NAVAL STORE INDUSTRY. 145 



but also in the indirect influence which this industry exerts on the condition and future of one of 

 our richest forest resources. 



Owing to the wasteful and careless manner in which this industry is carried on and the 

 disastrous conflagrations that follow in its train, which destroy thousands of acres of the most 

 valuable timber every year, while the margin of profit to the turpentine gatherer is comparatively 

 small, this industry may be considered the most unprofitable to the nation at large in spite of the 

 large aggregate value of its products. This is not so by necessity, but due to faulty methods. 

 The object of this discussion is to create a more general interest in the industry, give information 

 regarding its methods, show its defects, and pave the way toward improvement and more rational 

 procedure. 



One of the most important results of the investigations of the Division of Forestry was the 

 establishment of the fact that the bleeding of the Southern pines for the purpose of gathering 

 naval stores does not, as has been generally maintained, affect the quality of their timber. Even 

 the claim that tapped or bled trees lose their durability does not find any support in the chemical 

 analyses made, which seem to prove that there is no change in the condition or chemical constitu- 

 tion of the heartwood due to bleeding; that the turpentine collected must come from the sap, 

 where alone it is found in a condition permitting it to flow. Nor is there any physiological reason 

 for assuming any change. 



But while there is no deterioration of the timber due to the process of bleeding, it can be said 

 with truth that there is no more destructive agency at work in the longleaf pineries of the South 

 than the turpentine industry, and that without necessity. The damage and destruction do not 

 result directly, although by the boxing of immature trees a considerable loss to the future is 

 involved, and by the crude boxing much of the most valuable part of the tree is needlessly wasted; 

 but often indirectly from fires, which annually sweep the turpentine orchards and destroy millions 

 of feet of valuable timber, the resin collected on the scars of the trees rendering them highly 

 inflammable. The trees which are not killed by the fire are soon destroyed by bark beetles and 

 pine borers, which find a breeding place in the trees which, after the injury by fire, are blown down 

 by the wind. u Hence, ,;> says Dr. Mohr, "the forests invaded hj the turpentine industry present 

 in five or six years after they are abandoned a picture of ruin and desolation painful to behold, 

 and in view of the destruction of the seedlings and younger growth season after season all hope 

 for the restoration of the forest is excluded." 



It appears from the report of Dr. Mohr, agent of this division, that in 1890 over 2,000,000 

 acres of pine forest which were in orchard must have,been exposed to this danger, and that every 

 year adds between 600,000 and 800,000 acres of new orchard. 



PRODUCTS OJj THE TURPENTINE INDUSTRY. 



Naval stores. — Under the name of naval stores are comprised all the resinous products and 

 their derivatives that are gathered from coniferous trees. The name comes probably from the fact 

 that the bulk of these products is or was used in the economy of ship construction and ship 

 management, although now, with iron as a substitute for wood in shipbuilding, other industries 

 may consume perhaps a larger portion. These products are: 



(1) Resin or crude turpentine. — This is the crude material obtained by "tapping" or " bleeding" the trees, a 

 mixture of resinous material and oil of turpentine, id which the resins are partly dissolved, partly suspended. 

 According to the species from which it is obtained;, the consistency of the resin varies, depending upon the relative 

 proportion of hard resin particles and oil; the more oil, the more liquid is the resin. . 



The "fine" turpentine or resin, which comes from larch and fir or balsam trees, is semiliquicl, more or less 

 transparent and clear, and remains clear on exposuie to the air. The "common" turpentine, which is furnished by 

 the other trees tapped for it, is usually not at all transparent or clear, but is serniliquid or hard, the fluidity being 

 lost by evaporation of the oil on exposure. 



Most resins are yellow or brown in color, darkening on exposure; most of them possess a characteristic odor 

 and taste; they have a specific weight of nearly 1, and when hard melt readily at low temperatures. They are not 

 soluble in water, but readily so in alcohol, ether, or oil of turpentine; they are free from nitrogen, poor in oxygen, 

 and rich in carbon, and of somewhat acid reaction. With alkalies the so-called resin soap is formed. 



The best grades of turpentine are usually obtained (not necessarily so) in the product of the first year, known 

 as "virgin dip" or "soft white gum ;" in the following years it becomes " yellow dip," being darker colored and less 

 liquid every year, while "scrape" or "hard turpentine" is the product hardened on the tree and scraped off. By 

 distillation of the crude resin are obtained the importaut resinous products of trade. 



(2) Spirits of turpentine or oil of turpentine. — This is the liquid distillate from the crude resin. When pure, it is 

 H. Doc. 181 10 



