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Home , Forestry, Fur, Mineral oil, Naval stores, Naval stores industry, Pine tar

286 : THE

JAY WARD

Naval stores arc the derivatives of an ark of gopher ; rooms shalt the crude gum——that comes thou make in the ark, and shalt from living , pine stumps, it wdthin and without with pitch." and dead lightwood. Some arc byprod- When Columbus discovered Amer- ucts from sulfate mills. The term ica, the center of production in is limited generally to and extended from through , but it can be said to cover pine the Baltic countries. From them came , pine , and rosin . In the trade, quantities of tar and pitch for use by the product from living pine trees is the fleets of wooden sailing vessels of known as gum naval stores; the prod- all the European nations. King Phillip uct from stumps, lightwood, and pulp of Spain drew from this source for mills is called wood naval stores. In his Spanish Armada. Queen Elizabeth Colonial days, gum was cooked down drew from it for her British fleet. One to a thick tar and used to preserve the of the basic sought by the and calk the seams of the — Europeans in the New World w^as a and from that we got the name "naval source of naval stores for their ships. stores" for the products used now in a Turpentining is one of the oldest hundred ways unconnected with ships. and most picturesque of American in- The gum , at its dustries. The production of tar, pitch, peak in 1908-9, produced 750,000 bar- rosin, and turpentine started when rels (50 gallons each) of gum spirits of the first settlers landed on the Atlan- turpentine and 1,998,400 drums of gum tic coast. The report of Sir Walter rosin (520 pounds net weight each). Raleigh's first expedition to America in The in normal times sup- 1584 referred to "the great of plies the world with one-half its needs pine of species unknown to Europe for turpentine and rosin. Since 1938, until found in the New World." The the production of gum naval stores has report of the second expedition men- fallen oflF considerably. The industry in tioned once again "the trees that 1947-48 produced 294,028 of yielded pitch, tar, rosin, and turpen- turpentine and 828,128 drums of rosin, tine in great store." bringing a total return to the South of In 1608 eight Dutchmen were sent 39 million dollars. to Virginia to make pitch, tar, , The naval stores industry is rooted and rosin. Two years earlier, in 1606, in antiquity. It antedates the Christian the French were turpentine era in the Mediterranean countries. gum from the trees of Nova Scotia. In Early historians wTote of the process The Maine , Thoreau told about then used: How the natives gathered the tar burners of New England. One the or gums of the trees in that of the earliest acts of the Pilgrim region and cooked them in open pots Fathers was to request in 1628 that until a thick pitch was left in the bot- "men skylful in the making of pitch" tom; how they stretched fleecy sheep- be sent to them from England. The over the tops of the pots to catch Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Col- the oily vapors that arose from the onies produced great quantities of tar boiling gum, and then wrung out the and pitch from their beginning as wet fleece to recover the oils; and how colonies, as did all the other North the oils were used in many products, Atlantic colonies from Maine to New one of which was for for mum- Jersey. The first tar burners in New mies. Genesis records that Noah was England and later on in North Caro- commanded by the Lord: "Make thee lina used the dead and down wood, or, Naval Stores: The Industry 287 the dead down lightwood, which they cant role in merchant shipping. Naval found in large quantities in the virgin stores served as a tribute with w^hich forests all about them. we bought partial safety for our vessels Colonists began coming in large on the seas, especially in the Barbary numbers to North Carolina about States of North Africa. In 1815 the 1665 5 and tar burning, a practice which States, with force, overcame the pirates until then had been a New England of Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers, and , began to take hold quickly. ceased paying the tribute. The new settlers in North Carolina, moreover, soon discovered that the THE AREA OF PRODUCTION of gum abundant growth of southern yellow, naval stores has shifted through the or longleaf, pine was a more prolific years. The first change from New Eng- source of gum than the pitch pine of land southward came about when it New England. By 1700 the production was found that the trees of naval stores was an important part were better yielders than the pitch pine of the economy of North Carolina. As of New England. In 1850, North Caro- in New England, gum, tar, and pitch lina and South Carolina accounted for became established as accepted media more than 95 percent of the total of exchange in the payment of rent and American production. The Carolinas public dues. did not keep up this yield, and in 1947 So important did England consider they accounted for less than half of 1 her source of naval stores in the Col- percent of the total production. The onies that bounties and premiums shift w^as brought about by the clear were paid to producers to stimulate cutting of the virgin stands in those production and improve the quality of States without leaving enough the products. The bounties, which were trees for reproduction. Such exploita- designed to equalize the heavy freight tion of the virgin forests continued costs across the Atlantic in competi- southward and westward through all tion with the Scandinavian and other the South Atlantic