SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



came into production, he made a classic report to one 

 of his business associates: "The blinking rosin pours 

 out of the blankety-blank vat in a stream as thick as 

 a woman's leg." 



Yaryan had more than his share of luck, both good 

 and bad. His process worked. But he could not sell his 

 dark rosin or his smelly turpentine, and no one had 

 any uses for his pine oil. Along came World War I to 

 solve his selling troubles because war shortages cured 

 buyers of their fussy habits. After the war this colorful 

 pioneer doubtless considered himself exceedingly lucky 

 to find a buyer for his entire naval stores enterprise. 



The buyer of the Yaryan plants and patents was the 

 Hercules Powder Company. Knowing that the man- 

 agement was scouting chemical fields for an expansion, 

 a wide-awake Hercules salesman had suggested this 

 purchase. He knew Yaryan because he sold him dyna- 

 mite for blowing up pine stumps. During World 

 War I speed-up cutting of the Southern pine forests 

 and reckless chipping raised a scare that vanishing pine 

 trees would mean death to the naval stores industry; 

 no living trees, no gum. Congress had investigated and 

 published such a doleful report that to the alert Her- 

 cules executives rosin and turpentine from dead stump- 

 wood appeared almost a commercial sure-thing. 



About the time that Yaryan had started, a chemically 

 minded family from Milwaukee became interested in 

 wood naval stores. Hugo Schlesinger had a private ven- 



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