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FURNISHED HOUSES FOR RENT.
A few Furnished Houses remain unrented in Pinehurst. Desirable parties, giving satisfactory references, can
secure these homes at reasonable rates.
There are also Suites for Light Housekeeping and Single Rooms for those who obtain table board at the
Pinehurst Casino.
For the security of both invalids and pleasure seekers, cases of pronounced Consumption will under no circumstances
be allowed admission.
Address for Illustrated and Descriptive Circulars, and for other information,
CHARLES a BENBOW, Superintendent, Pinehurst, N, C
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PRODUCT OF THE PINE.
Interesting Description of the Manufact
ure of Turpentine and Rosin.
Many of the long-leaf pines that now
stand in our woods present a queer ap
pearance to the stranger from the North,
the trees having been utilized for obtain
ing turpentine, one of the main staples
of the old North State. The naval stores
of North Carolina formed at one time a
very important item in the reports of the
export statistician, and if at present that
source of revenue is greatly reduced
the turpentine distiller and lumber
man have themselves to blame for
the reckless abuse of one of the finest
and most useful trees the United States
calls its own. However that be now, the
way turpentine is produced is interesting
enough to be followed up somewhat in
detail, the more so as there are quite a
number of abandoned stills in the neigh
borhood of Pinehurst. One is about a
thousand yards below the nursery, an
other will be passed on the way to
McKenzie's mill-pond, and several others
are as easily reached and quite as easily
found, as large piles of rosin indicate
their former locations.
The long-leaf pine, pinus aitstmlis, Mil
ler, is a specific southern tree, the terri
tory of which extends from Southeastern
Virginia to Florida, and through the Gulf
states to Louisiana and Texas. It is
rarely found 150 miles beyond the sea
coast. It grows from sixty to ninety feet
tall, with a trunk from two to four feet
in diameter, and prefers sandy loams
where it forms enormous forests, almost
to the exclusion of any other tree besides
the oak. The manufacture of turpentine
dates back to the oldest settlers, who
made quite an income by tapping the
trees.. By 17G8 a very profitable industry
was established by the production of the
naval stores thatjs, turpentine, spirits
of turpentine, tar, pitch and rosin, most
of which were sent to England. The in
troduction of the copper still in 1844
led to a largely increased yield of volatile
oil, and more stills were established at
the seaports.
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A BOXED TREE.
Then the manufacturers of India rub
ber goods called for great quantities of
spirits of turpentine; the consequence of
which was the extension of the turpen
tine orcharding to the south and west of
its original limit. The civil war made a rad
ical end to all production of turpentine in
the South for a time, and the turpentine
stillers of France and other countiies t rie 1
to supply the demand, at prices live or
six times their usual range. After the
war the industry was taken up again,
but not so extensively as formerly, yet
the reports of 1891 show exports of
rosin and turpentine to an aggregate
value of over .$8,000,000.
The methods of extracting the turpen
tine vary in the different countries. Here
the trees are "chipped" that is, chips
are cut through the bark into the wood
on the side of a tree, and at the lower end
a small hole called a "box" is cut to
catch the sap. The value of the pine as
a timber tree is not enchanced by the
chipping, but the tree itself is ex
hausted before its time and sacrificed
to an early death.
To empioy a still to good profit a tur
pentine orchard usually consists of
about 4000 acres. Such an area is divided
into sections of about 10,000 "boxes"
each. The work begins in the earlier
part of the winter, with the cutting of
the boxes. They are cut eight to twelve
inches above the base of the tree and
about seven inches deep, slanting from the
outside to the interior of the trunk, and
have a capacity of about three pints. After
that the ground is laid bare around the
tree for a distance of three feet and all
combustible matter is raked together and
burned, to avoid danger of the tree catch
ing fire during the turpentine operations.
But just this practice of burning and the
easy-going way it is done very often re
sults in fires of enormous extent, and
more forest trees are sacrificed by those
conflagrations than by the boxing or any
other cause.
In early spring, when the sap begins
to How, the work of chipping is started.
The surface of the tree above the box is
laid bare according to certain rules, about
one inch deep. During the time from
March to October or even November this
chipping is repeated as often as the tur
pentine ceases to flow freely and the
height of the chipped part is increased
about two inches every time. The accu
mulated rosin in the boxes is removed to a
barrel by a dipper of peculiar shape.
In a virgin orchard about seven dips are
made that will yield about forty barrels
of dip, or soft turpentine, each time, for
every 10,000 boxes. During the dog-days
of July and August most turpentine is
gathered. The crude rosin that sticks
to the tree is scraped oil" the chip with a
narrow keen-edged scraper attached to a
long wooden handle. It is called scrape
or hard turpentine. The " virgin dip,"
as the dipping of a first season is termed,
always commands highest prices. A
barrel of dip (240 lbs.) yields six and
one-half gallons of spirits of turpentine,
while a barrel of scrape brings only three
gallons. During the following years the
number of dips is steadily decreased to
only three dippings in the fourth year.
After that time the orchard is usually de
livered into the teeth of the omnivorous
saw mill.
The distillation of spirits of turpentine
demands the greatest of care to avoid large
losses. The still has to be heated beyond
the inciting point of crude turpentine,
and a very tine stream of hike-warm
water is conducted from the top of the
condensing tub into the still, and allowed
to continue until the end of the process.
The end is indicated by a peculiar noise
of the boiling contents of the still. The
skill of the operator is now shown in the
regulation of the water stream. After
the process of distillation of the spirit
of turpentine is finished and the fire is
removed the contents of the still are
drawn oft" by a tap at the bottom. This
molten rosin is strained through wire
cloth and then through coarse cotton
cloth into a large trough, from which the
barrels are filled. Such a barrel contains
280 lbs. It is a, tedious process through
out, and the compensation is no longer
high enough to induce many people to
go into this business.
The long-leaf pine is a restorer of
health and vigor as is no other tree,
and many an invalid enjoys his life once
more after breathing the ozone of our
pines.
Long live the pine!
Otto Katzenstein.