30 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



as for large tracts, although small tracts can 

 be examined only where the purchase of a con- 

 siderable total of land in the same neighbor- 

 hood is under consideration. With regard to 

 the price which can be paid, Secretary Wilson 

 indicates that the policy of the commission 

 will be to make the money available go as 

 far as possible. "For the most part," he 

 says, "we shaU have to buy eut-over lands 

 or lauds without much merchantable timber. 

 I want to make it plain at the start that I 

 shall recommend this class of land only when 

 it is offered very cheap. Proffers of land at 

 exorbitant prices wUl not be considered. I am 

 frank to say that I hope to see a great deal 

 of public spirit manifested by land owners. 

 I expect some lands to be offered at merely 

 nominal prices in order to aid the government 

 in getting well started upon this wise and 

 necessary policy. 



' ' The lands acquired by the government will 

 be held as national forests. They will be 

 protected from fire and the growth of the 

 timber wOl be improved as much as possible. 

 The lands will not be game preserves, but will 

 continue to be open to the public for hunting 

 and fishing in accordance with the laws of the 

 state in which they are situated. All their 

 resources will be available for the public 

 under reasonable conditions. Another point 

 which I v/ish to emphasize is that we are not 



going to take from people their homes in order 

 to put the lands into national forests." 



The areas within which offers of land are 

 desired are set forth in detail in the circular 

 of the Forest Service. The approximate loca- 

 tion of these areas is as follows, although 

 Secretary Wilson warns those wishing to offer 

 land that they should first secure the circular 

 in order to see whether their holdings fall 

 witliin the more detailed areas therein indi- 

 cated : in New Hampshire, lands in the White 

 Mountain region; in Maine, lands in a portion 

 of Batchelder's Grant in Oxford county; in 

 Maryland, a portion of the western part of 

 Garrett county; in Virginia, parts of Shen- 

 andoah, Eockingham, southwestern Warren, 

 western Page, northern Bedford, eastern 

 Botetourt, southern Rockbridge, southern 

 Washington, Smyth, and Wythe counties, and 

 western Grayson county; in West Virginia, 

 l^arts of Pendleton, Hardy, Randolph, and 

 Pocahontas counties; in Tennessee, parts of 

 northeastern Johnson county, Cocke, Sevier, 

 Blount, and Monroe counties; in North Caro- 

 lina, parts of Wilkes, Caldwell, Wauta'iga, 

 Buncombe, \aneey, McDowell, southwestern 

 Mitchell, Haywood, Swain, Jackson, Hender- 

 son, Transylvania, Macon, Clay, Cherokee, and 

 Graham counties; in South Carolina, a part 

 of Oconee county; in Georgia, parts of Eabun, 

 Habersham, and White counties. 



Utilization of SaWdust in Germany 



Important commercial results have not been 

 obtained in Germany up to the present time 

 from the manufacture of briquets from saw- 

 dust, according- to Consul Generals A. M. 

 Thackara and R. P. Skinner, as stated in the 

 Daily Consular and Trade Reports, although 

 numerous patents have been granted for the 

 purpose and efforts made to apply certain of 

 the processes. The earliest and most extensive 

 applications of the various methods are prob- 

 ably the following: First, the briqueting of 

 sawdust preliminary to its being charred or 

 distilled; second, the manufacture of fuel 

 briquets from charred sawdust and from the 

 dust and refuse of the charcoal industry; 

 third, in more recent years, the briqueting of 

 sawdust proper for fuel purposes. 



The refuse from sawmills, which is about 

 half sawdust and half slab pieces, etc., say 

 the consul generals, must generally be dis- 

 posed of at the place of production, as its 

 comparatively low value would not permit of 

 its economical transportation for any great 

 distance. As much of the refuse as possible 

 has heretofore been used as fuel for the boil- 

 ers furnishing the steam for running sawmills 

 and on tram roads for transporting logs, but 

 the greater part has usually been burned di- 

 rectly without profit. It has even been found 

 necessary, at times, to provide and maintain 

 special ovens or furnaces in order to get rid 

 of the waste products. 



To avoid expense and to dispose of the 

 sawdust at a possible profit, attempts have 

 been made to use sawdust in the production 

 of wood alcohol and charcoal. These efforts 



have met with comparative failure because 

 the sawdust in Germany, coming mostly from 

 the coniferous wood varieties, produces but 

 little wood alcohol and pyroligneous acid, or 

 even comparatively little tar and other dis- 

 tillation products, so that the resiJting saw- 

 dust charcoal has but little commercial value. 

