USE OF THE FOREST 177 



this industry in 1892 was about three hundred and fifty 

 thousand casks of turpentine and about two and a half 

 million barrels of rosin. 



The ordinary tai;, formerly manufactured in large quan- 

 tities, especially in North Carolina, and much used on ships, 

 was not made in the manner described, but in special char- 

 coal pits, and was thus a product of dry distillation, akin 

 to the tar produced in retorts. 



Seeds and Mast 



In nearly all of our eastern hardwood forests the nuts of 

 chestnut, hickory, including the pecan, walnut, and butter- 

 nut, and to some extent the beechnuts, are gathered and fonn 

 one of the common dainties of winter-evening gatherings. 



Nearly all of our large oak forests are used to pasture 

 thousands of hogs, which fatten whenever the " mast," or 

 crop of acorns, is good. 



Aside from these simple and ancient uses, the seeds of 

 our trees are generally allowed to go to waste ; but as 

 there arises a market for many of our tree seeds, it will 

 prove profital)le to gather them. This is so now in most 

 parts of Europe, where the value of the seed from a small 

 piece of woods is often far greater than that of the wood, 

 and where, whenever a seed year occurs, hundreds of 

 people make it a business to collect such seeds as pine, 

 spruce, and balsam. 



