482 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the same subject. Considerable attention has been devoted to the 

 simplification of the methods for testing paper and to the study of 

 methods. The facilities for the testing work have been so improved 

 since moving into the new chemical laboratories as to render the 

 equipment inferior to none in this country for this class of work. 



Paper and paper-making materials. — Cooperative studies on 

 rarely used paper-making materials have been made with the office 

 of the crop technologist, Bureau of Plant Industry. The yield and 

 quality of fiber from diiferent varieties of cornstalks, the proper way 

 of cooking and bleaching the fiber, and the most feasible methods of 

 utilizing the extract obtained in cooking the stalk have all been inves- 

 tigated. These experiments are not for the purpose of establishing 

 the fact that paper can be made from cornstalks which has been 

 proved long since, but to devise methods which will place the process 

 on a profitable basis. Several other new raw materials have been ex- 

 amined as to their suitability for paper stock, but with negative results 

 from the practical point of view. The problems involved in the 

 utilization of new materials are, as has been previously pointed out, 

 primarily those of cost of raw materials rather than of the actual 

 making of paper. The work in progress has for its object the reduc- 

 tion of the cost of raw materials through methods for utilizing the 

 enormous amount of waste which now occurs in paper making. The 

 warning sounded in last year's report is repeated — that in the exploi- 

 tation of materials not now in general use great care should be exer- 

 cised in order that the losses incident to hastily considered and 

 incompletely developed processes may be avoided. 



Turpentine and rosin. — Investigations on the production and na- 

 ture of turpentine, both gum spirits and wood turpentine, have been 

 continued and analytical methods for the differentiation of one from 

 the other and for the detection of adulterants in either have been 

 studied. 



Samples of turpentine taken in connection with the administration 

 of the food and drugs act, June 30, 1906, have been examined and a 

 number found to be adulterated or misbranded. Samples of turpen- 

 tine and rosin were also examined for the several departments. The 

 waste in the production of these products is very large, both in the 

 woods and at the still. These problems have all been studied during 

 the year. 



The question of the grading of rosin has for many years been a 

 bone of contention between the consumers, middlemen or factors, and 

 the producers, with the result that the farmer or producer has been 

 the loser partly through unavoidable but also through avoidable 

 errors in the methods of grading now in vogue. This has occurred, 

 although several of the chief rosin-producing States have laws mak- 

 ing it obligatory that each barrel of rosin be inspected by a sworn 

 inspector. Under present conditions the producer does not know 

 what grade of rosin he has made until he receives the report of the 

 factor through whom it is sold. To the end that the producer may 

 know the grade of each barrel of rosin he makes, and in this way 

 have a check on the grading of his product on the market, an accu- 

 rate but simple and inexpen'sive method for sampling and grading at 

 the still, which it is believed will add thousands of dollars annually 

 to the income of the turpentine farmer, has been devised. Investi- 



