m
THE PINEHURST OUTLOOK
over a screen and into barrels, and cross
my heart if that screening place where
the resin is strained is not one of the
most uncomfortable places to sit down
accidentally or unthinkingly that you
ever tried to rest on. It means to cut
yourself loose, not just figuratively, but
with a knife. I never sat down at such
unkind place. It is too hospitable for
my simple taste.
If the still is far from the trees it
follows that the turpentine is carried up
in barrels, and that handling the barrels
or the collecting buckets get to be sticky,
and around the still is a sticky place, and
a bare heel can get something on it most
anywhere in half a mile or more. And
when the resin is barreled and rolled out
and headed up there is a chance to put
your feet in something soft, and if by
this time you have not discovered why a
North Carolina man is called a tar heel
you certainly begin to see one reason that
might justify the name.
Yot this is not tar. We have simply,
so far, been dealing with those other naval
stores, turpentine and rosin. Tar is
another member of the family but just
as readily attached to anybody who
shows a friendly interest.
Now I don't know a thing about the
actual family relations of tar, but I make
a guess that it is an isomeric hydro car
bon dipentene, and if any of its friends
feel agrieved at that I am ready to hear
the defense- I take it that tar is a sort
of peer relation of the turpentine family,
sort of smoked in theb aking as you
might say.
Tar is made from dead pine that it
rich in what is sometimes called pitch,
but what is in fact crude turpentine, the
same thing that exudes from the tree
when wounded, and from which the spirits
of turpentine and rosin are made. The
theory of turpentine is that it is a fluid
supplied by the pine tree to cover a wound
and help it to heal. It seems to have no
other use in the life and growth of the
tree, and we hardly go so far as to say
that the pine tree is supplied with tur
pontine solely to help stop leaks in ships
and to mix paint with.
Dead pine which has sufficient turpen
tine in the pores is cut up and built into
an air tight kiln, and to make it tight it
is covered over several inches with earth.
Fire is then put to the wood, and there
in its confinement it smoulders slowly
for days generating enough heat to drive
out the turpentine partly cooked and
slightly distilled, until the produce gath
ers at the bottom of the kiln in sufiicient
quantities to run out of a pipe provided
for the purpose.
It is put into barrels for market, and
sent all over the seven seas and into all
the rivers and harbors that go up to
Washington from year to year to ask for
an appropriation.
A LATENT FORTUNE
One of the most fascinating sports in
North Carolina is the effort to find a
way to get the turpentine out of dead
wood without burning it- In the old
stumps and pine knots of the pine for
ests is a gold mine if some wise man will
show how to mine the product. Turpen
tine distills at a low temperature- It is
a complex product, chemically, and unless
the heat is maintained at a uniform point
you never, know what you are going to
produce. To take up this subject calls
up a line of talk as long as a bill before
the Legislature, for right away it intro
duces that everlasting array of carbon
compounds, and when you get them
started it is like a duplicate of the fif
teen puzzle. You take a few handfuls
of carbon, and an equal number of ingre
dients of oxygen, and of hydrogen, and
turn yourself loose, and you can keep
mixing it up all the balance of the Winter
and not make the same thing twice.
A man will set up some scheme to dis
till turpentine from pine knots and by
the time he has been in operation a few
weeks he will show you half a bushel of
bottles of different things that he has
taken from the still at different tempera
tures, and after he has operated the thing
for a year or two and sold a lot of the
stuff and used up a lot of pine knots he
will tell you that the scheme does not
work. He cannot keep the temperature
down or up, or sideways or somewhere,
and it may turn out to be dextro where
it ought to be loeve-rotary or it turns the
plane of polarization out into the creek
or something of the sort. If you know
what it all means I pass it up to you.
From what I have seen about this dis
tilling of pine knots it seems there are
mighty near as many pretty things to be
made of pine products as come from coal
tar, but about the time you have seen a
lot of them you find out it cannot be done
just yet until some other methods are
perfected. But they look pretty in a
bottle.
So the tar kjln man goes on and cuts
up his fat pine wood, and builds up his
kiln, and fires it and stays with it day
and night for several days until he has
distilled off the tar, and barreled it for
sale. And in doing the work he smears
himself over with tar, and everything else
in the vicinity, and leaves a magnficent
prospect around the station platform
where he loads it for shipment, for it has
to go away on the cars to somebody who
wants it to mend leaks in ships or to
cure sore throats or things of that sort,
and if you fall in with a kiln man at any
stage of the game you can imagine also
why the name of tar heel became epidemic
in the pine barrens of North Carolina.
I have no notion that the folks in the
rest of the State fall for that term. A
man out in Davidson County one day last
Spring seemed to think he was not en
titled to be called a tar heel, and as he
had never seen a tar kiln in his life, and
had no more idea of what one is like than
he has of the holiday sports in Tophet
probably he made out his case.
A tar kiln is an interesting thing to
visit, for it is spectacular, especially in
the spooky half light that it gives out
after nightfall. A turpentine camp is
also worth a visit if you watch where you
step or where you sit down. Unfor
tunately neither tar nor turpentine is
made in very many localities any longer
in this part of the State. A few isolated
operations may be discovered if your
dragoman knows where to look for them,
and in that event it might be worth the
day's travel to trek out some day into
the veldt and witness the performance
in its chosen field.
In counting up the amount of various
products made in this country Uncle Sam
(Concluded on page nine)
TROPHIES
and PERSONAL ARTICLES
In Gold, Sterling, Bronze and Leather
The Gorham Company
f
is known the
world over for
its fine designs.
Special atten
tion is given to
the production
of Trophies,
Cups, Medals,
Pins, Badges,
and Emblems
for every purpose.
THE GORHAM CO.
Silversmiths and Goldsmiths
NEW YORK
Gorham Silverware is to be had in Pinehurst at
"The Jewelry Shop"
Gorham Silverware is to be had in Pinehurst at
"THE PINEHUKST JEWELEY SHOP"
1'BRETTOM THE HEm 0F THE WH,TE fountains of hew Hampshire
hi WOOERS ImproYed Golf Course Full 6,450 yard
I
the laorifT pubasajvt
Ralph J. HERKIMER
Winter: The Ochlawaha Hotel
Eustis, Florida
TIIE H017IT WASUIJf OTOSf
.- D. J. TRUDEAU
Winter: Hotel Ormoad
Obmond Bkaoh, Fla.
Information at 243 Fifth Are., New York, and all of Mr. Foster! office
J-BRBTTON WOODS SADDLB HORSIS AT QRMQND THIS WINTBR
Pictures of all
Tournaments and Players
at
MERROWS
Pinehurst Studio
Artistic Photographs Made
and
Films Developed
About Half Price
The very best automobile ser
vice in the district can be
obtained by telephoning
Sugg's Livery Stable
Southern Pines
We pride ourselves that we can
furnish instant and good service
at a great deal the lowest rate
in the section. If you need a
car for a lorig trip or the after
noon you cannot afford NOT
to 'phone us.
J
v.