EVALUATION OF WOOD PRESERVATIVES 131 



with particular reference to the American scene. The works of Boyce,^^ 

 Baxter^" and Hubert ^^ should be consulted for general information on 

 wood-destroying fungi and the pathology of timber products. Kaufert" 

 prepared a concise bibHography of pertinent articles in 1949. For a 

 fuller coverage the book by van Groenou, Rischen and van den Berge 

 will be found most stimulating. 



Much of the European work on the testing and application of wood 

 preservatives has been summarized in challenging form by the investi- 

 gators at the Berlin-Dahlem testing station. ^^ In this memorial volume, 

 the first paper, by Schulze, Theden and Starfinger, is a compilation of 

 the results of comparative laboratory tests of wood preservatives by the 

 agar-block method. So much work has been done that the ingenious 

 graphical summary table is about 12 feet long; and even then the authors 

 have omitted many results because the conditions of the standard test^^ 

 were not observed. Becker^^^^ brings up to date the results of testing 

 insecticides in the second article; Becker,^^^^^ in the next paper, summarizes 

 tests for termite control; and Becker and Schulze^^"^^ in the fourth article 

 cover laboratory tests of preservative materials for the control of marine 

 borers. Six additional articles on subjects directly related to wood pre- 

 servation complete an excellent supplement to the Mahlke-Troschel- 

 Liese book already cited. The emphasis is, somewhat naturally, centered 

 on the work of the Berlin station. 



Rennerfelt and his colleagues^' ^^' ^^ are conducting a series of labora- 

 tory, decay chamber and test plot experiments in Sweden, aimed at 

 evaluating wood preservatives for use in that country, and at possible 

 correlation of experimental results with actual experience. 



Bienfait and Hof^^ are working in Holland on what appear to be the 

 broadest test post experiments in Europe at the present time, under 

 both land and water exposure conditions. Their tests of 10 preservatives 

 and some 3350 posts of Douglas fir, Scotch pine, European larch, Sitka 

 spruce, poplar and willow rival Bell Telephone Laboratories' installa- 

 tions in four test plots at Gulf port. Miss., Orange Park, Fla., Chester, 

 N. J., and Limon, Colo.'^' ^'' ^^ and the Forest Products Laboratory 

 installations in Mississippi.^^ Bienfait and Hof, like Rennerfelt, have 

 been using the standard European agar-block test in their plan for 

 correlation of laboratory and field results. No report on the Holland 

 tests has appeared since 1948. 



Narayanamurti and his associates'^ in their first interim report on 

 laboratory and field tests of creosotes of Indian origin present the results 

 of some fifteen years work at the Forest Research Institute at Dehra 

 Dun, indicating from still another quarter the compelling force that is 



