WAR-TIME USES OF FOREST PRODUCTS 



615 



purposes in the war. iMillioiis of gunstocks are made 

 from American walnut, which is the best wood yet found 

 for the part. A new rifle, it has been estimated, is re- 

 quired monthly for every man at the front. In the mod- 

 ern infantry weapon the wooden stock is prolonged to the 

 end of the barrel, which means just so much more wood 

 needed in its manufacture. So great, in fact, has been the 

 demand by gun makers for seasoned walnut that it has 

 often been necessary to use birch and other woods as 

 substitutes. 



With characteristic foresight, the Germans brought 

 portable sawmills with them into France, and have utilized 

 their enemy's forests to supply their need for timber 

 at the front, while reserving their own forests for home 

 demand. The development of trench warfare, when vast 

 armies of men dig themselves in on fronts hundreds of 

 miles long, calls for an amount of timber for trench walls, 

 floors, and braces that is difficult to estimate. Millions 

 of feet of lumber are required also for temporary build- 

 ings behind the fighting line and for housing non-com- 

 batants made homeless by the fortunes of war. Still 

 more goes into bridges, wharves, and the like. High ex- 

 plosives have made it possible for a retreating army to 

 destroy stone and steel structures behind them in short 

 order, and such structures the pursuing army must have 

 the means of quickly replacing. Wood is, in most cases, 

 the only material that will answer the purpose, and it 

 served the German army in good stead during the pursuit 

 of the Russian army through I'oland. 



Turning from the materials needed for actual fighting 

 to the no less important ones required for proper care of 

 the wounded, we find Germany, fully prepared for Eng- 

 land's embargo, making a soft, absorbent surgical cotton 

 from wood cellulose. Two factories in Sweden also are 

 making this substitute. Slings are made from tough 

 crepe paper, and splints from fiber boards. 



Wood is also contributing to the personal comfort 

 of the men at the front. Russian soldiers are wearing 

 paper shirts made in Japan, where such clothing has 

 been in use for many years. The chief raw material for 

 the manufacture of paper is, of course, wood pulp. Paper 

 clothing is warm and cheap, and special water-proofing 

 processes are overcoming its tendency to tear when wet. 

 It may be discarded when soiled, an advantage to the 

 soldier from the standpoint of hygiene. The Germans 

 and Austrians, mainly the poorer classes of the civilian 

 population, use paper vests, socks, and handkerchiefs. 

 Blankets and coats are padded with cellulose wadding. 

 So many paper articles, in fact, are produced for the 

 comfort of the people of Germany and Austria as to lead 

 the Socialist organ, Vorwaerts, to declare, " To be with- 

 out wood is almost as bad as being without bread." 



To insure the presence of every factor that tends to 

 eventual success, a country at war needs to maintain 

 its economic conditions as nearly as possible at their 

 normal level. Products of the forest play an important 

 part in many peaceful industries which must be kept 

 going in war time. 



Methyl alcohol, the other product besides acetic acid 



obtained from the destructive distillation of hardwoods, 

 Ihas a multitude of uses. For one thing, it is essential 

 in the manufacture of many medical preparations. For 

 another, it is employed in the making of aniline dyes, 

 the scarcity of which is being felt throughout the world. 

 It is the source, also, of formaldehyde, one of the safest 

 and most efficient antiseptics known, for the manufacture 

 of which large quantities of wood alcohol are exported 

 to Europe. 



The longleaf pine forests of the South furnish 90 

 per cent of the world's supply of turpentine and resin. 

 In normal times turpentine is used mainly as a solvent 

 in the arts. It is entirely possible, however, should the 

 need arise, to make from turpentine a synthetic camphor 

 as good for practical purposes as the natural product. 

 In the event of the blockade of the Pacific Coast, this 

 should be the means of preserving our celluloid industry, 

 which now consumes the greater part of the 5,000,000 

 pounds of Japanese camphor imported annually. 



Resin, the use of which in shrapnel has already been 

 mentioned, is employed mainly in the manufacture of 

 cheap soaps and as a size for paper. So acute has become 

 the scarcity of resin in Germany that the Prussian Min- 

 ister of Agriculture has suggested such measures for 

 increasing the supply within the empire as distilling resin- 

 ous wood and collecting the oleoresin which exudes from 

 trees peeled by deer. Prices being paid for resin by the 

 Central Powers are almost fabulous. Curiously enough, 

 a substitute for paper size, recently proposed by a Ger- 

 man scientist, has wood tar as its base. 



In connection with the use of resin as size for paper 

 should be mentioned the fact that in time of war the 

 demand on the forests for print papers deserves serious 

 consideration. Of the 6.000 newspapers and periodicals 

 in Germany and the 3,000 in Austria at the beginning 

 of the war, it is estimated that some 1,100 of the German 

 and 900 of the Austrian have since suspended publication 

 either through inability to obtain paper or because of its 

 prohibitive price. Germany has always imported large 

 quantities of pulp wood from Sweden and Russia, so that 

 cessation of importation of Russian pulp wood and Amer- 

 ican resin is a partial cause of the trouble. On the other 

 hand, German war literature has been augmented by some 

 7,000 books and pamphlets since the beginning of hos- 

 tilities; and it is the invariable rule in all countries that 

 the demand for newspapers and periodicals of all kinds 

 increases enormousl}' in a time of national crisis. The 

 total daily circulation of French newspapers before the 

 war, for example, amounted to approximately 7,000,000 

 copies. Their circulation has now increased to 15,000,000 

 daily, in spite of the suspension of a number of journals. 

 The bulk of print papers is made from spruce and balsam 

 fir. Experiments at the Madison Laboratory of the Forest 

 Service have shown, however, that satisfactory news- 

 print paper can be made from some seven or eight other 

 American woods, which places the United States in a 

 position of preparedness, at least so far as the production 

 of paper is concerned. 



The binder twine, used everywhere in the United 



