SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
269 
2d. Each hand will require two buckets, holding 4 or 5 
gallons, so that while one is dripping into the barrel he 
can work with the other and lose no time. The imple- 
ment for dipping is made of iron or steel, something like 
a trowel, with a wooden handle, the blade flat, G inches 
wide and 9 or 10 long, with a rounded point, thin at the 
edges, and a quarter of an inch thick in the centre, and 
joining the handle. 
3d. Dipping must commence as soon as the boxes are 
pretty well filled, charging the hands to watch them, 
while going over their tasks to cut corners or to chip, as 
trees run veiy unequally, and many will overflow before 
the rest are full. 
4th. The number of dippings in a season vary from 4 to 
7 as the extremes. Below 5, during the first 2 years, is 
looked on as poor, and 6 as very good. An early or 
backward spring or fall — long drouths during which 
the trees almost stop running— or heavy driving rains 
which fill the boxes with water and float out the Turpen- 
tine — all have their effect on the number of dippings — 
which depend otherwise on the frequency and care with 
which chipping is done. As the plantation grows older, 
and the chipping extends higher up the trees, you get 
fewer dippings of soft Turpentine, and a greater propor- 
tion of hard or scrape. 
5tii. It is not usually necessary to gather the scrape 
separately, until the second winter, after the boxes stop 
running. It will then be nearly equally in bulk to 2 
dippings. After that it must be gathered every winter, 
the bulk increasing the longer the trees are tended. 
Gth. For collecting the scrape, instead of buckets, it is 
better to use a box 15 or IG inches square and 10 inches 
deep, supported on two short legs, so as to rest against 
the tree. The best implement for gathering scrape is a, 
socket spade, so that the length of handle can be varied 
v/ith the height of the work. The hard scrape will re- 
quire to be trodden into the barrels. 
7ih. A hand should dip 1,800, to 2,000 boxes a day, or fill 
5 or 6 barrels, so as to get over the his task in 6 or 8 
days. It will require more time to collect the hard Tur- 
pentine. 
CHIPPING. 
Next to careful boxing, the length of time that your 
trees will continue to yield, will depend upon the manner 
m which chipping is done. 
1st. The instrument used is called a ‘•'hacker” or “shave'’ 
from its resemblance to a cooper’s round shave, only that 
the cutting part should be shaped to a rounded point, an 
inch, or thi’ee quarters in diameter, and be supported on a 
strong spike, to be inserted in a handle of convenient 
length, according to the height of the chipping. 
2d. Take care that the chip extends across the tree no 
wider than the box, and for new or awkward hands it will 
save much waste to have perpendicular lines drawn up 
the tree from each corner of the box. 
3d From each of these lines the chip should be cut 
in a down slope towards the centre of the box. Each fresh 
chip to be cut at the upper edge. of the old one, about a 
quarter of an inch deep into the wood. A narrow chip 
or cut will bleed as freely as a wide one— half an inch is 
sufficient. And by this means your trees can be worked 
longer. If trees are skillfully chipped they will last 8 or 10 
years. 
4th. A good hand will chip over his task once a week. 
And, as it is important to have it done by the strongest 
und most expert hands, these should be kept at it regular- 
ly through the season — while women qi’ inferior haflds 
can dip very well. One hand can dip four tasks, while the 
three best hands are kept busy chipping, and should go 
over the whole four or five times between each dipping. 
On this plan the boxes first full can be attended to without 
interrupting the chippers. 
HAULING. 
One hand strong enough to load, with a pair of good 
mules and suitable wagon, will haul the Turpentine dip- 
ped by ten hands, an average distance of three miles — with 
spare time for hauling provisions, empty barrels, &c. 
And in the winter can be employed in hauling barrel 
staves, plowing in oats, or preparing ground for early peas 
and potatoes — so as to provide a large part of their own 
forage, for himself and team. 
BARRELS. 
1st. The barrel is made 32 inches long, including the 
chines, and the head about 17 inches across, with a little 
bulge in the middle. The staves and heading of pine, to 
be three-quarters or seven eights of an inch thick, secured 
with six strong wooden hoops. 
2d. A barrel of Turpentine must weigh 280 pounds, 
and any over or under-weight is added or taken off, as 
the case may be, in calculating all sales. No allowance 
for weight of barrel. 
3d. A cooper’s task, when working by the day or 
month, is five barrels. His price twenty to twenty-five 
cents a barrel for making when all materials are found 
him — and when he finds all, from thirty- one ta thirty-seven 
cents a piece. 
4th, Heading and staves of heart pine are worth $5 a 
thousand. Sap staves one-fourth less, as they are only fit 
to hold the hard Turpentine or scrape. They should be 
got out and hacked up and dried two or three months be- 
fore being worked up. Hoop poles, about G feet long, of 
hickory, white-oak or water -oak, are worth 20 to 25 cents 
per hundred, delivered. 
5th. In a gang of hands getting Turpentine, every fifth 
man may be a cooper, and will be employed the year 
through in providing hi§ own materials and keeping the 
others supplied v/ith barrels. 
GUARDING AGAINST FIRE. 
The evil consequences of getting a Turpentine planta- 
tion on fire are so great, as to justify the labor of hoeing 
around the boxea, so as to clear away all the grass and 
pine straw to a distance of 4 or 5 feet. This will employ 
a band four or five weeks in the winter. The State 
ought to protect this important interest by enacting severe 
penalties against those who set out fire where it can ex- 
tend among trees boxed for Turpentine. 
GENERAL P^EMARKS. 
The Turpentine business is considered a very healthy 
employment for hands. It may be carried on with little 
capital, on lands too poor for cultivation, and is, there- 
fore, well suited to persons of small means. If there is 
one hand, in the poorest family, able to cut boxes and 
chip them afterwards, the dipping can be done by women 
and half-grown children. A poor family living near a 
Still or river may make something, even if they hire their 
boxes to be cut, buy their barrels, and hire the hauling. 
On the other hand, no business makes better returns for 
common labor, take one year with another, not even the 
culture of cotton and tobacco, especially when the amount 
of capital employed is taken into consideration. A prime 
experienced hand, in a plantation newly opened, has 
gathered SGOO or STOO worth of Turpentine in a year, 
-leaving a nett sum of S400 or ??500, after all deductions 
for barrels, hauling, provisions, <S:c. Two hundred dol- 
lars per hand, clear of all expenses, including wages tonn 
overseer, is a very moderate result for, an average lot of 
hands. 
The usual prite for cutting good boxes is $1 per hun- 
dred, and food ffir, the hand. 
Twelve tlumsand boxe;^ are an average task, in chip- 
ping and dipping. Extra prime hands have tended as 
■Ihigh as fifteen or sixteen thousand, but ordinary hands 
will not do justice to more than ten thousand. 
