GATHERING NAVAL STORES. 475 



lation of rosin. It is used for the calking of ships, shoemaker's 

 pitch, and black dyes or pigments. There is a special kind of 

 pitch used by brewers for pitching beer kegs and barrels. The 

 process of distillation requires experience and care in order to ob- 

 tain the right quantity of oil of turpentine ; if too little oil, the 

 pitch is brittle and does not adhere to the barrel ; if too much, 

 it gives a sharp, disagreeable taste to the beer. 



North Carolina for years produced nearly all the tar used 

 at home and abroad, and from this fact its people were called 

 " tar-heels." Wilmington, K C., is the headquarters for tar and 

 crude turpentine, but Savannah, Ga., is the largest market in the 

 world for naval stores. The process of making tar is simple, and 

 may be briefly described as follows : The dead limbs and wood 

 are put in a heap in a hole in the ground and covered with dirt 

 and sod. A fire is started at the bottom and allowed to smolder 

 for eight or ten days, when the tar begins to flow. It is then 

 dipped into barrels, which contain three hundred and twenty 

 pounds net. About forty gallons of tar are obtained from one 

 cord of wood. 



The best grades of charcoal are now made from the pine-tree 

 wood and bark. The sawdust carries a heavy percentage of 

 wood alcohol and creosote. The product known as oil of tar is 

 obtained by dry distillation of the tar, and is used by farmers and 

 fruit-growers as an insecticide, and by doctors and veterinary 

 surgeons for external applications. 



Such, then, are some of the important ways in which turpen- 

 tine enters into the industries, supplying man's needs and wants. 

 The Chinese used to say that the cocoanut palm had as many 

 good uses as there are days in the month. The same and even 

 more can be said of the long-leaf pine. This wonderful tree is 

 almost like cotton in the variety and value of its products. 



It is perhaps not generally known that matting and excelsior 

 are made from the pine trees. There is a factory about fifteen 

 miles from Wilmington that uses the pine straw as material for 

 bagging to cover the cotton bales. When the duties on jute and 

 jute bagging were increased, this material was in large demand. 



In addition to its other uses, the long-leaf pine belt furnishes 

 annually an immense quantity of timber to the markets. Georgia 

 " yellow pine," as it is called, is known the world over. It is one 

 of the most durable and ornamental of woods. It is light and 

 easily worked, and yet it is tougher than many woods twice its 

 specific gravity. It holds paint and varnish better than most 

 woods, owing to its resinous qualities, and, having a finely marked 

 grain, it shows off well when highly polished. It is thus taking 

 the place of hard woods for use in the building of railway cars, in 

 furnishings for offices, and for interior work in houses. It stands 



