previous next

Tur′pen-tine-hack.

A tool for barking and cutting pine-trees, to allow the crude turpentine to exude.

Turpentine-bucket.

Fig. 6816 is a tool for either cutting or scraping, by upward or downward motion.

Ten thousand trees or boxes constitute a plantation. Each tree is cut at the bottom so as to form a box or receptacle, holding about a quart of crude turpentine. Each tree is partially stripped of bark, and every two weeks is cut higher up, always in the shape of a V, by a heavy long-handled implement, termed the hack. The V-cut prevents the edges from becoming hard and the turpentine from oozing out, the turpentine being guided to the lowest point of the V. The hands become very proficient in cutting and keeping open these V's. One man is able to cut 10,000 of the boxes in a week, some trees having three and four boxes. There are three crops and a scraping raised in a season, — say, 450 barrels — the scrapings generally paying all the expenses attending the cutting and gathering. When the cutting [2664] reaches an inconveniently high point, the tree is felled and used for timber or firewood.

The hacking operation, and the mode of hauling the filled barrels of tar to market, which is often effected in a manner similar to that formerly employed with tobacco hogsheads in Virginia, are shown in Figs. 6817, 6818. Both tar and turpentine are frequently rafted to the seaboard.

Turpentine-hack.

The dipping (Fig. 6819) is effected with a spoon-shaped instrument, the gum being collected in buckets, which are afterward emptied into barrels. The first year's produce is virgin-dip, the second yellow-dip, the third yellow-dip and scrape; after the third year, the product is all scrape. The virgin-dip is, when carefully gathered, a honey-like gum, of whitish appearance. From it are produced No. 1, pale, extra, and window-glass and somewhat less than 3/4 of a barrel of rosin to the barrel of 280 lbs. Yellow-dip and scrape yield about 6 gallons of spirits and 3/4 barrel of rosin to the barrel.

Hacking.

Scrape is the gum which collects on the face of the box or barked portion of the tree, when it has been worked up 3 or 4 feet or more. It is a whitish, cheese-like substance. Fig. 6820 represents the operation of chipping the face; this is done with an implement termed the round-share. For removing the scrape, a somewhat similar tool, the scraper, is employed.

Hauling.

The gum is distilled in copper stills, containing from 10 to 60 barrels; from 30 to 40 barrels is a usual size. They are bricked up at the sides, and the fire strikes directly upon their bottoms. The top has a large hole for the cap, which connects with the worm for condensing the spirits, and a small hole for enabling the stiller to watch the process and let in water, if required. The residual rosin is drawn off into vats and barreled. Fig. 6821 is a rear view of a distillery, showing the stills and rosinvats.

In trees deadened by fire, old boxed trees left standing, and in stumps of trees cut while the sap is up, the pores become saturated with the gum. These are largely employed for making tar.

For this purpose the wood is split into billets 3 or 4 feet long, and about 3 inches thick. These are laid radially around a central aperture, each tier projecting slightly beyond that below, the whole kiln forming a frustum of an inverted cone, as shown in Fig. 6822. The fire is kindled at the top of the kiln, and the tar trickling downward into the opening is conducted by a spout to a suitable reservoir. See also charcoal-furnace.

Dipping.

Chipping the face.

1877.

Tufts University provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: