16 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



or six years old, they yield about as many barrels of " scrape" as of " dip ;" and 

 as they get siill older the " scrape" increases. But it is more than probable that 

 at half the price of " dip," the " scrape" is the most profitable to the maker. 



This description embraces the whole operation of the culture or making of Tur- 

 pentine, save the preparation of the barrels. The linibcr of which they are made 

 is usually got out by the same hands who make the turpentine, and commonly tak- 

 en from the same land as the wood for the boxes. The staves are cut thirty-two 

 inches in length, and three-fourths of an inch in thickness — the heads about 17 

 inches in diameter, so that the barrel may contain thirty-two gallons. 



From the time the getting off the " scrape" is finished until the season of 

 ♦* chipping" comes round, which is generally from the first to the tenth April, 

 the hand is engaged in getting the barrel-tim" er, which ought to be well sea- 

 soned when made up for " dip" barrels ; and it will save time and a loss of turpen- 

 tine, to separate the heart and sap staves as they are being cut, so that the former 

 may be made into " dip" and the latter into " scrape" barrels — the heart staves re- 

 taining and holding the liquid while it will soak through the sap staves. The cost of 

 these barrels is estimated always at from twenty to thirty cents each. Thus it 

 may be seen that, like the engagements of a farm-hand in always finding some- 

 thing needful to be done in every day of the year, and something that should not 

 be neglected, so with the turpentine-hand the whole year has its various de- 

 mands upon him in their proper season ; so that there is no time to spare from 

 his turpentine crop. 



The profits of turpentine labor, like that bestowed on all other products, de- 

 pend on price — and price is regulated by supply and demand. Compared to 

 other labor, this has, for the last ten years, been deemed the most profitable of all. 

 It is indeed difficult to put a proper value on Turpentine land, properly and con- 

 veniently located. Applied to the production of Turpentine, as here described, the 

 annual value of the acre is from four to six dollars gross in its product : at three 

 dollars per barrel, which is an interest on sixty to a hundred dollars, and Avhen 

 the trees are exhausted of their Turpentine, the acre is very nearly of equal value 

 in its after products of Tar — the culture of turpentine being preparatory to the 

 largest yield of tar from a given quantity of acres. The old faces over the tur- 

 pentine box, being completely saturated with resinous matter, are the richest 

 light-wood, and the faces are chopped out in thick scores from the standing 

 tree, in readiness for Tar-making. Then, even after this spoliation of their 

 sheba, the lands are the best of any for farming. I mean that they are more sus- 

 ceptible of improvement by manuring and other proper farming management 

 and economy, than lands of more virgin fertility when exhausted. The pine 

 lands are usually of table level, and mostly dry, or quite susceptible of drainage ; 

 but which is not often required ; their soil and surface are based upon a clay sub- 

 stratum, and they yield to the infiuence of art, culture, and manure, most kind- 

 ly and invitingly, while they undergo an entire change in their surface appear- 

 ance. By being well manured their whitened sandy surface becomes dark and 

 loamy, and is productive of many valuable crops that clay and stitf lands dO' 

 not grow well ; such as the various kmd of peas and sweet potatoes, than which 

 the Earth does not yield more profitable and comfortable crops for man and beast. 

 A most interesting consideration arises in contemplating the productive qualities 

 of the Long-Leaf Pine, bordering the Atlantic and the Gulf coast of the Southern 

 States. Whether they are to take the place of those under view in this article, 

 in furnishing the world with turpentine after these are done and gone, which 

 must be their destiny in less than a century, is a question of no small weight 

 in this connection. Time and trial can alone solve it. The opinion of the 

 writer is, that the Southern Pine will yield it — profusely yield it, biit for a 

 short time only. That the warmth of the climate will induce too profuse and 

 too late a ruiming; creating a disease from exhaustion, that will kill the tree in 

 the second and third years. Even here, where the climate seems to be of the 

 right temperature for this business, the trees are often, very often, diseased from 

 boxing, and die in acres. But this is only speculation as to the Pines of the 

 South, and, as just remarked, can only be corrected or verified by time and 

 experience. 



Tar making is much more simple and expeditious than Turpentine; though 

 it is very questionable if making Tar is not the most profitable at the usual 

 prices of both articles. A hand out to making Tar alone, as Turpentine hands arc, 



(C4) 



