EXPERIMENTS ON THE PRODUCTION OF CRUDE 

 TURPENTINE BY THE LONGLEAF PINE. 



BY CHA6. H. HERTY, PH.D. 



With the hope of improving the method of distillation com- 

 monly practiced in the production of spirits of turpentine 

 from the crude resin of the Long-leaf Pine, the writer, at that 

 time connected with the University of Georgia, began a sys- 

 tematic study of conditions throughout the turpentine belt. 

 Information was gathered from publications of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture and from correspondence with 

 leading men in the naval stores industry, railroad officials and 

 others. 



It soon became apparent that the industry, which had 

 started on a rather small scale in eastern North Carolina, had 

 grown to large proportions, affording employment to thous- 

 ands of laborers and furnishing the world with at least nine- 

 tenths of the spirits of turpentine and rosin used in manufac- 

 tures. It also became evident that during this period of 

 growth the forests of North Carolina and South Carolina had 

 been almost completely exhausted, while those of Georgia 

 were being rapidly destroyed. Throughout the territory 

 methods of operation were absolutely uniform. A visit to 

 different sections showed at once the explanation of the com- 

 plete destruction of the forests in the Carolinas, for in addi- 

 tion to the removal of timber by the lumbermen, tires and 

 storms following in the wake of the turpentiue operator had 

 completed the destruction. It needed no close observation to 

 determine at once that the chief cause of this destructive 

 action by fires and storms was the "box", a large and deep 

 hole cut into the trunk of the tree at its base to receive the 



1905} 116 



