Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/513

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GATHERING NAVAL STORES.
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and the other is "second virgin dip." It is from these virgin dippings that the best and highest-priced grades of resin are obtained.

In the following years the turpentine is known as "yellow dip," and it becomes darker colored, less transparent, and less liquid every year. In the fourth and last year the turpentine is very dark in color, and yields resin or rosin of the lowest grades, ranging from a deep brown to almost black and opaque.

If you look at the market reports, under the heading of Naval Stores, you will find certain technical terms and mysterious letters. The letters designate the different grades of rosin, as follows: W G, window glass; W W, water white, the lightest grade; N, extra pale; M, pale; K, low pale; I, good No. 1; H, No. 1; F, good No. 3; E, No. 3; D, good strain; C, strain; B, common strain; A, black.

Besides you will find a number of terms peculiar to the turpentine industry. Down South you hear the natives speak of the

Beginning the Work in a Virgin Forest: Boxing.

great pine forests as "turpentine farms," although some people refer to them as "turpentine orchards." The word "crop" has a special meaning. When a turpentine farmer speaks of his crop he means ten thousand boxes. This will be about five thousand trees, as from two to four boxes are cut in full-grown trees.