160 FORESTS AND MANKIND 



down into the box where it was collected. The tapping season 

 lasts for about seven months. This method of "boxing" the 

 tree has always been tinsatisfactory since it is wasteful of wood 

 that might later be made into lumber and the box, if cut deep, 

 tends to weaken the tree and make it a victim to high winds. 

 During later years this box has been supplanted by small 

 cups hung over the base of the tree into which small tin 

 drains lead, that conduct the sap to the cups. Aside from the 

 initial cost of cups and drains this method is in every way 

 better. 



Whatever method is used the sap is collected from the boxes 

 or cups and taken to stills where it is converted by cooking 

 and distillation into spirits of turpentine and rosin. 



In America collecting resin from pine trees to make tar and 

 pitch began as far back as 1600. Methods remained extremely 

 primitive until the middle of the Nineteenth century, when 

 copper kettles and condensing worms came into use and from 

 that time on the production of turpentine has leaped until, in 

 many sections of the South, it is the leading industry. Today 

 three-fourths of the world's naval stores are produced in our 

 Southern States and find their way into every important mar- 

 ket of the globe. The rosin is used for gum, varnish, soap, and 

 the manufacture of sealing wax. Turpentine finds uses for 

 paints, varnishes, coloring, and in manufacturing a large 

 number of chemicals and medicines. 



As in lumbering the manufacturing of naval stores can be 

 unjustifiably wasteful. Fortunately, however, manufacturers 

 are being converted away from the old "box" method and are 

 learning to make smaller chips. Usually trees are cupped for 

 three or four years, then cut for lumber. With the introduction 



