48 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



and coUecti'd the moni'.v. It is only :i saiall business, but it is interesting. 

 The summer outings of the gatherers in the high mountain forests are 

 pleasant and healthful, and the profits are satisfactory. 



Naturally those who are interested in gathering galax are likewise 

 interested in seeing that no fires break out in that locality, because fire 

 ruins the gnlax beds. The result is that the tiny plant has been instru- 

 meutal in protecting the forests by creating a sentiment opposed to fires. 

 It shows how a very small thing may work for good. It would have taken 

 a great deal of preaching on the benefits of forestry to convince the 

 North Carolina mountaineers that there is anything in it for them ; but 

 a concrete example converted them. 



Synthetic Tannin 



Synthetic camphor, made principally of turpentine, has been on the 

 market for some years, and now synthetic tannin has appeared. It is an 

 English discovery, made by Dr. Edmund Stiasny, assistant professor in 

 the leather laboratories of Leeds, England. The new tannin has been 

 named neradol, and is made of tar and certain other ingredients. The 

 tar is passed through distillation processes and some of the products 

 are employed in making the tannin, but what the exact process is has 

 not been stated, except that "the synthesis is carried out by sulphonating 

 cresylie acid and combining it then with formaldehyde." The price of 

 neradol is $97 a long ton. It is said to be thirty per cent pure tannin. 

 Leather makers do not anticipate that it will immediately revolutionize 

 the tanning business, though it gives good results with certain kinds of 

 leather. It is not wholly satisfactory with other kinds. There is little 

 doubt that a long time will elapse before hemlock tanbark and tanning 

 extract made of chestnut will disappear irom rue markets. 



Fire as a Tool 



Civilized man occasionally goes back to the savage for lessons In 

 economy and efficiency. Tire has always been one of the most useful 

 tools that the savage could use. The American Indian hollowed tree 

 trunks by burning them, and made boats and canoes for navigating rivers 

 and lakes. He had no edged tools better than stone, bone or shell, and 

 they were practically useless in working wood. Necessity compelled him 

 to make use of fire where it would serve his purpose. For hundreds of 

 years the white man in this country has felt pity rather than contempt 

 for the poor Indian who was once forced to resort to the slow process 

 of fire in hollowing tree trunks. 



Probably, after all, the red man was not a subject for pity. At any 

 rate, a recent report made by James T. .Tardine, a grazing inspector in 

 the Department of Agriculture, places the Indian's work in a new light. 

 without so much as mentioning the Indian or giving him any credit for 

 ideas or methods. 



One of Mr. Jardine's duties is to look after the government's vast land 

 holdings in the West, particularly such lands as are leased to stockmen 

 for pasturage. He recently discussed the subject of watering places for 

 stock, and described the troughs provided, where thousands of sheep 

 repair daily to drink. Troughs used at the watering places are hollo\Yed 

 from the trunks of trees. The cost is a considerable item where large 

 numbers of such troughs have to be made, particularly when labor is 

 scarce and expensive, as it is in some of the remote Western mountain 

 regions. 



Mr. Jardine experimented with trough making, with ax and adz, and 

 also with the old fire method as practiced by Indians from time im- 

 memorial. The remarkable thing is that the Indian method has been 

 found the fastest and most economical, except when conditions for burn- 

 ing are unfavorable. 



The method is simple. Long logs arc selected for troughs, and along 

 their upper sides, nearly from end to end, small fires are kindled. They 

 are kept going on several logs at once, and one man can attend to them. 

 He sees to it that the fire does not blaze up and consume the logs, but 

 that it is confined to the channel along the top, gradually deepening it 

 until It becomes of the desired width and depth. The trough is then 

 done, although some finishing touches may be added with an ax or adz. 



That was the identical method pursued hundreds of years ago by 

 Indians in making their dugout canoes. 



Norwegian Wood Flour and Sawdust 



Wood fiour, an important raw material in the manufacture of linoleum 

 and dynamite and which also has many other uses, has never been manu- 

 factured in the L'nited States on a large scale. For some reason its 

 production in this country never has met with much success, the prin- 

 cipal reason probably being that those who have engaged In this line have 

 not succeeded in getting the proper grinding stones and turning out a 

 flour sufficiently fine and at a price to meet Norwegian competition. 

 And the fact that this competition cannot be met is in the lace of a 

 stiff ocean freight rate, Insurance and a certification of the shipment in 

 accordance with the custom requirements. 



Norwegian wood flour is sold by the native or short ton weighing 

 1,000 kilos, equivalent to 2,204.6 pounds and by the English or long ton 

 weighing l,01fi kilos, or 2.239.9 pounds. The price per English or long 

 ton in November at Christianla was from 40 to 50 crowns, or $10.72 to 

 $13.40. The price to the consumer at which this flour is laid down in 

 New York is considerably higher. The freight rate is approximately 

 $5 15 per ton, with an additional $1 a ton for insurance. Added to this 



is the $2.50 paid by the seller and charged to the buyer for the certifica- 

 tion of the shipment. Assuming a price of $12.06 a ton, the average be- 

 tween the quoted price of $10.72 and the higher price of $13.40, and 

 adding the freight, insurance and certification charge, a ton of Nor- 

 wegian wood flour in New York costs $20.71. Since practically all of 

 the material is utilized outside of New York an additional freight charge- 

 is applicable, so that the material substantially costs the buyer $22 

 a ton. It might be supposed that American producers could come near 

 meeting these figures, but they have not so far. 



