ipoy ] Herty— The Pine and its Products. 31 
For many years it was believed that timber which had been 
turpentined, commonly called “bled timber,” was inferior to 
“unbled” for construction purposes. A thorough investiga- 
tion of this question in 1893 by the Division of Forestry of the 
U. S. Department of Agriculture showed the fallacy of this 
belief, and now no distinction is made. Indeed in France 
timber from trees which have been turpentined is preferred 
for all purposes where strength and elasticity are demanded. 
* CRUDE TURPENTINE. 
Previous to the last twelve years no systematic experiments 
had been carried out in this country on the production of crude 
turpentine. The records of the U. S. Patent Office as far 
back as 1869 show various inventions designed as substitutes 
for the “box,” this being a deep hole cut in the base of the 
tree, having a capacity of about one quart and serving to col- 
lect the crude turpentine which flows from the scarified trunk 
above. None of these devices however gained permanent 
favor among turpentine operators. In 1894 W. W. Ashe, of 
the N. C. Geological Survey, began a comparative study of 
crude turpentine collected by the “box” system, uniformly 
practiced in this country, and by the “cup” or Hugues system, 
practiced in France. These experiments were planned with 
care, and although carried out on a small scale gave interest- 
ing results. They were discontinued after one year. 
In the hope of accomplishing something toward the conser- 
vation of the pine forests of Georgia I began during the sum- 
mer of 1901 field experiments on the production of crude 
turpentine by the pine. With an apparatus somewhat similar 
to that used in France, but essentially modified to suit our 
system of scarification or “chipping,” various studies, both 
qualitative and quantitative, were made in the pine forests of 
the southern part of the State. Many of the specimens col- 
lected were afterwards examined in the chemical laboratory. 
The striking character of the results obtained aroused the 
interest of the U. S. Bureau of Forestry, and during the fol- 