 Technical reasons also hindered the distilla- 

 tion. 



The report goes on to say: "The delay 

 in the manufacture of fuel briquets from saw- 

 dust is doubtless due to the many industrial 

 applications of wood alcohol and charcoal in 

 the past, together with the comparative scar- 

 city and high prices of wood from which these 

 products may be obtained." Another rea- 

 son is that the briqueting of hard and soft 

 or brown coal, an even peat, is so highly de- 

 veloped in Germany that formerly sawdust 

 briquets could not compete favorably with 

 other fuels, especially since the caloric 

 strength of the sawdust briquets is compara- 

 tively low. Several patents for briqueting 

 sawdust directly as fuel have been granted, 

 and certain firms manufacture machines which 

 are more or less adapted for this purpose; but, 

 4S stated before, important commercial re- 

 sults have as yet not been attained. The pur- 

 pose of the different processes, generally, is 

 to make the sawdust more available as fuel for 

 the boilers of the sawmiUs, although it is 

 also intended to produce the briquets for 

 household and other industrial purposes. 



A briquet machine especially intended for 

 briqueting sawdust is that known as the Ar- 

 nold system press and is intended to be used 



in conjunction with a sawmill plant. The 

 sawdust is drawn by air suction through heat- 

 ed tubes and elevators into a revolving drying 

 cylinder which is composed of an outer and an 

 inner jacket, between which a circulation of 

 hot steam is maintained, by which the tem- 

 perature of the sawdust is raised to approxi- 

 mately 40 degrees centigrade or 104 degrees 

 Fahrenheit. This temperature, besides reduc- 

 ing the original moisture contents of the saw- 

 dust from about thirty-five per cent to about 

 twelve per cent, also partly dissolves the resin 

 and tar products, which act as a binder after 

 the sawdust has been transmitted to the press 

 proper. 



The heated sawdust is carried by means of 

 rotating shovels in the drying cylinders into 

 elevators which raise it to a secondary dry- 

 ing apparatus in the form of a heated box 

 placed over the press. This is open at the 

 top and is heated by means of steam circula- 

 tion in the double bottom of the drier. The 

 remaining moisture is here evaporated and 

 Ihe sawdust is forced through a wide funnel, 

 also heated, into the mouth of the briquet 

 press. The latter is a so-called toggle-joint 

 machine, the lever of which makes twenty- 

 four strokes per minute and at each stroke 

 carries enough sawdust to make one briquet. 

 The briquets are pressed out at the end of the 

 mold into a metal cooling trough from which 

 they are transported to the storage rooms. 



Another briqueting system which is pri- 

 marily intended and is being used for briquet- 

 ing iron ores and metal waste of foundries 

 imd machine shops without binding material, 

 is that of A. Ronay. This system also pro- 

 vides for a preliminary drying of the saw- 

 dust. Several patents are also extant for 

 briqueting sawdust with the addition of spe- 

 cial binding materials but as far as known 

 no technical applieaton of these patents has 

 as yet been made. 



Oak as Adapted to Cooperage 



The buyers of cooperage stock raise two points, 

 in which they claim red and white oak differ 

 as^ to adaptability for their specific purpose. One 

 of these is in the structure of the wood and 

 the other in the sap. The sap of red oak tim- 

 I)c-r possesses certain properties which are at 

 variance from that of the white oak, and even 

 .imong the different species of white oak there 

 seems to be considerable variation. The most 

 discriminating buyers in the foreign market are 

 insistent upon the delivery of a certain species 

 of white oak, claiming that they get from it 

 those acids or qualities of sap which best com- 

 bine with the liquid contents of the packages to 

 effect the most desirable coloring and flavoring 

 i>f the beverages. The wood structure Itself is. 

 however, of prime importance, and it is this 

 characteristic which makes white oak more de- 

 sirable than the red variety in the cooperage in- 

 dustry. Red oak is more porous and. as a con- 

 sequence, greater difliculty is experienced in 

 I'l operly filling the pores with glue or silicate 

 lo render the wood impervious to moisture. The 

 glue seems to penetrate right through. While 

 it is probable that some day a filler will be put 

 <.u the market which will successfully over- 

 come this difliciilty and that chemical coloring 

 and flavoring of beverages will be more highly 

 developed, still at present white oak is in far 

 greater demand for most kinds of packages to 

 contain liquids of any value. 



