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Show OBTAINING SWEET-BIRCH OIL Industry Hat Become Quite a Matter! of Importance In Some Section of the South. Sweet-birch oil has been made In this ccuiniiy for many yeHrs and Is oblalned from the wood and bark of the black birch. The oil Is a product of steam disiillailon plants, where, In uddiiion to the twigs, bark and young sprouts of t lie birch, the entire tree is sometimes used. Mure picturesque n-re the me! hods employed by the southern mountaineer. A rough camp and crude dlslillery are erected near a supply of birch. According to persons per-sons who have seen both kinds, the "siill" Is not unlike the type somtn times employed. In the same locality for making '''blockade" whisky. The onnip is anything which will protect the workmen from Ihe weather. The bark Is peeled from the tree and the rough outer portion Is scraped off. It Is then broken to cook it. A lire is started and the resulting steam Is led through a pipe and finally condensed. The heavy oil gathers in a receptacle, while I In? waier runs off. Three or four men compose (he usual crew. One of these spends all of his time at ihe still, while the others gather and prepare the bark. Abeut twenly-two bushels of hark are used for every run and It is salri that I Ills amount yields approximately four pounds of oil.. Three or four runs a week can be made. The method has been in useful use-ful many years, and most of the accessible ac-cessible birch in the valleys has been cut. Each year the oil makers have to go farther back in the mountains. Very often the stills are located In isolated places which can be reached only on fuol, and all of the material lor the plants and camp are carried iu ou the backs of the mountaineers. |