TAR AND TURPENTINE MAKING IN NORTH CAROLINA. 17 



will make from four to five hundred barrels in the year. The primitive method 

 of making Tar is yet kept up, with little or no improvement, and it is more than 

 likely there never will be any alteration in it, save in obtaining the liqhl- 

 wood from which it is made — the cast-away Turpentine faces of trees being quite 

 new, and ariilicial in making the material for Tar. The common and old-fash- 

 ioned way of making it, is lirst to collect in a central spot, all the drrj hones or 

 skeletons, as it were, of the decayed Long-Leaf-Pine, that lie and have lain 

 bleaching on ihe surrounding plain for centuries perhaps ; these are the heart por- 

 tion of the body and limbs of I'allen trees, afier time and fire have destroyed 

 the sap wood that enveloped them. With these dry bones the surface is 

 very much covered — not entirely covered, but so thick as to hll the body of a 

 horse-cart, in many places, in a square of ten yards, and very often in a 

 square often feet. This is what is known in the " good Old North " as " li<rhl- 

 wood ;" being by time and nature full of resinous matter, and so inflammable as 

 often to catcli fire by holding it in the flash of a gun. when it is splintered up. 

 With us, this is the poor man's brilliant lamp, by which the gem of mind of 

 many a son has been opened to science — lighted to honor, to fame, and distinction. 

 It is also the same with the rich man, as it ministers to his comforts and social 

 pleasures, blazing on the family hearih and displaying every smile and linea- 

 ment of the " face divine." This light-wood is carted to a place selected for 

 the kiln, where it is split, and chopped into pieces (indifferent as to size, so that 

 it is split,) of less than a foot to three feet in length ; a circle being marked 

 on the adjacent ground of from ten to thirty feet in diameter ; the size dependino- 

 entirely upon the number of barrels you design making from it : a diameter 

 of thirty feet, and ten feet in hight being the measure of a kiln of three hundred 

 barrels. The circle being struck, and its inner surface being smoothed or shaved 

 over with hoes — in doing which, it is scooped out with a gentle inclination from 

 the circle to the center, so that the whole surface may present a shallow, basin- 

 like form — the surface of this basin-form is then pestled, or pounded, until it 

 is smooth and firm. There is then a covered gutter or trough imbedded under 

 ground, one end a foot or two beyond the center, inside, and the other end reach- 

 ing eight or ten feet beyond the circle, ending in a hole of something like four by 

 eight feet and four feet deep — this is the hole that receives the Tar when runnino- 

 from the kiln through this gutter — the size of the trough or gutter must be regu- 

 lated by the size of the kiln ; usually it is from three to six inches wide, and 

 three to five deep. It is set with considerable inclination from the center of the 

 kiln to the tar-holc ; such an inclination as may be judged the Tar requires to 

 be moved briskly when a little warm. The inner end of this trough [reaching 

 beyond the center of the basin bottom,) is left open, and uncovered from one to 

 three feet to receive and carry off the Tar as it settles. Over and around the ba- 

 sin, in this open end of the trough, round, unsplit light-wood is raised in pen form 

 for three or four feet, with considerable care and taste, so that it may protect 

 the end of the irough from immersion of Tar. The light-wood is then laid all 

 around, with the same inclination toward the center that the bed had. Thus it 

 is continued to be laid in lengths from circle to center, keeping the outer ends 

 on the circle as even as possible and with the same or more inclination inward, 

 as it progresses, until it is made eight or ten feet high. The " selling the light 

 wood " being thus finished, the next thing is to " bough" it, which consists in 

 sticking its whole outer perpendicular circle full of green pine boughs, as thick 

 as they can be well stuck. It is easily and quickly done — every bough having a 

 small round limb on which the straw grows in thick broom form, and is what we 

 call pine boughs. This broken-off limb is stuck in between the ends of the split 

 light-wood, as before said, all around ; when " boughed," it presents a mound of 

 evergreen, pleasant to the eye to look upon. It is then ready for embankment, 

 v/hich is immediately to follow, if it is intended to " burn it off" directly ; but 

 unless it is to be thus burnt for market as soon as finished, they often stand one, 

 two, or three years, before embankment, without any injury — and this is often the 

 case, to await a season of better prices and to be ready to take the benefit of such. 

 But the embankment must immediately follow the " houghing." It is done by 

 throwing up the surrounding earth all around the circle, and the earth is kept up 

 by a pen of poles or rails fixed around the circle so as to retain the dirt per- 

 pendicularly ; around and between this pen and the, circle of the kiln the earth is 

 trampled. The use of the boughs is now to be seen, m preventing this earth from 

 (60) 9 



