52 FOREST CULTURE AND 
hundredths from the wood. Local powder-mills are 
sure to be established here, especially as sulphur is 
readily obtainable from New Zealand. ‘The increase 
of manufactures is also certain to augment the de- 
mand for wood and coal hereafter. For many indus- 
trial purposes charcoal is far preferable to fossil coal. 
Coals from various kinds of Victorian wood are placed 
before you. 
It was my intention, while explaining the industrial 
resources of the forest, to show also how tar, vinegar 
and spirits might be obtained by heating wood in 
close vessels, at a temperature of three hundred to 
three hundred and fifty centigr., under a process call- 
ed dry distillation. But I must reserve this subject 
for another occasion; for, however simple the proced- 
ure may be regarded, as far as the actual performance 
of this artisan’s work is concerned, yet the chemic 
processes, which are active in this form of decomposi- 
tion, are of the greatest complexity ; they present, 
moreover, according to the wood employed and ac- 
cording to the degree of heat applied, some peculiar- 
ities, which as yet have not been fully investigated, 
holding out hope for the discovery of some new dyes 
and other educts. It will be scarcely credited by most 
of this audience that the paraffin, which now large- 
ly enters into the material for the candles of our house- 
holds, is not only obtainable from bituminous slates, 
turf and fossil coal, but is also produced by the heat- 
ing of wood under exclusion of air. This substance 
is furthermore a hydrocarbon of great purity ; and its 
cheap preparation, along with other substances from 
our native wood, may possibly become a local source 
of immense wealth, For obtaining information on the 
