CHAP. cxnr.

CONl'fER,®. Pl'NUS.

2223

for tar, lampblack is formed on the cover of the furnace; but a superior kindis made from the straw, &c., used in straining the resin, which is burned forthe sole purpose of obtaining this pigment. The apparatus employed forthis purpose consists of a furnace, a chimney, and a small chamber, or box,for collecting the soot. The furnace is about 2 ft. 6 in. wide, 3 ft. or 4 ft. long,and 2 ft. 6 in. high ; and it is usually set in brick. On each of the long sides,this furnace has an opening near the bottom, which can be shut at pleasure,by means of a little door attached to it. The furnace has a brick chimney,made almost horizontal, to conduct the smoke into the chamber, or box.The chimney is from 14 in. to 16 in. long, and 12 in. or 13 in. broad and high.At the place where the pipe of the chimney terminates, is constructed achamber, or box, into which the pipe should enter some inches, so as to carrythe smoke into its centre. This chamber is generally about 12 ft. square, and9 ft. high in the roof; there is a door on one side, and in the upper part, orceiling, there is an opening 5 ft. or 6 ft. square. The walls of the chamberare either lined with thin planks of wood, or plastered very smooth ; and thedoor is fitted closely into a groove. Over the opening in the roof is placeda flannel bag, supported by rods of wood in the form of a pyramid, and com-posed of four pieces of coarse flannel sewed together. When the lampblackis to be made, a little of the straw through which the resin and tar have beenstrained, and some of the other refuse, are put into the furnace, and lighted,fresh straw impregnated with tar being strewed over the fire as fast as theother is consumed. The smoke passes into the chamber, and deposits its sooton the walls, and on the flannel bag, from both of which it is detached, afterthe whole of the straw and refuse has been burned, by striking the outsidesmartly with a stick. The flannel pyramid acts as a filter to the lighter partof the smoke, retaining the soot, and permitting the heated air to escape intothe atmosphere. The door of the chamber is then opened, and the lamp-black, being swept out, is packed in small barrels made of the wood of thespruce fir, for sale. In the Landes, the furnace and chimney are in the openair, and only the chamber is covered with a tiled roof; but in Germany thewhole apparatus is constructed in a barn-like building, about 24 ft. long, by12 ft. wide, and 10 ft. high. (See Hartig’s Lehrbuchfiir Forster, as quoted byBaudrillart.) In Du Hamel’s Traite des Arbres et Arbustes, art. Pin, he tellsus that lampblack is sometimes made, in Paris and other cities, by burningthe black resin in a kind of lamp, with a tin tube attached to serve as a chimney,the end of which tube is fixed in a close box, with an opening in the top, sur-mounted with a flannel cone, as before described.

Turpentine is rarely made from the pinaster, as it is very inferior to thatproduced by the silver fir. Oil of turpentine is, however, procured bydistilling the galipot, or raw'resin, obtained from the tree, with water.The oil ascends with the water, from which it is afterwards separated; andthe residue is the colophony, or black resin, of the shops. The tar pro-duced from the pinaster, which is very inferior to that of the Scotch pine,is called in France, goudron des Landes, or goudron de Gaze. When thetrees have yielded all their resin, they are cut down, and the thickest parts ofthe trunk and roots cut into billets, about 2 ft. long and 2 in. square, whichare piled up over an iron grating, and covered with clay at the sides, andburnt much in the same manner as has been already described (p. 2174.)for procuring tar from the Pinus sylvestris.

In Britain, it can hardly be considered advisable to plant the pinaster forits timber, in any situation where the Scotch pine or the larch will grow;and, even if it were profitable to employ the tree in the production of resin,our summers are probably not sufficiently warm to produce that secretion inany quantity. As an ornamental pine, the pinaster holds the first rank; andno plantation, where pines are admissible, ought to be without it.

Soil, Situation, Propagation, Sft\ A deep dry sand, or a sandy loam on adry bottom, suits this tree best; and, according to Malesherbes and Rosier, andall the French authors who have written on it, it abhors chalk, and every de-

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