flow's the best but the smell's the worst = flow of the sap from the trees

turpentine on Encyclopedia.com
turpentine, yellow to brown semifluid oleoresin exuded from the sapwood of pines,
firs, and other conifers. It is made up of two principal components, .
www.encyclopedia.com/html/t1/turpentn.asp

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Note added at 4 hrs 15 mins (2005-11-02 04:30:42 GMT)
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He had 5 chippers, 7 pullers and 5 dippers and a wood-chopper. All the men off to work, John McFarlin straddled his horse, got one for me and we began riding the wood. Talking about knowing his business! The foreman can ride a “drift” and with a glance tell if every “face” on every tree has been chipped.

First he rode a drift of virgin boxes. That is when a tree is first worked, it is a virgin box for three years. That is the finest rosin. The five men were chipping away. The chipper is the man who makes those little slanting cuts on pine trees so that the gum exudes, and drains down into the box. He has a very sharp cutting tool that heavily weighted in the handle and cunningly balanced so that he chips at a stroke. The company pays a cent a tree. We stopped and watched Lester Keller chip because he is hard to beat anywhere in the world. He often chips 700 or more trees a week.
http://www.floridamemory.com/OnlineClassroom/Zora_Hurston/tu...