Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/517

Rh of rosin. It is used for the calking of ships, shoemaker's pitch, and black dyes or pigments. There is a special kind of pitch used by brewers for pitching beer kegs and barrels. The process of distillation requires experience and care in order to obtain the right quantity of oil of turpentine; if too little oil, the pitch is brittle and does not adhere to the barrel; if too much, it gives a sharp, disagreeable taste to the beer.

North Carolina for years produced nearly all the tar used at home and abroad, and from this fact its people were called "tar-heels." Wilmington, N. C, is the headquarters for tar and crude turpentine, but Savannah, Ga., is the largest market in the world for naval stores. The process of making tar is simple, and may be briefly described as follows: The dead limbs and wood are put in a heap in a hole in the ground and covered with dirt and sod. A fire is started at the bottom and allowed to smolder for eight or ten days, when the tar begins to flow. It is then dipped into barrels, which contain three hundred and twenty pounds net. About forty gallons of tar are obtained from one cord of wood.

The best grades of charcoal are now made from the pine-tree wood and bark. The sawdust carries a heavy percentage of wood alcohol and creosote. The product known as oil of tar is obtained by dry distillation of the tar, and is used by farmers and fruit-growers as an insecticide, and by doctors and veterinary surgeons for external applications.

Such, then, are some of the important ways in which turpentine enters into the industries, supplying man's needs and wants. The Chinese used to say that the cocoanut palm had as many good uses as there are days in the month. The same and even more can be said of the long-leaf pine. This wonderful tree is almost like cotton in the variety and value of its products.

It is perhaps not generally known that matting and excelsior are made from the pine trees. There is a factory about fifteen miles from Wilmington that uses the pine straw as material for bagging to cover the cotton bales. When the duties on jute and jute bagging were increased, this material was in large demand.

In addition to its other uses, the long-leaf pine belt furnishes annually an immense quantity of timber to the markets. Georgia "yellow pine," as it is called, is known the world over. It is one of the most durable and ornamental of woods. It is light and easily worked, and yet it is tougher than many woods twice its specific gravity. It holds paint and varnish better than most woods, owing to its resinous qualities, and, having a finely marked grain, it shows off well when highly polished. It is thus taking the place of hard woods for use in the building of railway cars, in furnishings for offices, and for interior work in houses. It stands