— H5 — 



American technical paper 1 ). The object of this exhaustive article is 

 to indicate means by which the turpentine industry may attain some 

 measure of stability, not alone by the application of less destructive 

 processes in the preparation of the crude resin by means of the so- 

 called "cup and gutter system" (to which we have already referred 

 on a previous occasion) 2 ), but also by the adoption of recognised 

 scientific methods of forestry in the extension of the turpentine industry 

 to new forest areas, and especially by utilising the trees not only for 

 the purpose of obtaining turpentine, but also for subsequent use as 

 lumber. 



The report considers in sequence the different varieties of pine 

 tree used in the production of naval stores (oil of turpentine and 

 colophony), the collection of the resin from the tree according to 

 the old and destructive "box" method, and its further conversion into 

 oil and rosin. With regard to these points we have made extensive 

 references in earlier reports, and we may also refer to Gildemeister's 

 and Hoffmann's The Volatile jDz'ls, p. 239. On the subject of the 

 area in which turpentine is produced, the report states that Vir- 

 ginia and the flat coast-districts of North and South Carolina are 

 almost entirely exhausted, and are scarcely to be considered any longer 

 as producing districts, the principal area of production having been 

 removed further South, towards the mouth of the Mississippi. The 

 principal States where the products are now obtained are Florida, Georgia, 

 and Alabama. In Texas the owners of forests are averse from tapping 

 the trees, as they fear that by doing so the value of the wood for 

 subsequent use as timber migth be impaired. This is, in fact, the 

 case when the resin is produced by the ruinous "box" system, but 

 the fear is unfounded if the "cup and gutter" system is followed, and 

 the last-named process moreover yields from 20 to 3O°/ more oil 

 of turpentine than the other, owing to the decreased evaporation of 

 the gum which is collected, while at the same time it produces a 

 paler coloured rosin. Under the present conditions — where 7 / 8 

 of the trees are exploited by the old, and only 1 / s by the new 

 process — , it is calculated that the production of turpentine 

 and rosin cannot last more than from 25 to 30 years. The advan- 

 tages of the "cup and gutter" system, upon which the report lays 

 particular stress, are made still more clear by a modification of that 

 system which has been experimentally tried by the Forestry Department 

 during the last 3 years with about 80000 trees. This consists in 

 cutting streaks into the bark of the pine-trees, by means of a hack of 

 special shape, of only from 3 / 8 " t0 V2" depth and from 1 / 8 ,f to 3 / 16 " 



*) Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter 75, No. 11, p. 10, 15th March 1909. 

 2 ) Report April 1900, 65. 



