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MR. ROBINSON S TOUR. NO. 12- 
MR. ROBINSON'S TOUR.— No. 12. 
The Turpentine Business of North Carolina. — 
In this number, I will give some facts concerning 
the turpentine business of North Carolina. The 
first place that I examined particularly, was that of 
Mr. David Murphy, ten miles from Fayetteville, 
where he has lately settled, having previously car- 
ried on the business in Hanover county, which he 
was obliged to abandon in consequence of the loss 
of 30,000 trees in one season, by what some assert 
to be an insect, while others think the insect to be 
a consequence of the disease that kills the pines 
(See p. 225 of our seventh volume). Be this as it j 
may, the destruction is enormous, and if it were not 
for the almost unbounded quantities of long-leaf 
pine in the states of North Carolina, South Caro- 
lina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and 
Mississippi, it might well be feared that the source 
of supply would soon be exhausted. 
Mr. Murphy bought his land about two years 
ago for one to two dollars an acre, and it is of but 
little value except for a turpentine plantation. 
He has at present about 60,000 trees boxed, 
and is daily increasing the number. Four hands 
can tend 36,000 trees j that is, three hands to cut 
and one to dip ; and, if the trees are good, and the 
season propitious, they will gather 800 barrels of 
turpentine a year. This is now, (May, 1849,) 
worth, in Wilmington, the great turpentine depot, 
$2,25 a barrel, and cost of transportation is fifty 
cents a barrel. He thinks that at present prices, in 
a good place, hands will average about $200 a year 
clear of expenses. Mr. M. distils all of his pitch. 
Two hands will run a hundred barrels through in 
two days. This will make 700 gallons of spirits, 
which is put up in the best of seasoned white-oak 
casks, coated with glue on the inside, to prevent 
leakage. It is worth about 25 cents a gallon at 
Wilmington, pay for barrel extra. The rosin, 
if from new trees, or, as it is termed, " virgin tur- 
pentine," is usually saved and put up in the barrels 
from whence the crude article has been taken, and 
is worth, or was, last year, about $2 a barrel ; 
while the common rosin is often not worth more 
than 25 cents, and will not pay for transportation 
any considerable distance. Therefore, at many 
places, not convenient to water carriage, it is run 
out from the distillery in wooden troughs, or gut- 
ters, that lead it far enough away from the build- 
ing to be burnt without danger, and is there set on 
fire. I have thus seen many tons destroyed, while 
I could not but think how valuable it would be to 
many a poor family in this city to help make the 
pot boil. Millions of pounds are consumed in this 
way every year. The spirit from new boxes is 
also of a superior quality. I have seen it as limp- 
ed as spring water. 
In commencing a new place, the first process is, 
to chop a "box," or hole, in winter, in one side of 
the tree, close down to the ground, that will hold 
from a pint to a quart, according to the size of the 
tree. An expert hand will cut about sixty boxes 
a day. About the first of March, the season com- 
mences, and continues till the first of October. 
Every week, or oftener, if there should be rain, a 
hand goes round and "chips" off the bark about an 
inch wide, and nearly as long as the length of the 
box. This is done with a tool constructed to suit 
the position of the part to be cut. When flirt com- 
mencing, a crooked-bladed hatchet is used. Then 
a tool with handles like a drawing knife, with a 
blade that cuts a chip like a gouge. Final!}', a 
similar tool is attached to a pole that enables the 
operator to make his cut 12 or 15 feet above the 
ground. When one side of the tree is " used up," 
a box is cut in the other, and sometimes, in large 
trees, a third box is cut. The second side is always 
the best. Some persons tap all sides at once. This 
exhausts the tree much quicker. By the first pro- 
cess, trees will last eight or ten years. After the 
" face" becomes several feet long, most of the tu rpen- 
tine coats the tree before it reaches the box. This 
has to be scraped off, but is not near the value of 
new boxes, which, of some new and good trees, re- 
quire emptying once in four weeks, but generally 
three or four times during the dripping season. The 
turpentine is taken out of the boxes by a paddle, 
which should be of iron, and so should the buckets. 
These are emptied into barrels standing around all 
about the forest. Water in the boxes or barrels 
does no harm, but rains stop the dripping until re- 
cut. Damp weather is best. On clay land, the 
product is much affected by drouth. The business 
is considered very healthy, and those engaged in it 
are fond of that kind of employment. It requires, 
however, the most able-bodied men. After the 
close of the season, the hands are employed during 
the winter in scraping old trees, boxing new ones, 
and making barrels, preparatory to the spring busi- 
ness. 
Mr. Henry Elliott, a gentleman well known in 
the neighborhood of Fayetteville, says that a first- 
rate hand can "chip" from 10,000 to 12,000 trees a 
week and go over his task every week at that. He 
has often seen new boxes filled in three weeks, but 
old ones run seven or eight. He says that he has 
observed the greatest death among pines in Feb- 
ruary, when there were no insects to be seen. He 
entirely repudiates the idea that a cut on dead pine 
is the cause of death to the growing trees. His 
experience is somewhat extensive, as he has been 
all his life engaged in the lumber business. He 
says that trees, when attacked by disease, flow two 
or three times as fast as healthy ones. Those 
which have been drained of their turpentine are 
nearly worthless for lumber. 
Between Fayetteville and Tarborough, I saw a great 
many thousand trees boxed, and in one place 15,000 
are chipped by two hands working four days a week. 
The most common quantity to a hand is from ninety 
to one hundred and twenty barrels a year. It is 
estimated to take 10,000 trees to fill 50 barrels. A 
barrel contains 280 lbs. Hands, however, often 
have made 200 barrels of dip turpentine in a sea- 
son, and nearly half as much more of " scrape' 1 ; 
the latter is of but little value. It is estimated to 
be worth two cents a mile per barrel to haul turpen- 
tine. Some of the vehicles which I have seen in 
use for that purpose would be curiosities worthy a 
place at the fair of the American Institute. One ox 
harnessed in shafts of a most primitive-looking cart 
driven by a "raal ginuine North-Carolina piney- 
woods man," or as is the case sometimes, a pair of 
shafts without any wheels, with a barrel or two of 
crude turpentine for a load, would be a curious 
I sight in Broadway, 
