246 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



experimental work is to be found in Canadian Forestry Journal, 1916, 

 pp. 809-11. 



Notwithstanding the difficulties of freighters, Sweden maintained 

 fairly well in 1915 its export to Great Britain of chemical pulp to the 

 amount of 382,000 tons, and of mechanical pulp of 543,000 tons, while 

 an increase of import in matches is' recorded equal to the total importa- 

 tion from all countries before the war. 



After years of study and experiment, artificial wood has been 

 produced, says the American consul at Lyons, by French experiments. 

 The process consists in transforming straw into a solid material 

 having the resistance of oak. The straw is cut into small pieces and 

 reduced to a paste by boiling. Certain chemicals are then added. 

 When the paste has been reduced to a homogeneous mass, it is put 

 into presses, and planks, beams, and moldings are readily made. The 

 new material can be sawed like natural wood. It makes a good fuel, 

 emitting little smoke. The statement that this artificial wood is espe- 

 cially adapted to the manufacture of match sticks makes the invention 

 a particularly welcome one. 



In Canada, according to the "postal censor, food production values 

 brought the largest returns, $377,000,000. But, if purely manufactured 

 goods are considered, forest products take the highest rank with a 

 total valuation of $197,000,000, of which $74,000,000 is for paper; 

 while iron and steel products amounted to only $119,000,000. 



The European war is responsible for the establishment of a new 

 wood-using industry in Russia, namely, the manufacture of butter 

 containers. Formerly the material for this purpose was imported 

 chiefly from Germany, Austria, and Denmark, and reached consider- 

 able proportions, since the production of butter is an important indus- 

 try in Russia and Siberia. The material was ordinarily imported in 

 the form of barrel staves and bottoms packed with other things, par- 

 ticularly agricultural machinery, and was. therefore usually secured 

 quite cheaply even at considerable distances in the interior. Such 

 imports were admitted free of duty in order to encourage the produc- 

 tion of butter in Russia. When the outbreak of the war put a 

 stop to' these importations, attempts were made to manufacture 



