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Selections From Journal of B. L. C. Wailes
23
average two barrels of tar to the Cord. Four or five days and nights are required to burn one of the smaller size, and great watchfulness is required to prfevent the admission of Air. Tar sells from $1.50 to 2$ on the ground & is generally worth from 2.50 to $3.00 per barrel in N. Orleans.
After passing Mr. Kimball?s, passed through the abandoned pinerys [sic] which were worked a few years since by Col. Tarp-ley of Jackson & Mr. Jas. Pritchard.9 They were abandoned two years since; sinca when the fire has passed through the trees and burned and charred the trees to such an extent as to destroy them for [the] future. The trees, I understand, last for about six years for collecting pitch, after which they are no longer productive & die. It would be supposed that they would be entirely drawn of all the resin by this constant draft upon them. On the contrary, it seems to enrich them, & the trees after this treatment become exceedingly rich in turpentine & fitted for making tar.
Stopped at Gainesville (S18T8SR16W) to dinner. Called at the Clerk?s Office. The Clerk being absent and there being no manuscript Map in the County [Hancock], could not get much information. Met with Mr. Pierce, the present representative from the County, and had considerable conversation with him & others as to the Character and resources of the County.10
Proceeded in the afternoon to Dr. Robt. Montgomery?s, three miles via Napoleon, (S29T8SR16W). Doct. M. was the member from the County to the late Convention & was the Union Candidate. He resided formerly at Canton, in Madison County, & has been here several years cultivating an extensive peach orchard planted in 1846, about 30 acres, commencing with about 2,000 trees from New Jersey. Has planted trees since from various quarters. Few have succeeded as well with him as the seedling from the neighborhood (or the Creoles). His trees have been attacked extensively by the Cuculia & he is now cutting them down by the acre.11 He considers his experiment as a failure & is
9	Colin S. Tarpley was a Hinds County planter, Democratic politician, and judge of the High Court of Errors and Appeals. For a biographical sketch refer to De Bow?s Review, XII (1852), 333-34.
10	S. B. Pearce was the representative from Hancock County in the state legislature in 1852.
11	The cuculia was an insect that did widespread damage to the orchards of the deep South during the 1850?s.