and Gulf States European producers, continued to be into eastern Texas. paid until the beginning of the Revolu- As late as 1920, it was generally tionary War. In 1728 the British Navi- thought and ofíñcially predicted that gation Acts prohibited the Colonies within another 10 years gum produc- from shipping direct to any foreign tion in this countr}'^ would be practi- country pitch, tar, and the crude gum, cally at an end. That belief, probably along with other specified commodi- more than anything else, gave rise to ties. The laws required the routing of the development of the wood naval such commodities through English stores industry. Nature, however, has ports. Measures for the regulation of confounded the experts ; instead of the the industry and for the payment of failure of in the deep bounties were introduced by the Royal South, second-growth longleaf and Governor of North Carolina: In 1735, slash have abounded to an extent providing for inspection of the opera- that indicates that the production of tions; in 1736, prohibiting the en- gum naval stores can continue indefi-, croachment of tar burners on crown nitely. The major part of our pro- lands; and in 1764, regulating the duction the past several years has come quality and quantity of all tar, pitch, from about 150 counties in South and turpentine barreled and sold, even Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, requiring the producer's brand on all Mississippi, and Louisiana. Southern barrels. Georgia and northern Florida produce When the Colonies became a Nation more than 90 percent of the total. that w^as trying to establish itself in During the seventeenth and eight- world affairs and build up trade with eenth centuries, the crude gum was other nations, naval stores had a signifi- gathered in the woods, shipped to the 288 Yearbook, of 1949 eastern seaports of Wilmington, Phila- packed in barrels or drums, or in thick delphia, and New York, and forwarded bags for . to England for . The tech- A naval stores experiment station nique in the woods consisted in what under the supervision of the Depart- is known as the "boxing" system. By ment of Agriculture was established at that system, a cavity or "box" was cut Olustee, Fla., in 1932. The station into the base of the to catch and has developed better gum-distillation hold the crude gum as it flowed down methods and has done much to foster the trunk of the tree after scarification the establishment of large central dis- or "chipping," which, then as now, was tillation , an idea that originated performed with a chipping or hack with McGarvey Cline, a former direc- on each tree or "face" weekly from tor of the Products Laboratory. about March 15 until October or No- The first central was completed vember. The boxing type of operation by the Glidden Co., in 1934, in Jack- continued until the early part of the sonville, Fla. In 1948 about 30 such twentieth century. It was then found plants, strategically located through that, because of the smaller diameter the naval stores belt, processed more of the second-growth pines, some im- than 80 percent of all the gum. They provements would have to be made. have displaced all but about 100 of the Experiments conducted in 1901 and small old-time backwoods fire , 1902 by Dr. Charles H. Herty led to about 1,300 of which were scattered the adoption of the cup and gutter throughout the piney woods in 1933. system, which is being used. Ante- dating the of Dr. Herty, W. W. CENTRAL DISTILLATION means a more Ashe conducted experiments at Bla- uniform product, better packaging, denboro, N. C, in 1894 in an effort to and improved facilities for distribu- demonstrate the advantages of using tion. The central plants, by providing cups and gutters over the practice of a ready cash market, have opened the boxing the trees. way for the smaller owner of timber to The crude cast-iron retorts that were work his own timber rather than used in the early distillation process it to the old-time large commercial gave a poor quality of product because operators. The owner thus gets a better of the reaction from the iron and be- profit from this byproduct of his forest. cause no water was added to the gum. Forest conservation is another result. About 1834 -pot stills were in- The change to central distillation troduced. They were partly enclosed by has had a part also in breaking down brick work and the heat was applied the old factorage system of financing. directly from wood fires. Water was Because working out a turpentine place added to the gum ; when heat was ap- took many years, an operator rarely plied a separation of the gum took could get from the commercial place. The condensed vapors produced . Usually the large amounts of the turpentine, and the residue in the money required to set up and maintain still produced rosin. The turpentine, a commercial turpentine operation combined with water, was drawn off were supplied by a few large quasi- from the still and was passed through banking institutions known as factors, a simple dehydrator that contained who extended credit for the payment rock . After this separation, the tur- of on turpentine timber (usually pentine was run into barrels or tank for a minimum of 4 years), for the pur- cars for shipment, or into large tanks chase of , trucks, cups, tins, for storage. The melted rosin was then and for advances to pay wages. drawn ofi' from the base of the still and Most of the factors also operated passed through the wire strainers and v/holesale grocery and supply depart- layers of cotton batting attached to the ments from which food, stock feed, wire screen. The rosin, still hot, was , and