14 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



(God bless her !) — one of her most distinguished sons* has inspiringly character- 

 ized her to the world in song, a verse of -which runs — 



" And her Daufjhtcrs — the Quecnt of tlie Forest resembling — 

 So graceful, so ronstaut. to s^eritlest breatii trembliiia:. 

 And trae liijiit-wood at heart ; let the match be applied tlicm, 

 How they kindle and flame — Oh! none know but who've tried them." 



But, as I was saying or about to say that a description of the manner of mak- 

 ing Turpentine and Tar was as well characteristic of the State, and least known 

 out of her borders — and wliich, you insist, will be interesting to a large portion 

 of the readers of your valuable Library, I will attempt briefly to give it: 



An able-bodied man will require for his field about one hundred acres of Pine 

 forest as his crop. After the middle of November, boxing the trees commences. 

 Thus with a long, narrow ax, a box or chop is made in the tree, from three to 

 six inches from the ground, or just above the swell of the roots. The width of 

 the box is governed by the size of the tree, but usually from eight to sixteen 

 inches. It is not cut far inward, but aims downward and to the line separating 

 the sap and heart of the tree. The rim of the box is kept level, and it is designed 

 to hold from one to two quarts — in small trees they do not hold so much. This 

 boxing continues until the middle or end of March, or when the sap begins to ri*e 

 freely, and will embrace about four months, as the only suitable boxing season of 

 the year ; and he is a good hand who can in this period cut his own crop for the 

 coming year, though it may be done. The average number for a hand to cut in 

 a day is 80 or 90 — a few less in the shorter, and a few more in the longer days 

 of that season. Here I may remark that we estimate the cutting of boxes at 

 about one dollar the acre — though it may not cost quite so much, but nearly so. 

 The most usual number of boxes for a hand as a crop is a thousand — though 

 they can do well with either more or less. An acre averages about one hundred 

 boxes — the larger trees affording room for three boxes, the middle size for only 

 two ; and the smaller (being about 9 or 10 inches in diameter), only one box. 



When the hundred acres are thus boxed, the hand has his crop or field in pre- 

 paration for the following ten or sixteen years. The boxes being cut, the next 

 work is cornering, which is often performed by two strokes of the same ax at each 

 corner of the box, taking out a light chip : a perpendicular line of about four to 

 six inches is thus started upward from each corner. This operation is executed 

 with great dispatch, as a hand will corner from six to eight hundred in a day. — 

 With this last work the boxes will usually fill with turpentine, issuing as well 

 from cornering, as from the face made in cutting the box. The next thing 

 to be done is to lay oft" the ground in what is called " patterns" — this is done 

 by staking it oft' in straight parallel lines, of forty yards in width, with visible 

 and pretty permanent stakes; this is necessary to enable the hand to follow his 

 *' through" or row, regularly, and miss no tree in all his future attention to them. 

 All this being done, and the boxes being full, or nearly so — but it is proper to re- 

 mark that the boxes are all never full alike, some trees issuing nmch more and 

 faster than others — the full ones indicate the necessity of " dipping," which is 

 done with an iron trowel-like instrument called a " dipper," having a socket to 

 receive a wooden handle of throe or four feet. The blade is ten or twelve inches 

 long, about six inches wide in the middle, tapering to an oval point, and flat on 

 both sides, with the substance of about one-fourth of an incli in thickness in 

 the middle, declining to a dull edge at the point and sides. This instrument in 

 iiand, and two rude pine buckets with bale or handle to them, and barrels, with 

 one head out, fixed at slated distances in the "pattern" or '• tiirough," the man 

 begins his dipping by thrusting his dipper in at one corner of the box, ranging it 

 down to the bottom, and pressing it upward toward the opposite corner, all with 

 a quick motion. When nearly the whole contents of the box are collected on the 

 flat surface of the dipper — which is immediately carried to the bucket, that being 

 set quite up to the tree — the dipper is drawn over the near edge of the bucket to 

 cleanse it from the adhering turpentine ; and to accomplish this the more eflectu- 

 ally, a strip of hoop-iron is fixed in the edge of the bucket to draw the dipper ou. 

 The first box being thus emptied, with quick step the next is reached, and so 

 »X)ntinued until the bucket is nearly full— it holding about eight gallons when full ; 

 the man carries it to the barrel and turns it in and there leaves it to drain, while 

 lie is filling the other bucket, which is soon to take its place. Thus, a hau(^ will 



•Judge Gaston. t Pine. 



