United States Department of Agriculture, 



BUREAU OF FORESTRY. Circular No. 24. 



A NEW METHOD OF TURPENTINE ORCHARDING. 



The Bureau of Forestry will shortly issue a bulletin describing a new 

 method of working Southern pines for turpentine. This method is 

 intended to replace the present wasteful and injurious system of box- 

 ing. As the bulletin can not be published in time to reach turpentine 

 operators before the present season's work begins, this circular is issued 

 in advance for the purpose of giving operators an opportunity to install 

 the new system, and thus avoid the loss in quantity and quality of 

 products consequent upon another year of work with the old system of 

 boxing. 



The forthcoming bulletin will deal with the turpentine industry in 

 general and with the economies that the new system makes possible. 

 Here brief mention- only can be made of the principal features of the 

 system. Important among these is the production of 23 per cent more 

 turpentine than by boxing and the yield of only the higher grades of 

 rosin. The cost of the new equipment can easily be paid for from the 

 extra returns of the first season, and there will also be an additional 

 margin of profit. Moreover, since there is no box cutting under the 

 new system, the least possible damage is done the trees ; shallow chip- 

 ping only is necessary. 



For the season of 1902 the production of spirits of turpentine by the 

 old system of boxing amounted to 600,000 barrels, valued at $13,200,- 

 000. The production of rosin was 2,100,000 barrels, valued at $4,200- 

 000. The total value of the crop was thus $17,400,000. Had the new 

 method been applied to the same area of timber, the production of 

 spirits of turpentine would have been 1,050,000 barrels, amounting in 

 value to $23,100,000. The production of rosin would have been 4,675,- 

 000 barrels, worth at current prices $7,350,000. The total value of this 

 product would have been $30,450,000. This increased yield by the new 

 system represents a net loss to the Southern naval stores industry of 

 $13,000,000 from boxing in one season. 



It is important to note here also that the ordinary labor used for all 

 boxing operations readily adapts itself without extra cost or training to 

 the working of the new system. 



iEhis system was devised by Dr. Charles H. Herty, Expert in the Bu- 

 reau of Forestry, and under his supervision received a thoroughly practi- 



