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Recently, we had a very large evergreen tree cut down in our front yard. This tree was only a seedling when I planted it more than 50 years ago. I had mistakenly planted the seedling too close to the house, and through the years it was necessary to cut off branches that were touching the house.
The tree cutters cut the trunk and branches into smaller pieces and hauled all away. There were several small branches left behind and I carried them to my truck. When finished I noticed and felt that my hands were black and sticky from the pitch
This reminded me of how the evergreen trees played an important part in our country's history. In colonial times, Britain had the strongest navy in the world because of its great wooden ships. These warships were so large that each required a main mast, measuring four feet at the base, 120 feet tall and an absolutely straight trunk. It wasn't long before all of England's trees suitable for a ship's mast were cut down.
England began importing masts from Russia, Prussia and Sweden, however, these imported masts were made of riga fir and had to be pieced together to make a main mast. England feared that depending on foreign powers to keep her navy afloat could spell disaster for the Royal Navy.
After we became one of England's colonies, their problem seemed solved because our giant white pine trees were perfect for masts. In 1605, captain George Weymouth sent the first American white pine tree back to England to be used for a mast by the Royal Navy.
King George sent men to Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire to put his mark on these giant trees, which would be used for his navy. The mark that was put on by a broad axe was in the shape of an arrow and known as the King's Broad Arrow.
During the gathering storm of the American Revolution, the colonists were becoming upset with the many laws and taxes imposed on them by the English Parliament, and they began protesting. One way they protested was to chop down and burn the trees marked with the King's Broad Arrow. The colonists even cut down some of the giants and shipped them to England's enemies.
In 1761, the king retaliated by stating that anyone cutting down a tree with the mark of the King's Broad Arrow would forfeit their land grant; also anyone turning in a violator would automatically receive the land grant of the lawbreaker.
While dressed as Native Americans, the colonists retaliated by cutting the trees at night. The king then responded, saying that anyone cutting trees in disguise would be flogged, however, this did not deter the colonists. British agents were sent by the king to drive loggers from their homes and burn their saw mills.
This led the colonists to enact the Swamp Law, which simply meant that no British agent would be safe if not accompanied by British troops.
If the trunk of a pine tree is cut or injured, it will weep glistening tears known as resin, pitch or gum. Resin is a honey-like mixture of hard resin and liquid turpentine. The pine tree, which uses this resin to help heal wounds, also has the ability to create an extra flow of resin to a wound by creating new resin canals above and below the injury.
This ability to create an extra flow of resin has been valuable to humans. The turpentine industry is based on this emergency response of the pines. By putting carefully planned gashes in the pine tree, which was called the turpentine tree, the resin can be gathered much like the sap from maple trees.
Severe and frequent wounding could kill a pine tree, however, reasonable tapping once or twice a week is harmless and can be continued for many years. The total weight of the resin collected could be more than the weight of the entire tree.
Most conifers have resin canals but those of the pines are more efficient than those of other conifers. The resin is known as oleoresin, and each species of pine has its own particular oleoresin chemistry.
This chemical difference caused quite a stir during the beginning of our Civil War when the Union forces were cut off from their normal turpentine sources in the south. This led to the production of turpentine in the forests of California, with resin taken from the ponderosa pines and sometimes mistakenly taken from the jeffery pines, which resembled thepPonderosa pines growing in the same area.
Ordinary turpentine would be distilled from the ponderosa pines, however resin mistakenly collected from the jeffrey pines caused a big problem. The jeffrey pine's pitch contains heptane, which is the same highly inflammable heptane that is found in petroleum as it is pumped from oil wells.
Firing a still loaded with pitch from the jeffery pine was compared to building a fire under a gasoline tank. Heptane had to be distilled very carefully.
In 1924, when the gasoline industry was trying to take engine knock out of their gasoline, they needed a supply of heptane for research work. Once again the jeffrey pines were tapped. The octane rating scale for measuring the knocking quality of gasoline comes from the jeffrey pine.
Today, there is a less complicated and cheaper method of testing motor fuels.
Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.