2 BULLETIN 229, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the need for improved methods, for attention to detail, is impera- 

 tive if the industry is to have a future. Ways of collecting the gum 

 which will give the maximum amount for the longest time with the 

 least injury to the tree and methods of distillation which will insure 

 turpentine and rosin of the best grade are things which every oper- 

 ator might well make the subject of study. Nowhere more than in 

 the naval stores industry will close attention to detail coincide with 

 successful operation. 



This bulletin reviews the present status of the naval stores indus- 

 try and the progress which has been made in improving the methods 

 of collecting and distilling the gum. 1 Information is also presented 

 on the supply of timber at present available for turpentine opera- 

 tions. 



The publications listed in the latter part of this bulletin have been 

 drawn upon in its preparation, and acknowledgement is made to the 

 several authors. 



HISTORY OF THE INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



The earliest mention of turpentine and rosin seems to exist in a 

 manuscript dated 1610, preserved in the Public Record Office, Lon- 

 don, and entitled "Instructions for suche things as are to be sente 

 from Virginia." 2 



"Hard pitche," "Tarre," "Turpentine," and "Rozen" are also 

 mentioned in the "Booke of the Commodities of Virginia," issued 

 presumably about the same time. 



Pitch and tar were the chief products of the industry up to the 

 middle of the eighteenth century. Their extensive use in the con- 

 struction and maintenance of sailing vessels caused them to be 

 called "naval stores," . a term now applied to the turpentine and 

 rosin industry, which has supplanted the production of tar and 

 pitch. 



The manufacture of turpentine and rosin in North Carolina was 

 described by Schoepf in 1783-84. Pitch and tar, however, had been 

 staple products since 1700. Norfolk was the great shipping point 

 for Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. 



The method of boxing the trees for collecting the crude gum was 

 the same as that employed to-day, but the names of some of the 

 operations have changed, such as "cornering" in place of "notching," 

 and "virgin dip" in place of "pure dippings." 



1 The Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture is now investigating problems connected 

 with the distillation of turpentine, and has offered helpful suggestions in the case of this bulletin. 



a Among the instructions is the following: "Pyne trees, or ffirre trees are to be wounded w th in a yarde 

 of the grounde, or boare a hoal w^ an agar the thirde pte into the tree, and lett y t runne into anye tiiinge 

 that maye receyue the same, and that w<* yssues owte wilbe Turpentyne worthe 18 Tonne. Wher 

 the tree beginneth to runne softelye yt is to be stopped vp agayne for p re serveinge the tree." 



" Pitche and tarre hath bene made there and we doubte not but wilbe agayne, and some sente for r sam- 

 ple, your owne tournes beinge firste served." 