other supplies were - Naval Stores: The Industry 289 nished to the operator. In turn, the op- In the steam- process, the erator would set up his own commis- stumps are hogged, or ground, and sary, from which he would dole out placed in heated digesters. Live steam rations to his woods and still workers. is introduced and the more volatile The factors were protected by a blan- components are carried on and con- ket mortgage and usually by an insur- densed. Later they arc refined by frac- ance policy on the life of the operator. tional distillation into steam-distilled The operator had to deliver all the wood turpentine and . The turpentine and rosin he produced to remaining shredded resinous wood is the factor as his selling agent. The de- treated with a -oil solvent, liveries were usually made to a storage which dissolves the rosin and the high- yard, where the operator would get a boiling products. The solution receipt to be turned over to is clarified and the solvent is evapo- the factor. rated, leaving a residue of wood rosin. Although the factor charged a liberal The extracted wood is used for or commission and initial storage and in- paper pulp. A variation of the steam- surance charges, his services as solvent process consists of first extract- agent were often simply paper trans- ing the turpentine, rosin, and pine oil actions. Under this system the factors with a suitable solvent, and then sepa- had a controlling influence on the en- rating those products by fractional dis- tire gum naval stores industry. Their tillation with steam. profits were large, but the they Sulfate wood turpentine is recovered took were great and many bad-debt by condensing the vapors that are re- losses were incurred. This feudalistic leased from the pulping digesters in the pattern of financing was bitterly criti- production of pulp from pine wood by cized, but it seemed to be the only the sulfate process of making paper. system that could be devised under the The crude byproduct is heavily con- circumstances; without it, the industry taminated with compounds, hardly could have survived. which are removed by chemical treat- Tar burning, which was practiced in ment and . The New England, prevails in a few places refined byproduct is marketed as sul- in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisi- fate wood turpentine. The spent cook- ana, the methods there being much the ing obtained in this method of same as in Colonial times. Lightwood making paper pulp, commonly called is stacked and covered with dirt (and liquor, is treated to recover a sometimes with sheet iron) to make a mixture of fatty and acids known . A hole is dug in the firm ground, as or liquid rosin. or, sometimes, a concrete base is pro- vided for catching the that OF 10,000-ODD PRODUCERS of gum, , flows from the slowly burning timbers. more than 7,000 are small gum farmers A residue of is left. who work less than one crop of turpen- The process has an improved, mod- tine faces on wood lots (a crop ern counterpart in destructive distilla- consists of 10,000 faces). Fewer than tion, in which the wood—pine stumps 2 percent are commercial operators and dead down lightwood—is placed who work more than 10 crops. In 1947 in a retort. Heat applied to the retort only 55 operated more than 20 crops. gives both a light oil distillate and a The old-time commercial operator heavy oil or pine tar oil distillate. The worked leased timber almost exclu- light oil distillate is refined to make sively; sometimes in the past a turpen- DD wood turpentine, dipentene, and tining operation would be made up of pine oil; the heavy oil distillate is re- leased timber from as many as 300 or fined to produce various types of oils 400 separate owners. Most of these . to meet specific needs for , larger producers' operations are now plasticizers, , pharmaceuticals. confined to large corporately owned 8()2U()2° -4Í)- -20 290 Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 tracts. One of the largest of these tracts phase of the industry; Turpentine and in the naval stores belt, for instance^ is Rosin Factors, Inc., of Jacksonville, the Suwance Forest of the Superior Fla., which for many years has been Pine Products Co., at Fargo, Ga. The a large factorage house and which has tract contains 209,000 acres of timber, since become a large distributor of tur- which has been efficiently managed for pentine in convenient and attractive more than 20 years. The naval stores containers; the factorage-dealer con- operations on the tract have been con- cerns of Taylor, Lowenstein & Co., of ducted by Harley Langdale, of Val- Mobile, Ala., and the Peninsula-Lur- dosta, Ga. Besides this acreage, Judge ton Co., of Pcnsacola, Fla., which oper- Langdale works other leased lands and ate central distillation plants: the fee-owned lands, and is regarded as the Columbia Naval Stores Co., of Savan- largest producer of gum naval stores. nah, Ga., which for many years was a More than 20 years ago the Sessoms large dealer and now Land & Co. acquired a tract operates several central distillation of about 80,000 acres in Clinch and plants ; James Fowler, of Soperton, Ga., adjoining counties of Georgia. Among who started planting forest trees on his those who joined Alex K, Sessoms, of 14,000-acre cropland in Cogdell, Ga., in establishing this tim- 1925 and is now a foremost individual ber- unit was Austin Gary planter of tree ; and the Gillis of the Department of Agriculture, to family, also of Soperton and among whom goes great credit for developing the pioneers in forest-. good practices in the naval Each of the pulp mills established in stores belt. The tract has been operated the