1 -^4 MANUrACTUKES OF RUSSIA. 



Piiie wood is almost the only material used, the most resinous parts being the 

 stump and roots. In order to facilitate the uprooting and increase the resinous qual- 

 ity by decomposition the stumps are allowed to remain some 10 or 20 years in the 

 ground before removal, and the best parts of the tree are the long vertical roots. 

 The roots are dried in the air or even in special drjdng rooms, as it is a well 

 known fact that the products are not of such good quality when damp material is 

 used. When using the trunks of trees the distillers readily select those parts which 

 are accidentally tilled with resin especially where the fungus cecediitm j)i^ti has 

 injured the tree and produced an amassment of resinous matter. Not very long 

 •Ago, even in the government of Vladimir, they used to fell a tree in order to 

 obtain ono resinous log, but the increased cost of wood has rendered it unprofitable 

 to use timber in this way for distillation. Eotten old fallen trees are also itsed, and 

 these may be of great value, if they are of ancient growth as is the case in the 

 woods of the Sarovsk desert in the government of Nizhni-Novgorod. In order to in- 

 crease the resinous qualities of the wood it is the custom in the governments of 

 Archangel and Vologda to strip the pines ; this is done by tearing a strip of bark 



2 or 3 arshines long from the growing tree, first on one-quarter of the girth, and 

 the following year on the next quarter and so on, in consequence of this the tree 

 continually dries up and resinous matter abundantly comes out of its wounds ; this 

 is scraped off in the form of white resin or wax and the lignin is used for distil- 

 lation. 



The products of dry distillation are various, the most important being tar, an 

 oily liquid consisting principally of a solution of pitch in turpentine, oil and creo- 

 sote. The further treatment consists in separating the bitumen from the volatile 

 oils. When distilled the pitch remains behind in the form of a hard body and the 

 volatile oils carrying over a portion of the resinous matter condense in the cooler 

 in the form of turpentine, red, yellow or white, according to its degree of refine- 

 ment. The latter is obtained hy completely eliminating the tar, but the creo- 

 sote cannot be entirely removed and therefore the best colourless turpentine has a 

 disagreeable smell. Turpentine without any odour can only be made from white resin. 

 The hard product, corresponding to pitch in the distillation of tar is colophany or 

 common rosin. Russian colophany, being carelessly prepared,, is not of good quality 

 and therefore instead of supplying this article to other countries, a considerable 

 quantity is imported, as the development of the soap boiling and paper making 

 trades necessitates a large consumption of it. Of late years, however, serious atten- 

 tion has been given to the proper way of making rosin. In 1872 the Department 

 of Appanage, recognizing the importance and utility of this branch of trade, organ- 

 ized extensive works in the district of Velsk, government of Vologda, where espec- 

 ial attention was given to the production of tar. There is no doubt that owing to 

 the introduction of such regular methods of collecting tar in the forests of northern 

 Russia, and since the production of rosin has been founded on more rational bases, 

 foreign rosin will not only be thrown out of use in Eussia, but later on will even 

 be replaced by the home product on the foreign markets. 



The rosin produced from tar is a liquid, called souroritsa, or tar water. From 

 this liquid metilov spirits and wood acetic acid are produced, more frequently the 

 latter. Wood acetic salt is fabricated not only in large chemical works, but in 



