the small cask in 

 which the turpentine is, I have 

 sent a few small red deal knots 

 from some timber that I have 

 lately taken out of my warehouse, 

 on some alterations being made : 

 the timber from which they are 

 taken has been in the warehouse 

 ever since the summer of 1786 ; 

 and yet when these pieces are ex- 



