156 FORESTRY INVESTIGATIONS T. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



From the fact that 1,000 acres of timber land (20 crops of 200 acres each) during four years' working produce 

 120,000 gallons of spirits of turpentine, or 74 gallons per acre and year, it follows that to produce the 17,000,000 

 gallons reported as the annual product, not less than 2,250,000 acres must he in orchard; and since the yield of the 

 first year represent* 35 per cent of the total annual yield, at least 800,000 acres of virgin forest are newly invaded 

 annually to supply the turpentine stills in operation. 



INSPECTION LAWS RELATING TO RESINOUS PRODUCTS. 



In several of the Southern States laws have been passed regulating the inspection of turpen- 

 tine, etc., and defining its grades. The principal of these are as follows: 



I'irgiuia. Barrels to be full of good, clean, sound, and merchantable tar, pitch, or turpentine, and to hold 31} 

 gallons. 



North Carolina. Soft turpentine barrels to weigh 280 pounds grogs, and hard turpentine, 240 pounds; pitch, 32 

 gallons to the barrel. Turpentine, tar, or pitch to be free from fraudulent mixtures. Casks to be of good seasoned 

 staves, three fourths of an iucli thick, and not over 5 inches wide; not less than 30 nor over 32 inches long. Heads 

 not less than 1 nor more than H inches thick. To have 12 hoops to a cask, except hard turpentine, which may have 

 10 hoops. Water is declared not a fraudulent mixture of tar. Tar and turpentine barrels not limited as to weight, 

 but the weight to be marked and certified. Turpentine to be branded " S" or " H '' for soft or hard, and to show the 

 initials of the maker's name. The inspector of naval stores at Wilmington is to gauge all spirits of turpentine. 



South Carolina. A barrel of crude turpentine to weigh 280 pounds gross. 



Georgia. Inspectors of turpentine, etc., may be appointed by cities, and their duties prescribed. Soft turpen- 

 tine to be put up in barrels, as in North Carolina, and to be brandeil "V " for virgin turpentine, "S"for yellow 

 dip, and "H" for hard. 



Florida. The governor may appoint inspectors of tar and turpentine. Makers required to brand their initials 

 on the barrels. Inspectors are to mark the products that couie under their notice as follows: "V" for pure virgin 

 dip, "D" for pure yellow dip, "S" for pure scrape. If the first two of these be impure or mixed, the "V" or "D" 

 to be inclosed in a circle. If the scrape is not passable, it is marked with an "X" in a circle. 



Allowances and deductions are to be made on turpentine with reference to the following particulars: 



(1) When virgin dip is dipped from burnt boxes, or contains burnt cinders or sand. 



(2) When virgin dip is mixed with chips, bark, or other impurities. 



(3) When virgin dip is mixed with yellow dip, or scrape. 



(4) When yellow dip is mixed, or contains chips, straw, bark, scrape, or sand, or other impurities. 



(5) When scrape contains more chips than are absolutely necessary to get it off, or dirt, or other impurities. 



(6) When yellow dip, virgin dip, scrape, or tar contains water, or there is an excess of wood in the barrels 

 containing it, or it is injured by long standing or leakage. 



(7) When tar or turpentine of any class is contained in insufficient or unmerchantable barrels. 



The size of barrels is fixed at 30 to 32 inches in length, and the weight 280 pounds gross for turpentine and 320 

 for tar. Allowance is to be made for deficiences, and records are to be kept, but inspection is not obligatory upon 

 the producers of tar and turpentine in this State. 



Alabama. Inspectors are to be appointed by the cities, and their duties prescribed by municipal law 



TURPENTINE ORCHARDING IN EUROPE. 



Austrian practice. In Austria it is the black pine (Pintis laricio, var. austriaca) which is 

 tapped for turpentine. The method is very similar to the American. In the spring, just before 

 the sap rises (usually in March), a box (quandel) is cut into the tree about 1 foot above the ground 

 (quandel). The box has about 3 inches depth and a breadth of from one-fourth to one-third of the 

 circumference of the tree. From the corners of this box two upward diverging channels are 

 notched, from the ends of which continues the scar or chip (sache). This is made with a carved 

 hoe, 2| inches in width, by taking all the bavk and the youngest two to four year old wood. The 

 chip is at first made only about 2 inches high and increased very gradually, reaching during the 

 first year 14 to 16 inches in height. 



In the first year the chip is increased every week; in later years oftener, every four or five 

 days. If the chipping is delayed longer the yield is smaller, since the resin thickens and incrus- 

 tates the surface. The chipping is continued during eight to twelve seasons, and the chip 

 increases every year at the rate of from 14 to 16 inches. The breadth remains even, and must 

 never be more than two-thirds of the circumference of the tree. The time of chipping is from 

 April to the beginning or the middle of October. In the first year most of the resin is liquid and 

 flows into the box. Later, when it has to run a longer distance, so much of the volatile oils evapo- 

 rates that the exudation thickens and must be scraped off the chip. So far this method does not 

 differ from the American method, except as to the rapidity with which the chip is increased and 

 the length of time the tree is worked. In order, however, to reduce the surface from which the 



