62 North American Forests and Forestry 



the primitive process of the old-fashioned kiln, but 

 better methods are now being introduced. The 

 making of wood alcohol and other products of dry 

 distillation is an increasing business, and while the 

 market for such wares will always be limited, the 

 demand must increase with the progress of the in- 

 dustrial arts in which such things are used. The 

 ancient industry of making pitch and the like is 

 flourishing in many parts of the southern pine 

 regions, as is the making of turpentine, which is 

 produced mostly from the long-leaved pine of the 

 South. While the forest products just mentioned 

 have been known to man for thousands of years, 

 modern industrial civilization has added a number 

 of entirely new forms of utilizing forest products. 

 One of these is the making of excelsior, the narrow 

 strips of shavings which everybody now knows as 

 a packing material. The making of boxes and 

 packages of all kinds, from heavy dry-goods cases 

 to the little thin-walled berry boxes, has also be- 

 come an important industry within quite recent 

 years, and opened a market for many kinds of 

 wood, such as poplar, which was formerly consid- 

 ered quite worthless. But the most astonishing 

 case of the rise of a new industry is the making of 

 wood pulp for paper, which was quite in its infancy 

 twenty years ago, but now produces goods of the 

 value of more than a hundred million dollars annu- 

 ally. There are two methods of making wood 

 pulp, one by mechanical grinding, the . other by 

 the application to the wood of various acids and 