South in the past several years has for naval stores by three brothers, Rob- acquired large tracts of timber to in- ert, Gordon, and Clarence Newton, sure a continuing supply of pulp wood. who are the third generation of New- The holdings range from 50,000 to tons to engage in the industry, and who 600,000 acres. It is believed that the now operate three large units in firms plan to lease the to ex- Georgia and one in Mississippi. perienced turpentine operators, who Another large holding is that of the will manage them properly, before final Tennessee & Iron Co. in southern harvesting. In that way the forests will Alabama. For several years it has been serve the multiple purpose of providing operated on a lease basis by the Stall- naval stores, poles, piling, and lumber, worth family of Mobile. besides ; complete utilization Another firm that has managed ex- of the timberlands will lessen the waste pertly large timber holdings is the that w^ould result from their use as a Brunswick-Peninsula Corp., of Bruns- single-crop operation. wick, Ga. It was founded by the late The gum naval stores industry has R. E. Benedict, a professional always been generally classified as a who had worked for the Forest low-wage industry. In public hearings and the Canadian Forestry Commis- in 1933 it was brought out that the sion, and M. L. Rue, who is now the average worker's income was less than head of the enterprise. They purchased $6 a week. As late as 1940, the average 110,000 acres of timberland 25 years wage of chippers was $7.50 a week; ago in Glynn, Wayne, Brantley, Ware, in 1948 it was about $32. and Clinch Counties in Georgia with Besides the increase in earnings, im- the main aim of producing naval stores. provements have been made in the past Among others who also have con- several years in the living quarters fur- tributed toward improved conditions nished the turpentine woods workers. in the industry are W. B. Gillican, of Instead of miserable cabins with only Homervillc, Ga., who, in a lifetime as- shutters for windows, many sociation with it, has exerted a whole- workers now live in better cabins that some influence on practically every have windows and electricity. Naval Stores: The Forests 291 MANY OF THE IMPROVEMENTS in the ing stock; from the nurseries in the methods of production, processing, and naval stores belt, many millions of seed- marketing gum naval stores have re- lings have been supplied to owners of sulted from experimental and turpentine timber. Interest is increasing work in the Department of Agriculture. in the establishment of planted turpen- Besides the ones I have mentioned, tine orchards. better chipping methods have come from demonstrations that the narrower JAY WARD, a native of Tennessee^ and lighter streaks will produce just as came to the Department of Agricul- much gum and will help conserve tim- ture as a marketing specialist with the ber. A method has been developed for Agricultural Adjustment Administra- the application of acid stimulants to tion in 1933. From 1936 until his re- freshly streaked turpentine faces to tirement in October 1948, he was in prolong the gum flow. With that de- charge of the Naval Stores Conserva- velopment came a bark-chipping hack tion Program, which was set up in 1936 and a satisfactory device for the appli- under the Soil Conservation and Do- cation of acid. Other experiments look mestic Allotment Act and adminis- to greater mechanization in turpentin- tered by the Forest Service. A graduate ing practices. Another project now in of Benton College of Law at St, Louis, progress seeks to develop a high-yield- he practiced law in Missouri and en- ing strain of turpentine pines. Under gaged in various business enterprises Federal-State cooperation, nurseries before entering the employ of the Fed- have been established to provide plant- eral Government.

NAVAL STORES: THE FORESTS CARL E. OSTROM, JOHN W. SQUIRES

The naval stores belt extends across importance. A large proportion of the the Coastal Plain from the Savannah rural people work in the woods, and get River to the Mississippi. It is a favored much of their fuel and meat from section for growing forest crops. Each them. acre of pineland can produce wood People in the area are especially products, gum naval stores, and forage. aware of the importance of forests to Although the soils in most of the area the future of the South. Residents who are relatively poor for field crops, the have watched slash pine stands or plan- long growing season insures growth of tations spring up under protection are trees. The level makes al- convinced of the importance of pine most every acre of dry land accessible forests to the future of their communi- for the easy removal of products. Tree ties. Nevertheless, it is quite clear that planting is cheaper and easier than these pine forests are producing less elsewhere in the country. than half as much as they could. It Forests occupy nearly three-fourths is obvious that doubling the size of the of the land area in the belt. Forest forest industries is the biggest thing activities dominate the lives of scores of that could happen in sections where counties and towns, especially in the forests already provide the greatest continuous forest areas of the "flat- source of income. woods," or lower Coastal Plain near The first steps in doubling the forest the coast. Rail and traffic runs production in the naval stores belt arc heavily to pulpwood, logs, poles, gum the rather elementary ones of fire pro- barrels, rosin drums, and stump wood. tection and tree planting. The size of Agricultural crops mostly are of minor that task is shown in figures for Florida,