THE NAVAL STOKE INDUSTRY IX NORTH CAROLINA. 



80 



72,000 barrels for the year 1890 and almost as much for the pre- 

 ceding year. 



CONDITION OP THE TURPENTINE ORCHARDS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 



As bearing on the future supply of resinous products in North 

 Carolina, a close examination was made into the condition of the 

 long-leaf pine forests noAv standing in the State, and in the follow- 

 ing notes the writer has endeavored to show the character and 

 extent of the existing productive orchards, of those orchards which 

 have been abandoned, the round timber which can be boxed, and 

 the second growth long-leaf pine. 



LENGTH OF TIME THAT TURPENTINE ORCHARDS ARE WORKED. 



The orchards of the Cape Fear river section have been worked 

 steadily for from twenty to thirty-five years and in Sampson and 

 Bladen counties many bodies of pine are reported as having three 

 sets of boxes on them, having been worked since 1845, with inter- 

 missions of a few years for rest and to allow the space between the 

 hacked faces to increase in breadth. The yield from these long- 

 worked trees is still considerable when they grow on good soil, and 

 when the trees have been injured in no other way, as by fire 

 charring the faces of the old boxes. 



These trees along the Cape Fear river seem capable of standing 

 continuous working longer than those in any other part of the State 

 or even of the United States, there being numerous rejjorts from 

 this section stating that the orchards had been worked from forty 

 to fifty years. From Columbus county only one distiller reported 

 that his trees had been worked as long as thirty-five years, while 

 others stated that theirs were abandoned after having been worked 

 from twenty to twenty-five years. One distiller in Robeson county, 

 on the Cape Fear river, reported fifty years as the maximum time, 

 while for those farther west, in Moore county, approaching the clay 

 uplands and at an elevation of from 300 to 500 feet above the sea- 

 level, a productive limit of twenty years was given. In South 

 Carolina the trees are worked from twelve to fifteen years ; in 

 Georgia from four to eight years, except the slash pine (Pinus 



