From the same pine trees tar and pitch are also made, but by a different
mode of operation. "For extracting tar they prepare a circular floor of
clay, declining a little towards the centre, from which there is laid a
pipe of wood, extending almost horizontally two feet without the
circumference, and so let into the ground, that its upper side may be
level with the floor: at the outer end of this pipe they dig a hole large
enough to hold the barrels of tar, which, when forced out of the wood,
naturally runs to the centre of the floor as the lowest part, and from
thence along the pipe into the barrels. Matters being thus prepared, they
raise upon the clay floor a large pile of dry pine-wood split in pieces,
and inclose the whole pile with a wall of earth, leaving only a little
hole in the top, where the fire is to be kindled; when that is done, and
the inclosed wood begins to burn, the whole is stopped up with earth,
that there may be no flame, but only heat sufficient to force the tar out
of the wood, and make it run down to the floor. They temper the heat as
they think proper, by thrusting a stick through the wall of earth, and
letting the air in at as many places as they judge necessary. As to
Pitch, it is nothing more than the solid part of the tar separated from
the liquid by boiling."

As Carolina abounds with this kind of pine trees, vast quantities of
pitch, tar, and turpentine might have been made in it. At this early
period the settlers, having little strength to fell the thick forest and
clear the lands for cultivating grain, naturally applied themselves to
such articles as were in demand in England, and for procuring which
moderate labour was requisite. Lumber was a bulky article, and required a
number of ships to export it. Naval stores were more valuable and less
bulky, at the same time that the labour necessary to obtain them was
easier, and more adapted to European constitutions. The province as yet