234 TREES 



ducts derived from the living trees. Otherwise the dwind- 

 ling industry will soon come to an end. 



Resin is the sap of the tree. The first problem is to 

 draw it in a manner least wasteful of the product, and least 

 dangerous to the life of the tree. The second process is the 

 melting of the collected resin in a still and the drawing off 

 of the volatile turpentine. What is left solidifies and is 

 known as rosin. 



"Boxing" the trees was the cutting of a grooved incision 

 low on the trunk, with a hollow at the base of the vertical 

 trough to hold the discharge of the bleeding sap-wood. 

 Resin-gatherers visited the tapped trees and emptied the 

 pockets into buckets by means of a ladle. They also 

 scraped away the hardened sap and widened the wounds to 

 induce the flow from new tissues. This method cost the life 

 of the tree in two or three years, and it became a prey to 

 disease and a menace to the whole forest, as fuel for fires 

 accidentally started. Nowadays, all reasonable owners of 

 longleaf pine have discarded the old-fashioned boxing and 

 installed methods approved by the Department of 

 Forestry. 



Tar was formerly derived from the slow burning of wood 

 in a clay-lined pit. The branches, roots and other lumber 

 refuse, cut in small sizes were heaped in a compact mound 

 and covered with sods and earth. Smoldering fires soon in- 

 duced a flow of smoky tar, thick as molasses, in the bottom 

 of the pit. In due time the flow ceased, the fires went out, 

 and charcoal was the result of this slow burning. Remov- 

 ing the charcoal, the tar became available for various pur- 

 poses; boiled until it lost its liquid character, it became 

 tough sticky pitch. This primitive pit method of extract- 

 ing tar and making charcoal has been abandoned wherever 



