244 
North  American  Conifers. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1896. 
the  turpentine  industry  of  France  received  an  impetus,  and  that  country  sup- 
plied, as  best  she  could,  the  deficiency.  Prices  went  up  to  five  or  six  times 
their  former  range,  namely,  $25  to  $30  per  100  pounds  for  spirits,  and  $9  to  $10 
for  pale  yellow  grades  of  rosin,  $4  to  $5  for  inferior  grades.  These  prices 
instigated  improvement  of  methods,  such  as  the  Hugues  system,  described 
further  on,  and  more  careful  treatment  of  the  crop. 
"  With  the  close  of  the  war  the  industry  revived  in  the  United  States,  though 
the  demand  for  turpentine  was  not  as  great  as  formerly,  petroleum  products 
of  various  kinds  having  been  found  to  take  the  place  of  the  product  of  the  pine 
for  many  purposes." 
While  the  Pinus  palustris  is  the  source  of  the  largest  proportion 
of  naval  stores,  still  a  considerable  quantity  is  yielded  by  P.  taeda, 
the  loblolly  pine  ;  P.  echinata,  the  short-leaf  pine  ;  and  P.  Cubensis, 
the  Cuban  pine.  The  product  from  P.  rigida  in  the  North  Atlantic 
States  is  now  a  matter  of  history,  the  supply  from  that  source  hav- 
ing long  since  been  exhausted. 
At  present  the  long-leaf  pine  furnishes  the  great  bulk  of  the  sup- 
ply, not  only  for  the  United  States,  but  for  the  whole  world,  the 
production  of  France  and  Austria,  the  only  other  producers  of  naval 
stores,  furnishing  hardly  one-tenth  of  the  total  production.  The  world's 
supply  amounts  in  value  to  something  over  $10,000,000  annually. 
The  geographical  distribution  of  the  turpentine-yielding  pines  is 
very  similar  to  that  laid  down  for  Pinus  palustris  on  a  previous  page, 
and  embraces  portions  of  the  following  States :  North  and  South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Arkansas  and 
Texas. 
Turpentine  orcharding1  is  that  branch  of  the  naval  store  industry 
which  is  immediately  concerned  with  the  collection  of  the  resinous 
products.  It  has  been  found  that  the  trees  best  adapted  to  tapping 
are  those  not  less  than  15  inches  in  diameter  and  in  vigorous 
growth.  Trees  over  10  inches  in  diameter  will  yield  almost  double 
the  amount  of  resin  that  a  smaller  tree  will  produce,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  resin  is  much  richer  in  volatile  oil.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  younger  trees  give  an  inferior  yield,  yet  saplings 
scarcely  over  8  inches  in  diameter  are  frequently  boxed. 
Boxing  is  the  term  given  to  the  operation  of  cutting  the  cavities 
or  boxes,  which  are  to  be  the  receptacles  of  the  crude  turpentine. 
1  In  addition  to  the  reports  referred  to,  excellent  brief  descriptions  of  the 
turpentine  industry  may  be  found  in  Am.  Jour.  Pharm.,  1890,  p.  284 
(Dunwody),  and  p.  393  (Murray). 
