The Pine Forests of the South [pp. 196-198]

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
sometimes spread themselves rapidly through the forest, destroying many
trees in a season.
In these latitudes the boxing season may be from 1st Nov. to 1st April.
A good box-cutter may box between 8 and 10,000 trees in one season.
The boxing season about the waters which lie close to the Gulf is shorter,
and the season of dipping and distilling is longer than in any known turpentine region.
During the past season the expense of boxing has been unusually great.
Almost all of the old orchards have been burned during the war. Virgin dip
rosin, which can be gathered from new boxes only, was selling last winter
at from $20 to $30 per barrel. All naval store makers sought thereupon to
open new orchards, and many were willing to pay extraordinary prices for
the necessary labor. Late in the season, last January and February, wages,
including rations, ranged from $20 to $40 per month, and from one cent to
two cents per box were given, and even in some cases as high as three cents
besides rations and lodgings.
When the weather in February and March is favorable to the flow of gum,
the boxes may fill without further cultivation, and be dipped before they
are "cornered." Cornering generally follows immediately on the conclusion
of the boxing. Its object is to so shape the face of the box that the strokes
of the hackers may be made with advantage.. A good hand can corner two
thousand boxes in a day. From two to four strokes of the axe will suffice to
cut properly the corners of each box.
Hacking follows immediately upon the cornering and in it consists mainly
the "cultivation of an orchard." It is a tedious sort of labor, little relished
by the hands of the present day, and is now apt to be unfaithfully performed.
But on it depends the success of the operations.
In old times turpentine orchards used to be divided into "crops." A crop
was supposed to be as much as one hand could cultivate. About 8,000 new
boxes made a crop, or 10,000 to 12,000 old boxes. A crop was assigned to
each good hand, and he was required to hack it over within seven days. Im
mediately on finishing one hacking he began again, and rehacked his crop.
After three hackings the boxes will be full of gum, and should be dipped.
That is, when the labor is properly and uninterruptedly conducted, the boxes
may be dipped every eighteen or twenty-one days.
The dipping should be done by hands employed for the purpose, and the
hackers should continue their workl without changing the proper interval
between the hackings of each tree.
Before the war negro women and boys used to be employed to dip. It is
very difficult now to find any hands willing to execute this branch -of the
business. Their hands and clothing become smeared with the gum, and
even two dollars per diem will not now induce a piny woodsman or freed
man to dip much turpentine.
A proper barrel for receiving the crude turpentine is made of good pine
staves, secured by six light iron hoops. It should contain forty gallons. A
rectangular opening, about six inches by three inches, is cut in the barrel;
the piece sawed out is used to open and close the barrel.
The dip bucket should contain about. four gallons; has a long handle of
white oak or hickory, which is secured to the bucket by a cross bar. The
base of this bucket should be of greater diameter than the top. Where the
boxes are large and full, a good hand can dip four barrels of gum in a day.
That is, dip a "crop" of 10,000 boxes in seven or eight days, gathering from
it at each dipping abouty thirty barrels of gum.
As fast as they are filled the dip barrels should be hauled to the still and
emptied into it. If left in the woods they lose by leakage, and the quality
of the gum for yielding spirits of turpentine is impaired.
A still of the capacity of twenty barrels is a good medium size. Such a
still in active operation can run two charges per day, and in an emergency,
even three charges in a day may be turned out; in a whole season the product may therefore be very large.
The cost, including all the appurtenances of such a still, when ready for
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