Tapping The Pines

The extraction of raw turpentine and tar from the southern longleaf pine--along with the manufacture of derivative products such as spirits of turpentine and rosin--constitutes what was once the largest industry in North Carolina and one of the most important in the South: naval stores production. In a study that weaves together business, environmental, labor, and social history, Robert B. Outland III offers the first complete account of this sizable though little-understood sector of the southern economy.