The Norwegians also get a good price for their sawdust, considerable- 

 of which finds its way into the United States for use in linoleum plants 

 in the course of a .vear. For instance in Christianla, Norway, sawdust 

 is sold by measure at a pi'ice of 30 ore (8.04 cents) per hectolier (2.84 

 bushels), a hectolier weighing from 13 to 15 kilos (2S.66 to 33. OT 

 pounds) depending of course upon the kind of lumber from which the 

 sawdust is the by-product. 



African Mahogany Popular 



The sales of African mahogany in the Liverpool market for 1912 were 

 highly satisfactory. The receipts were larger than for any preceding year,^ 

 except 1908. yet so strong and active was the demand that shipments 

 met with prompt sale as they arrived. 



There was an excellent attendance of buyers at the auction sales, who 

 keenly competed for all grades. As a result a high level of prices was 

 established, the late sales of the year seeing prices at their highest, which 

 is worthy of note, as It was during the last few months that the import 

 was at its heaviest. These enhanced values applied not only to logs of 

 the best quality, but also for lower grades, the minimum wood, which 

 was composed chiefly of logs in very defective and faulty condition, realiz- 

 ing from six to seven cents per foot, while figured logs ranged up to 

 S2.55 per foot. 



I'resent indications point to a continuance of the active inquiry that 

 now exists in the Liverpool market for Africali mahogany, and also that 

 current rates will be well maintained. 



Planting Norway Poplar for Pulp 



The Delaware and lliidson Railroad Company has recently purchased 

 .too. 000 Norway poplar cuttings for planting on burnt-over lands with 

 the idea of growing pulp-wood. The cuttings used will be fourteen 

 inches long and will be spaced 0x6 feet on various kinds of land. While 

 the work is largely experimental, the company believes it can harvest 

 I»ulp material every fifteen years. 



The Norway poplar is much like the Carolina poplar and is considered 

 a horticultural variety of the common eottonwood. Attention was first 

 called to it by Professor Green of the Minneapolis .-Vgricultural College, 

 and a number of plantations of It have been made in different parts of 

 the country. It is claimed that the tree is hardier, grows more rapidly, 

 and has less taper than the Carolina poplar. On one plantation in 

 Nebraska it is said that fence posts were cut from four-year-old trees 

 that measured fifteen Inches in circumference three feet from the ground. 



Tie Plugs 



Whenever a spike Is pulled out of a crosstie the hole that is left 

 alTords excellent opportunity for the entrance of water carrying spore 

 and disease germs to the interior. To overcome this the holes are now 

 commonly filled with wooden plugs. These plugs are used by the mil- 

 lion and are for the most part sawed by special machines from slabs 

 and scraps from the mills and shops. Some railroads make some of their 

 own plugs in the shops or employ the spare time of the section men in 

 splitting them out of old ties. The common size is about four and a 

 half inches long, five-eighths ,of an inch square in cross section and with 

 one end wedge-shaped like a spike. For untreated ties white oak or 

 other durable wood is preferred for plugs. Any wood can be used 

 where the ties are treated since the plugs are placed in gunny sacks 

 and impregnated with the preservative along with the ties. 



Fuel Values of Different Woods 



Occasionally theory runs counter to practice and suffers in consequence. 

 .V good example of this is furnished by certain tests of the fuel value of 

 woods, recently made by H. S. Belts, an engineer in the government's 

 forest products laboratory at Madison, Wis. 



The theory has long been held and has seldom been questioned that 

 the fuel values of dry woods are in direct proportion to the weights of 

 the woods, after certain allowances have been made for ashes and resins. 

 That was the theory on which Sargent worked nearly thirty years ago 

 in computing his tables of the fuel values of 300 American woods. He 

 reduced the sample to an oven-dry condition, weighed it accurately, then 

 burned it and weighed the ashes. Using these weights as factors he 

 calculated the value of the wood as fuel. His tables are the most com- 

 plete that have ever been made of the fuel values of American woods, 

 and they have generally been accepted since they were first published by 

 the government In volume 9 of the tenth census, in 1884. 



Mr. Betts does not repudiate the theory followed by Sargent, but 

 accepts it for what it is worth. He qualifies his acceptance, however, 

 by saying that "thoroughly liquefied tissue has the same heating value 

 for all species of trees, but the varying forms of tissue found In the 

 different species, the addition of resin and otiior materials, and the 

 water present in varying amounts, cause dilTercnt heating values. All 

 these factors should be taken into consideration." 



