222 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



during the dripping season. The turpentine is taken out 

 of the boxes by a paddle, which should be of iron, and so 

 should the buckets. These are emptied into barrels stand- 

 ing around all about the forest. Water in the boxes or 

 barrels does no harm, but rains stop the dripping until re- 

 cut. Damp weather is best. On clay land, the product is 

 much affected by drouth. The business is considered 

 very healthy, and those engaged in it are fond of that 

 kind of employment. It requires, however, the most 

 able-bodied men. After the close of the season, the hands 

 are employed during the winter in scraping old trees, 

 boxing new ones, and making barrels, preparatory to the 

 spring business. 



Mr. Henry Elliott,^ a gentleman well known in the 

 neighborhood of Fayetteville, says that a first rate hand 

 can "chip" from 10,000 to 12,000 trees a week and go 

 over his task every week at that. He has often seen new 

 boxes filled in three weeks, but old ones run seven or 

 eight. He says that he has observed the greatest death 

 among pines in February, when there were no insects to 

 be seen. He entirely repudiates the idea that a cut on 

 dead pine is the cause of death to the growing trees. His 

 experience is somewhat extensive, as he has been all his 

 life engaged in the lumber business. He says that trees, 

 when attacked by disease, flow two or three times as fast 



' Henry Elliot, eldest son of Mary Turner and George Elliot of 

 Ellerslie plantation, in Harnett County, North Carolina. George 

 Elliot came to America before the Revolution and engaged in the 

 lumber business, later becoming an extensive planter and large 

 slave owner. Henry Elliot served in the War of 1812. He was 

 justice of peace in Cumberland County and active in the adminis- 

 trative duties of the county, 1845-1853. Married Isabella Smith, 

 March 6, 1819. His father left him considerable property includ- 

 ing, "one-fourth part value of all lands not heretofore conveyed, 

 . . . which shall . . . include one-half of one of my saw-mills, . . . 

 one-sixth part of all my slaves, . . . one-fourth of all the oxen, 

 . . . one-sixth of all the remaining of the stock. . . ." He was 

 directed to pay in cash or negroes $500 toward the education of his 

 sister. Will of George Elliot, probated December term of court, 

 1807, Cumberland County Wills, 1759-1869; Connor, History of 

 North Carolina, 5:271. 



