158 FORESTS AND MANKIND 



we now call "naval stores" and, under this collective name are 

 included both rosin and turpentine. In the United States their 

 main source is the sap of the longleaf pine and slash pines of 

 the South. The name "naval stores" dates back to the time 

 when this resinous sap was cooked into pitch or used raw to 

 build and repair ships in the old days of wooden vessels. Noah, 

 one remembers, was commanded to "pitch the Ark within and 

 without." Pitch and its products have had other ancient uses. 

 The varnish that helped Egyptian mummies to resist the decay 

 of centuries was made from the oil of turpentine that came 

 from sap of resinous trees. Today the use of rosin and turpen- 

 tine covers a much wider field than shipbuilding, but the 

 name "naval stores" still remains. 



The business of manufacturing rosin and turpentine has 

 become a tremendously important industry, employing about 

 forty thousand persons and each year producing materials to 

 the value of forty million dollars. By far the great bulk of our 

 naval stores comes from the longleaf pine in the southern 

 States. Practically all the rest is produced from slash pine, al- 

 though the sap of western yellow pine can be used for this 

 purpose. 



The first step in the manufacture of turpentine and rosin is 

 collecting the gum from the trees. The early, wasteful method 

 was to cut a deep notch in the base of the tree known as the 

 box. This box held the turpentine that flowed down the tree 

 trunk from a narrow, shallow wound made by "chipping." 

 Once a week a chip was cut through the bark above the box, 

 each successive chip made directly above the other. These 

 caused the tree to "bleed" or exude sap and all during the 

 summer the trees were periodically chipped the sap flowing 



