Turpentine industry in the South — collecting gum from pine trees, circa 1940

About this postcard

Workers in a stand of tall southern pines collect resin, with clay cups and barrels set at the base of scarred trunks and a mule-drawn wagon waiting on the sandy track. The card's own caption names the scene as the turpentine industry of the South, gathering gum from pine trees. Gum naval stores — chipping a "cat face" into longleaf and slash pines and catching the oozing resin in cups or boxes for distillation into turpentine and rosin — was a major seasonal industry across the pine belt from Virginia to Texas into the mid-20th century. The photograph is credited to the U.S. Forest Service.