SOLON ROBINSON, 1849 221 



a barrel ; while the common rosin is often not worth more 

 than 25 cents, and will not pay for transportation any 

 considerable distance. Therefore, at many places, not 

 convenient to water carriage, it is run out from the dis- 

 tillery in wooden troughs, or gutters, that lead it far 

 enough away from the building to be burnt without dan- 

 ger, and is there set on fire. I have thus seen many tons 

 destroyed, while I could not but think how valuable it 

 would be to many a poor family in this city to help make 

 the pot boil. Millions of pounds are consumed in this 

 way every year. The spirit from new boxes is also of a 

 superior quality. I have seen it as limped as spring 

 water. 



In commencing a new place, the first process is, to 

 chop a "box," or hole, in winter, in one side of the tree, 

 close down to the ground, that will hold from a pint to 

 a quart, according to the size of the tree. An expert hand 

 will cut about sixty boxes a day. About the first of March, 

 the season commences, and continues till the first of Oc- 

 tober. Every week, or oftener, if there should be rain, 

 a hand goes round and "chips" off the bark about an inch 

 wide, and nearly as long as the length of the box. This 

 is done with a tool constructed to suit the position of the 

 part to be cut. When first commencing, a crooked- 

 bladed hatchet is used. Then a tool with handles like a 

 drawing knife, with a blade that cuts a chip like a gouge. 

 Finally, a similar tool is attached to a pole that enables 

 the operator to make his cut 12 or 15 feet above the 

 ground. When one side of a tree is "used up," a box is 

 cut in the other, and sometimes, in large trees, a third box 

 is cut. The second side is always the best. Some persons 

 tap all sides at once. This exhausts the tree much quicker. 

 By the first process, trees will last eight or ten years. 

 After the "face" becomes several feet long, most of the 

 turpentine coats the tree before it reaches the box. This 

 has to be scraped off, but is not near the value of new 

 boxes, which, of some new and good trees, require empty- 

 ing once in four weeks, but generally three or four times 



