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AVith all the advance in knowledge in recent times regarding 

 wood, some things remain to be found out. Mj'steries still allure 

 the investigator and still tantalize him. For example, the most 

 learned botanist on earth does not know why sap circulates in a 

 tree. Men who have studied the subject know a great deal about 

 the circulation of sap. They Icnow the course it takes, the roads it 

 travels, the channels through which it passes, the paths it follows, 

 what vessels receive it, and the gateways and trap doors by which 

 it passes from one stopping place to another; but what makes it 

 go? Nobody can tell. 



Some of the,forces are named, and to that extent are known. 

 Capillary attraction is one of them. This causes liquids to flow 

 through minute tubes, like oil rising in a lampwick. There is 

 little question that this force helps send the sap up a tree triink 

 through the pores of the wood, but it will lift a liquid only a few 

 inches, or a foot or two at most. Its part is mighty small in lifting 

 sap to the top of a tree a hundred feet high. 



Then there is a force or process called osmosis. It is the process 

 by which one liquid will pass through a thin membrane to mix 

 with another of a different degree of concentration. It is supposed 

 to have something to do with the movement of sap from one wood 

 cell to another; but no one has yet been able to figure out how it 

 can account for the lifting of the sap long distances, from the 

 base to the leaves of a tree. 



A third force acts in sap circulation. It is called root pressure, 

 but just what that is, nobody knows. It lifts sap a little higher 

 than it is raised by capillary attraction, but is totally inadequate 

 to lift it to the top of a tree. If all three forces are added they 

 are still insufficient to accomplish the work done in every tall tree 

 that grows. Something else is working, but it is not known what. 

 Some would call the unknown factor a "vital force" — something 

 perhaps similar to the heart beat of an animal; but since nobody 

 has ever discovered a thing of that kind in trees, the suggestion 

 is untenable, and the ultimate cause of sap circulation remains a 

 mystery. 



There are unknown things connected with the structure of wood. 

 They reach this side the realms of chemistry where so many 

 mysteries exist. Microscopists say that a cubic inch of wood is 

 more complex in its structure, more wonderful in its plan and 

 architecture, than the largest skyscraper in the world. There are 

 tubes, arches, pillars, doors, and galleries, fitted together and 

 related in the most wonderful manner. The naked ej-e never sees 

 the details. They are so minute that they lie beyond the range 

 of unaided vision. All that is seen is a mass, but nothing that is 

 of iiarticular interest, more than a common piece of wood. 



Cut off a splinter no larger than the hundred-thousandth part 

 of a cubic inch, and place it under a compound microscope. 

 Details spring into existence. The mysteries of wood structure are 

 revealed — part of them. Single out one of the smallest of the 

 hollow tubes and examine it for details. It is a cell, one of the 

 countless billions which go to make up a tree. It is hollow, with 

 a shell that looks like glass. In fact, it may be compared to a 

 long, very slender bottle with the ends sealed. It may be dyed 

 some bright color and can then be seen better. 



This might be considered as the smallest element in wood struc- 

 ture, but it is not. It is composed of parts. By increasing the 

 power of the microscope, concentrating intense light upon the 

 object, and applying certain means of enlargement, the cell may 

 be viewed in size as large as a railroad spike. It is then shown 

 that its wall is threefold, three concentric laj'ers. Each appears 

 to be composed of a ribbon-like substance wound spirally. The 

 spirals of one la.yer run one waj', those of the next run opposite, 

 a sort of ' ' cross-gartering. ' ' 



About there the end of human knowledge on the subject is 

 attained. The microscope will reveal no more. Its powers have 

 reached their limit, or seem to have done so; and the investigator 

 is balked in his efforts to pry into the secrets of wood structure. 



There is something beyond which he cannot reach. What are those 

 spiral ribbons which constitute the cell walls composed off Are 

 they made up of cells so infinitesimally small that they lie as far 

 beyond the microscope's power as the ordinary cells are beyond the 

 power of the naked eye? No man knows. The threshold to the 

 identity of real wood substance seems to be reached, but the door 

 has not yet been opened by science, nor the inner mysteries 

 revealed. 



Chemistry takes up the investigation where the microscope leaves 

 off; but chemistry tears things to pieces. It destroys structure. 

 What men would like to know is, what is the ultimate physical 

 structure of wood? What is the smallest component part into 

 which it can be divided, and still be wood? The spiral bandages 

 which lap and overlap this way and that to constitute the trans- 

 parent cell wall, is evidently not the last step in subdivision of 

 fiber before it melts, as it were, into its elements and becomes 

 amenable only to the laws of chemistry. Imagination may reach 

 down deeper into the mystery, but science, which deals with cold 

 facts, here strikes an obstacle which for the present bars its further 

 progress. 



New Zealand Hardwoods Might Prove 

 Satisfactory in America 



Far-off New Zealand is the latest country to which forest experts 

 have turned in seeking substitutes for the valuable American woods 

 used by the furniture, cooperage, implement and similar wood-using 

 industries. 



Manufacturers in this country have been facing a constantly de- 

 creasing supply of available hardwood timber for a number of 

 years and the time is already at hand when efforts must be made 

 to look to the preservation of the American species most in demand 

 and to scour foreign lands for trees which may prove valuable as 

 substitutes. 



Seven diffcTent New Zealand hardwood trees have just been put 

 through a series of tests by the United States Forest Service in co- 

 operation with the University of California in the timber testing 

 laboratory at Berkeley. The trees showed up remarkably well in com- 

 jsarison with white oak, which is one of the strongest woods in the 

 United States, developing under test when in an air dry condition 

 a crushing strength of 8,500 pounds per square inch and a bending 

 strength of 1.3,100 pounds per square inch. 



Four of the seven New Zealand woods tested developed a bending 

 strength even greater than white oak and three of the woods showed 

 a greater crushing strength. The New Zealand woods found to have 

 a bending strength as high or higher than oak were the Black Maire, 

 Matai, Puriri, and sUver pine, while the first three of these have 

 in addition developed a greater crushing strength than oak. The 

 figures showed that Black Maire has more than one and one-half 

 times the bending strength of oak. 



These strength tests of seven of New Zealand 's most valuable tim- 

 bers may prove of the greatest benefit to certain American manufac- 

 turing interests if it is found that the islands have enough of the 

 various species to import a little to this country. 



The United States will not be able to depend on imports to any 

 great extent, for wood users realize that there is an approaching 

 shortage of timber in other countries as well as this and each nation 

 must cultivate and protect its own forests. It is therefore likely 

 that planting experiments will be made with many of the valuable 

 foreign woods. 



A bill is now before the legislature of New Jersey calling for a 

 bond issue of $1,000,000, to be used in the purchase of 100,000 acres 

 of idle land for a state forest. The bonding of a state for such 

 purposes is believed by many to be a sound business proposition. 

 The state forests now owned by New York and Pennsylvania are esti- 

 mated to be worth at present from two to four times what they cost 

 eight to fifteen years ago. 



