NAVAL STOKE INDUbTltY. 147 



SOURCES OF SUPPLY. 



Naval stores are being produced on a commercial scale mainly in Austria, France, on the 

 island of Corsica, in Spain, Portugal, Galicia, Eussia, and the United States. The largest amount 

 of European turpentine comes from the black pine (Pinus lariclo) and the maritime pine (Pinus 

 maritima). The first of the two, which yields the largest amount, is tapped especially in Lower 

 Austria, France, and Corsica. The latter, which does not furnish much resin, is tapped especially 

 in France, between Bayonne and Bordeaux, where about one and a half million acres are covered 

 with it; also in Spain, Portugal, and on the North African coast. In Germany, especially in the 

 Black Forest, the Norway spruce is tapped, but not to any great extent. In Southern Italy and 

 the Italian Alps the larch furnishes resin of excellent quality, although small quantities per tree 

 and year, which is known in trade as Venetian turpentine. Occasionally, and especially in Galicia, 

 Eussia, the Scotch pine and fir are tapped; the turpentine from the latter species which is bled in 

 Alsace is known as "Strasburg" turpentine. The Hungarian turpentine, so called, comes from 

 the Carpathian Mountains and is derived from the pine known as Pinus pumilio. 



In the United States a considerable amount of naval stores used to be collected in colonial 

 times from the pitch pine of the North Atlantic States (Phiusrigida); but this species has been so 

 far exhausted and forest conditions so changed that this industry is now practically extinct in the 

 North and the business of turpentine gathering is confined entirely to the South. There are three 

 pines in the South which yield resinous products abundantly, the longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), 

 the loblolly (Pinus twda), and the Cuban pine (Pinus lieterophylla). The botanical features, their 

 distribution, value as timber trees, etc., may be found in an earlier part of this report. 



The loblolly and Cuban pine yield a more fluid resin, rich in volatile oil, which when distilled 

 leaves a smaller proportion of the solid rosin. The resin of these trees runs so rapidly that it is 

 exhausted during the first season, and hence it is not considered profitable to work them, although 

 they are always tapped where they are found intermixed with the longleaf pine. It is, however, 

 possible, nay probable, that with more careful methods, differing from those now employed, these 

 two species may be made more productive and that the compact forests of the loblolly in Arkansas, 

 Louisiana, and Texas may still become valuable sources of naval stores as well as the Cuban pine 

 forests of Florida. 



At present the longleaf pine furnishes the bulk of naval stores, not only for the United 

 States, but for the whole world, the production of France and Austria, the only other producers 

 of naval stores, furnishing hardly one-tenth of the total production. 



HISTORICAL NOTES AND STATISTICS. 



The first production of naval stores from longleaf pine took place in North Carolina. The 

 tapping of the trees for their resin and the production of pitch and tar was resorted to by the 

 earliest settlers as a source of income, and during the later colonial times it had risen to a profit- 

 able industry, which furnished the largest part of the exports of the colony. In the three years — 

 1768 to 1770—88,111 barrels of crude turpentine, 20,646 barrels of pitch, and SS^36C> barrels of tar 

 were on the average annually exported to the mother country, representing a value of $215,000 in 

 our present currency. In its infancy the manufacture of naval stores was confined to the district 

 between Tar and Cape Fear rivers, with Wilmington and Newbern for shipping ports. Most of 

 the turpentine or crude resin was shipped to England. Later the distillation of spirits of turpen- 

 tine was carried on to a small extent in Northern cities as well as in North Carolina. Up to the 

 year 1844 fully one-half of the crude product was subjected to distillation in the latter State, 

 the process being effected in clumsy iron retorts. The introduction of the copper still in 1834 led 

 to a largely increased yield of volatile oil, and this industry received a strong impetus. The 

 number of stills at the ports was increased, and the production grew yet further shortly after- 

 wards, caused by the new demand for spirits of turpentine in the manufacture of india-rubber 

 goods, and turpentine orcharding was rapidly extended to the south and west of its original 

 limit. As early as 1832 rectified spirits of turpentine was used for an illuminator, and for that 

 purpose came into general use in 1842, either alone in the rectified state or mixed with a certain 

 quantity of strong alcohol, under the names of camphene and burning fluid, furnishing the 

 cheapest light until replaced by the products of petroleum. The large consumption of spirits of 

 turpentine in this way caused such an increase in its production that the residuary product, rosin, 



