LONGLEAF PINE 35 
rosin (500 pounds each), depending upon the favorableness of the 
season, the size and vigor of the trees, and the method of working. 
3. A gallon of spirits of turpentine weighs about 7V4 pounds, and 
a barrel of turpentine contains about 50 gallons. 
4. Crude gum or " dip "' may be assumed to contain, in round 
figures, an average by weight of 20 per cent of turpentine, 15 per cent 
of water and trash, and 65 per cent of rosin. One barrel of average 
crude turpentine will yield about 10 to 12 gallons of spirits of tur- 
pentine. One hundred pounds of clean gum will yield about 2y 2 
Common Practices in Turpentining 
(Description of Plate VIII) 
Fig. 1. — There are 240 trees per acre, of which 184 measure from, 7 to 14 inches in 
diameter at: breastheight, and 56, which are suppressed, measure from 4 to G inches in 
diameter. Some 20 trees per acre of turpentine sizes are toe nearly dead from fire for 
cupping, and a, good many trees are missing as the result of repeated burnings. 
Some of the trees in this working have two faces and leave insufficient width of bars 
for the trees to function properly. The result is a marked reduction in the total pro- 
duction. If not disastrously burned,, the stand will be worked for a third year. If the 
stand is afforded protection, the one-face and the two-face trees, which have not become 
dry-faced, after 5 to> 10 years of rest and growth can be reworked. If the timber is not 
to be cut at the end of the first or second working, a more conservative 1 , working than 
here shown would have been advisable. 
At 15 cents per cup for a, 3-year lease fori turpentine the stand is yielding the owner 
.$28.80 per acre, and there will be a cut of some 15,000' board feet of lumber. The effect 
of the fires has been to> deplete the stand of almost one-third of the trees which it should 
contain, at the present time. In the picture some effects are clearly apparent. At the 
age of 45 years', well-stocked longleaf stands should have about 300 trees per acre all of 
turpentine sizes (Table 1). 
On the same scale of working as is here operated, these stands should afford about 400 
cups per acre. At 15 cents per cup for the three years, and counting in the cups which 
have been lost by fire, the total return for' timber rights would have been about $60, or 
an average yearly return for the 45-year period of about $1.35 per acre. The value of 
15,000 board feet of second-growth pine, assumed to be $3 per thousand, would add $45 
and bring the total average gross income up to $2.35 per acre yearly. 
The operation,, as it is being carried on, illustrates well the better class of second- 
growth, stands and the way they are being worked., This one is in Baker County, Fla. 
Fig. 2. — This stand of longleaf, with a little slash pine mixed, is about the same age 
and is located near the stand shown in figure 1. It, however, was boxed, worked for 
three seasons, and since then has been allowed to* burn over at random. The trees have 
been badly burned ; some are gone " root and branch," leaving holes in the top soil as the 
only visible mark of where they formerly stood. More than one-half of the trees origi- 
nally boxed have been killed or destroyed. The remaining portion in 1916 was considered 
of no' value because it was badly burned, insect infested, and decayed. Eight or nine 
years had elapsed since the timber was worked. The original tree density was very good ; 
now about four trees are left to every ten that were standing when they were boxed and 
worked. There are now 55 trees per 1 acre measuring 7 in.ch.esi or over in diameter. The 
growth of the trees, which, came up in an, old field, has been rapid, and the stand is of 
relatively high value. The owner received 10' cents a cup, or from 192 cups per acre (an 
estimated number) $19.20 per acre, as the return on the timber for the period, of 40 
years of growth. 
Under adequate protection during the 10' years following the first working, if the trees 
were back-cupped in 1919, and the timber sold at $3 per thousand feet on the stump, the 
profits would undoubtedly have been somewhere near four times the amount received. 
The treatment of this promising stand represents widspread practice,, the folly of which 
is beginning to be widely and fully appreciated. This operation is in Baker County, Fla. 
gallons of turpentine and 83 pounds of rosin. One gallon of crude 
gum weighs 9.2 pounds, and a 50-gallon barrel of gum weighs 460 
pounds net. 
5. The yield of both turpentine and rosin is notably increased by 
the use of the cup system as compared with the boxing method. The 
yield of turpentine for two similar crops under investigation for 
three years was 151 barrels by cupping, and by boxing 118 barrels 
of spirits of turpentine. (PL IX.) Both shallow and light chipping, 
as practiced on the Florida National Forest, are effective in increas- 
ing the yield of gum. 
