[Sidenote] The manner of obtaining turpentine in Carolina.

Turpentine is the gum in a liquid state of that species of the pine tree
called Pitch-pine, extracted by incision and the heat of the sun, while
the tree is growing. The common manner of obtaining it is as follows:
about the first of January the persons employed in making turpentine
begin to cut boxes in the trees, a little above the ground, and make them
large or small in proportion to the size of the tree; the box of a large
tree will hold two English quarts, of a middling tree one, and of a small
one a pint. About the middle of March, when the weather becomes warm,
they begin to bleed, which is done by cutting about an inch into the sap
of the tree with a joiner's hatchet; these channels made in the green
standing tree, are framed so as to meet in a point where the boxes are
made to receive the gum; then the bark is peeled off that side of the
tree which is exposed to the sun, that the heat may extract the
turpentine. After bleeding, if rain should happen to fall, it not only
condenses the sap, but also contracts the orifices of the vessels that
discharge the gum, and therefore the trees must be bled afresh. About
fourteen days after bleeding the boxes will be full of turpentine, and
must be emptied into a barrel. When the boxes are full, an able hand will
fill two barrels in a day. A thousand trees will yield at every gathering
about two barrels and a half of turpentine, and it may be gathered once
every fourteen days, till the frost comes, which chills the sap, and
obliges the labourer to apply to some other employment, until the next
season for boxing shall approach. The oil of turpentine is obtained by
distillation; and rosin is the remainder of the turpentine, after the oil
is distilled from it.

[Sidenote] And of making tar and pitch.