68 TIMBEK PINES OF THE SOUTHERN UXITEI) STATES. 



bnrus with a sooty flame. It is a good solvent for mauy resins, wax, fats, caoutchouc, sulphur, 

 and phosphorus, and is used in the arts and industries for the preparatiou of varnishes, in paints, 

 the rubber industry, etc. Before the introduction of kerosene oil it was used extensively for au 

 ilhiininator; it is also used in medicine internally and externally aud often as an adulterant of 

 various essential oils. 



The solid constituent of the crude turpentine which forms the residue remaining after its dis- 

 tillation. It is of different degrees of heaviness, according to the quantities of volatile oil retained 

 after distillation, is brittle, easily powdered, of a glassy luster, and of the specific gravity of 1.07, 

 almost without taste, of a faint terebinthinous odor. It becomes soft at about 170° F., melts 

 betweeu 194° and 212° F., and is soluble in the same solvents as crude resin. According to the 

 nature of the crude turpentine, depending upon the number of seasons the trees have been worked, 

 it shows different properties in regard to the transmission of light, aud in color. It is either 

 perfectly transparent, translucent, or almost opaque; almost colorless, or a pale straw color to 

 golden yellow, reddish yellow, through all shades to dark brown and almost black. The market 

 value of this article is entirely regulated by these iiroperties. In tlie American market the 

 following grades are distinguished: WW (Water White) and WG (Window Glass), the lightest 

 and highest-priced grades, obtained from the "virgin dip;" N (Extra Pale), M (Pale), K (Low 

 Pale), I (Good No. 1), H (Jfo. 1), F (Good No. 2), E (No. 2), D (Good Strain), C (Strain), B (Com- 

 mon Strain), aud A (Black). 



PINE TAR. 



This is not exactly a by-product of the turpentine orchard, but is produced by the destructive 

 distillation of the wood itself. It is chiefly produced in North Carolina, where this industry has 

 been carried on since the earliest colonial times. Small quantities are produced in other sections 

 of the Southern pine belt, mostly for home consumption. Perfectly dry wood of the Longleaf Pine, 

 dead limbs and trunks seasoned on the stump, from which the sapwood has rotted, are cut iu 

 suitable billets, piled into a conical stack, in a circular pit, lined with clay, the center communi- 

 cating by a depressed channel with a receptacle — a hole in the ground — at a distance of 3 to 4 

 feet from the pile. The pile is covered with sod and earth, and otherwise treated and managed 

 like a charcoal pit, being fired from apertures at the base, giving only enough draft to maintain 

 slow, smoldering combustion. After the ninth day the tar begins to flow and continues for several 

 weeks. It is dipped from the pits into barrels of 320 pounds, the standard weight. One cord of 

 dry "fat" or "lightwood" furnishes from 40 to 50 gallons of tar. The price of pine tar is quoted 

 as low as $1.05 a barrel. Since considerable quantities of tar are produced incidentally in the 

 destructive distillation of wood in iron retorts for charcoal and other jiroducts, the price has 

 been greatly depressed. 



COMMON PITCH. 



The best quality is obtained by boiling down tar until it has lost about one-third or more of 

 its weight. The naval pitch of commerce has more or less rosin of the lowest grade added to it. 

 Pitch is also obtained as the residue remaining from the dry distillation of rosin fo.r rosin oil. 



HISTORICAL REMARKS. 



The tapping of the trees for the crude turpentine and the manufacture of tar aud pitch was 

 first resorted to by the earliest settlers of North Carolina, and iu later colonial times these products 

 furnished the largest part of the exports of the colony. In the three years from 17G8 to 1770 

 the exports of crude turpentine, tar, and pitch represented on the average for each year a value of 

 $215,000 of our present currency. Most of the crude turi)entine was shipped to England. Later 

 the distillation of spirits of turpentine was carried on in clumsy iron retorts in North Carolina 

 and in Northern cities. Tlie introduction of the copper still in 1834 resulted in a was largely 

 increased yield of si)irits of turpentine, and the industry received a great impetus. With the new 

 demand for spirits of turpentine in the manufacture of rubber goods, and its increased use as 

 an illuminator, the number of stills increased greatly, and turpentine orcharding was rapidly 

 extended south and west beyond its original limit. The large consumption of spirits of turpentine 



