200 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



articles of the highest utility are produced. National reserves are 

 being sacrificed in the wasteful production of inferior products. 

 American paper is beautiful in appearance, and American shoes are 

 tastefully made, but too frequently both lack durability and utility. 



These investigations have pointed out the ways in which better 

 leather and paper may be made at less expense. It has been shown 

 that certain operations of tanning — notably bleaching, adding for- 

 eign material, and scraping off the surface of the leather — are not 

 only useless, so far as the quality of the leather is concerned, but 

 are positively harmful to it, and make it cost more. It is important 

 that these facts should be more generally known, in order that the 

 squandering of the national reserves may be curtailed and the people 

 protected from inferior products. 



Investigations in progress have shown that it is practicable to 

 reduce the weight or bulk of paper used in this country from 10 to 25 

 per cent. It has been demonstrated that lighter and thinner papers 

 can be made that are in every way superior to those now generally 

 used. The annual cost of paper can be reduced from $2,000,000 to 

 $3,000,000, and the equivalent in raw materials and labor conserved. 



The leather and paper laboratory is in a position to propose speci- 

 fications for paper for various purposes, and to show how the cost 

 of paper may be reduced and the quality improved. In several in- 

 stances the saving on mailing charges alone has paid the extra 

 cost of higher grade papers suggested by the leather and paper 

 laboratory. 



PRODUCTS OBTAINED BY THE DESTRUCTIVE DISTILLATION OF WOOD. 



Extensive investigations have been made by the Bureau of Chem- 

 istry looking toward the recovery by distillation of turpentine from 

 dead trees, sawdust, stumps, and other refuse of the lumber industry. 

 Owing to the constantly widening field for the use of turpentine and 

 the gradual reduction of the supply of gum spirits of turpentine the 

 price has steadily increased. As a result the adulteration of tur- 

 pentine has been all too common. The results of the investigations 

 have been published in Circular 36 and in Bulletins 135 and 144. 



It has been demonstrated that by utilizing the stumps, dead trees, 

 sawdust, and other waste material of the lumber industry not only all 

 the turj^entine used in this country can be profitably produced, but 

 that all the tar pitch, rosin spirits, rosin oils, methyl alcohol, acetate 

 of lime, and acetone can be extracted from the same waste products. 

 In addition there could be material left for making large quantities 

 of ethyl alcohol, paper, oxalic acid, and other chemicals. The com- 

 mercial imj^ortance of these facts together with processes of manu- 

 facture are fully set forth in Bulletin 144. 



