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How the purity of Naval Stores is protected. T. Purse, Supt Savannah 

 Board of Trade: The Savannah Board of Trade, the Naval Stores price- 

 making body of the World. Bd. of Trade President J. A. G. Carson: The 

 relations of the factor to the Naval Stores industry. U. S. Forest Super- 

 visor J. F. Eldridge: How turpentine is worked in Uncle Sam's forests. 

 U. S. Assistant District Forester H. S. Betts: Turpentine experiments out 

 in Arizona. The same: The Longleaf or Turpentine pine of the Southern 

 States. (From Special report.) F. P. Veitch and M. G. Donk, U. S. Dept. 

 Agriculture: Spirits of turpentine, its chemical nature, general properties, 

 production, grading, and uses. (From Special report.) C. S. Saussy: Tur- 

 pentining in the land of the Aztecs. Anonymous: The Naval Stores 

 industry in France. H. A. Grant: Wood turpentine, its failures and its 

 successes. 



Pridgen, at the end of his article, contrasts the working costs of a 

 turpentine plantation 15 years ago and the present time, based upon the 

 average crop of 10 500 trees. He concludes that as a result of the rise 

 in wages and in the cost of materials (tools, barrels, $c.) as well as of 

 the increased interest on the minimum capital required (which is now 

 three times as much as formerly), the expenses have almost trebled: the 

 increase being from $ 851,50 to $ 2204, nothing being apparently allowed 

 for redemption of capital. Pridgen dwells at length upon several circum- 

 stances which embitter the lot of the turpentine producer, such as the 

 so-called Labour laws (originally intended to prevent undue exploitation 

 of the labourers by the employers), which have greatly increased the 

 cost of engaging and transporting coloured labour, and the dangers and 

 prications to which the white operator (as the turpentine-distiller is called), 

 is exposed by having to live with his family in loneliness and far from all 

 civilisation in the virgin forests, surrounded by a horde of, frequently 

 unruly, coloured labourers. The articles by Register, King, Purse, and 

 Carson afford a telling picture of the manner in which turpentine oil and 

 rosin are handled when they have left the place of production and reached 

 the trading centre. All the merchandise as it arrives is most carefully 

 examined by officials known as Naval Stores Inspectors who are experts 

 appointed by the Municipality. These inspectors test the quality, colour 

 and weight of each barrel, 8jc, and the result of their examination is 

 entered in their records and marked on the packages. A Supervising 

 Inspector, appointed by the State, settles disputes which may result from 

 differences of opinion between the inspector and the producer, or between 

 buyers and sellers. The States of Florida and Georgia were the first 

 to place the trade in turpentine products under control in this manner, 

 and therefore also the first to enact State laws for the protection of 

 the purity of the said products, by which adulteration with other oil, 

 or wilfully untrue or insufficient description, insufficient filling of the 

 barrels, $c. render the offender liable to severe punishment. Purse 



