NAVAL STORES 



185 



The following table l shows the range of prices from high to low for 

 rosin in the Savannah market: 



ROSIN MARKET PRICES AT SAVANNAH. 



High and low prices per barrel for four-year period. 



FRENCH METHODS 



Turpentine and rosin are produced in large commercial quantities 

 in various European countries, particularly France, Spain and Russia, 

 but the total production in all Europe is exceedingly small by comparison 

 with that in this country. 



The industry has been highly developed hi France, where it is cen- 

 tralized in the Landes, a region of about 2,000,000 acres in southwest 

 France from Bordeaux to the Spanish frontier. The forests of the 

 Landes are composed of almost pure maritime pine (Pinus maritima) 

 and, in the period before the great war, the value of the yield of naval 

 stores products was greater than the value of the timber when cut. 



The maritime pine trees are much smaller than the longleaf pine of 

 the South, since most of the trees are planted and are cut when from sixty 

 to seventy-five years of age. Many of these trees are continually bled 

 for turpentine from fifteen years of age until they are cut. 



The French turpentine operators chip the trees by slicing off a new 

 shaving each time the resin flow is to be renewed. The face is only 

 about 3^ in. wide instead of 12 to 14 in. in this country. Chipping is 

 done every eight days, and during the first season the height of chipping 

 is only carried about 24 in. up the tree. The depth of chipping is only 

 1 From the Naval Stores Review, Savannah, Ga., June 7, 1919, pp. 24-27. 



