268 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
house divided against itself is in a bad way, whether 
North or South. 
^ On the important question of promoting agriculture, 
there is no good reason why public sentiment at the 
South should not be perfectly harmonious and united. It 
is so obviously the paramount interest on which all others 
depend for support, either directly or indirectly, that the 
only debatable ground is the fact whether any proposed 
measure will truly benefit Southern tillage and husbandry 
or not. And to this simple, this plain test, we desire to 
see agricultural education brought. In this matter, no 
one has a right to expect wonders, much less a miracle. 
Such expectations would most certainly be disappointed 
A good crop of useful knowledge was never made by per- 
sons so full of excitement as to jump to their conclusions. 
Our most useful institutions grow up from small germs, 
like noble forest trees, which have extended both their 
roots and branches, little by little, every summer for one 
or two centuries. Such institutions are really worth hav- 
ing; but mark; they should grow ; else they are like dead 
trees which every year become more unsound, and less 
valuable. No college should be permitted to fall into 
such a condition. Its friends had better engraft new 
scions upon some of the most flourishing limbs, and add 
a good mulching to protect the roots. It is wise to reju- 
venate, or reform, but inhuman to destroy. Gladly shall 
we assist in any way in our povfrer to build up und 
strengthen the educational institutions of the South. They 
need more funds, more pupils, and more able and earnest 
teachers. In this way they will happily exhibit sub- 
stantial progress, and solid growth. Whatever the people 
desire to learn, and have their children learn, educational 
institutions should teach. We believe they wish to learn 
the principles of agriculture and of the mechanic arts ; and 
therefore we advocate the study of these branches of 
knowledge in schools or universities adapted to such utili- 
tarian objects. Our republicanism induces the belief that 
there is nothing in learning, nothing in science, which is 
either too good or too high for any common citizen to 
conjniand if he pleases. L.^ 
TUBPMTmE. 
HINTS FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ENGAGE IN ITS MANUFACTURE. 
SITUATION. 
Select your plantation as near a Distillery as you can ; 
but you may do a very profitable business 6 or 7 miles 
oft’, if the country is favorable for hauling. If the Distil- 
lery is on a river, Tupentine may be hauled two or 
three miles and rafted down forty or fifty miles, cheaper 
than to haul to the Still over six or seven miles. Yet 
persons already settled on thin pine lands, can do better 
to make Turpentine and haul it ten or twelve miles, than 
at anything else they make for market, 
timber. 
The best trees are young, thriving, on pretty good soil, 
of quick growth, having the most sap-wood. If found on 
low, level or moist lands, they will yield all the better. 
Dry seasons ’are unfavorable for a large crop of Turpen- 
tine, and, of course, trees on lands that suffer easily from 
drouth, are least profitable. Old Yellow Pines run badly, 
and are only worth boxing when standing amidst better 
timber. 
The thicker the growth stands the better, as close for- 
ests are less injured by hard winds than those more open, 
while the hand has less ground to walk over in attending 
his task. Forests that will not afford a task of 12,000 boxes 
on 200 acres or less, are hardly worth working, unless 
they are very near the still, or water carriage to it. 
BOXING, 
As the future profit of the business depends chiefly on 
doing this part of the work well, let it be carefully attend- 
ed to, observing the following instructions : 
tst. In our climate [Florida and Southwestern Georgia] 
this work must be done between the 1st of November 
and the 1st of March, or a little later if the spring is back- 
ward and cold, and the Turpentine does not begin to run. 
2d. The boxes must be cut loio down — in small trees 
within 6 or 8 inches of the ground, and 10 or 12 inches 
in large trees. This will be at the swell of the roots, 
where the sap-wood is deepest, and the tree least weaken- 
ed by the cut, and because the drip is more certain to fall 
into the box when it is cut in the projecting wood. And 
for this last reason, when the tree is not upright, a box 
must never be cut on the side to which it leans. 
3d. The box should be from 8 to 15 inches long, measur- 
ing across the tree, according to its size. The lower edge 
or rim of the chop must be a level cut, very smooth, and 
have a down slope inwards of2or3 inches below the 
outer edge. The depth from 3 to 4 inches, capable of 
holding a quart or more, unless in a small tree. As a 
general rule, the cut should extend very little into the heart- 
wood, 
4th. The size of the tree determines the number of 
boxes it will bear and keep healthy. Trees under a foot 
thick should have but one box ; those from 1 2 to 20 inches 
thick, two boxes, and never more than three in any tree. 
Of course, where the trees are scattering it may be better 
to cut more boxes, even ifthe trees do not last as long, than 
to lose too much time with your hands. 
5th. The task for prime experienced hands is from 450 
to 500 boxes a week, or 75 to 80 a day. And some ex- 
pert hands will gain a day and do their work well. Such 
hands should he encouraged by receiving pay for extra 
woi'k. But most beginners will not cut at first more than 
50 boxes a day, and there is nothing gained by tasking 
them too high, until they have got well used to the proper 
shape and size of boxes. 
CORNERING. 
As soon as you stop cutting boxes, the hands should be 
set to cutting corners to them. This is done by a straight 
cut four or five inches up the tree from each corner of a 
box, and is usually done with two blows of the axe, tak- 
ing out a chip half or three quarters of an inch deep, 
which makes a channel to catch the Turpentine at the 
corners of the box, and serves as a guide for the chipping 
afterwards. A hand will corner 500 or 600 boxes a day. 
The Turpentine from the faces and corners of new’ boxes 
will fill them, without further work, for your first 
DIPPING, 
This part of the business generally begins about the first 
of April, a little earlier or later according to the season. 
But before proceeding to dip, or even to corner your 
boxes, each task, where there are no natural boundries, 
should be marked off by blazing a line of trees. And 
every task should be further divided by rows of stakes, 
fifty yards apart, crossing it both ways, from side to side, 
which will cut it up into squares of about half an acre. 
Without this the overseer of several hands cannot possibly 
inspect their work wdth any accuracy ; nor can the hands, 
however faithful, avoid skipping a great many boxes in 
cornering, chipping and dipping. 
1st, Before you begin to dip, place your empty barrels, 
35 or 40 to the task, at convenient distances, all ready to 
receive the Turpentine. 
