TAR AND TURPENTINE MAKING IN NORTH CAROLINA. 15 



fill I'rorn four to seven barrels a day : some active, quick hands have tilled as 

 many as ten barrels in a day. This is the whole process of dipping. The lirst dip- 

 ping of newly cut boxes is the purely " virgin dip," though the whole product of 

 the first year of the Pine is commonly called " virgin dip." 



It is not a little remarkable that tiie lirst dipping is very ditferent, in being thin, 

 oily, and transparent, or more so, than any liiat the tree will ever again afl'ord ; 

 and perhaps not less strange that the product of each succeeding year, as Ion"- 

 as the tree is cultivated, is different from their antecedents. Every succeedin"- 

 year tlic turpentine becomes thicker and more dteply colored, from a light cream 

 toward an orange ; and yet not differing perceptibly in its yield of spirits. It is 

 from the '• virgin dip" only, that the white, transparent resin, so much used in 

 the arts, and especially in making the fine wiiite soaps, can be made. When 

 the dipping is thus over, tlie next work is to " chip" or scarify the tree, immedi- 

 ately over the box, and extending across the face between i)erpendicular lines, 

 arising from the corners .or outer edges of the box. This is done by an instru- 

 ment usually called a " hacker," sometimes " shave." Its form is" somewhat 

 like a " round shave," narrowing at the cutting place to the diameter of an 

 inch, with a shank, to be fixed securely into a strong heavy handle of about two 

 feet length, while the faces of the trees are low, but the handle is made longer an 

 years advance the faces higher. With the hacker the man stands nearly in frost 

 of the box, and makes a stroke from the perpendicular line to the corner, toward 

 the center or line from the middle of the box, upward, cutting a furrow-like gash 



through bark and sap-wood, and about a fourth of an inch deep into the wood 



This is mostly done with one stroke, when the man immediately changes hands 

 or position, and makes a like stroke on the opposite side, toward the centre. In 

 this way he passes through his " patterns" until he gets over his whole crop, 

 which he may readily do in six to eight days ; and, as soon as over he returns 

 to where he began, and goes over them again and again until his boxes are full. 

 The tilling is generally done with four to six " chippings," or four to six weeks, 

 when dipping comes round again. In chipping, each succeeding cut is made im- 

 mediately in the upper edge of the last, and should be made in breadth as narrow 

 as the hacker can be made to cut it — as it is well ascertained that a small 

 scar or narrow cut, if deep enough, does as well, or better, than a larger and broader 

 one, and the economy of the narrow cuts is in saving the tree to many years 

 longer culture, while the wide cut would carry the face out of reach prema- 

 turely. 



This succession of " chipping" and " dipping" continues from April to October, 

 or until frost, when the turpentine is done running, from a want of suflicient heat. 

 New boxes are commonly dipped five or six times in that period — older boxes 

 only three and four times. The quantity made by a hand is quite various, but 

 may be rated as averaging one hundred and fifty barrels. Many make two hund- 

 red and some even as high as three hundred barrels in the year. When the last 

 dipping is finished, which is generally in the month of November, collecting the 

 " scrape" is the next duty. In all years after the first, the trickling of the tui-pen- 

 tine down the face of the box, from the chipping of the hacker, and which face 

 is lengthened upward about one foot every year, there adheres to the face or smooth 

 surface over the box a considerable portion of the issuing turpentine — it is often 

 nearly an inch thick on a considerable portion of the face, and is well worth 

 being collected, which is done by scraping it off with several ditferent instru- 

 ments, as may be most fancied by the operator — often with a small spade, 

 that detaches it from the wood, to fall into a coarse two-legged stool-box, 

 open at one end, which open end is set against the tree below the face, at 

 catch the "scrape" as it falls from the face of the tree and the instrument. — 

 When the box is thus filled, it is carried to an open-headed barrel near to 

 hand, and emptied, and so continued until the barrel is full. The " scrape" 

 is hacked into the barrel either by trampling or pounding, until it is made to 

 hold all it can. 



This article has usually been sold by the barrel, at about half the price of the 

 " dip" or liquid, but of late, the more correct rule of selling by weight is becom- 

 ing generally established. Its yield of spirits is nearly as half of the " dip" per 

 barrel ; and for making the common or inferior resin, it is greatly preferred by 

 the distillers. The "scrape" is thus collected with much dispatch, and is Gn- 

 ished generally in the month of December or Januarv. After the boxes are five 



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