WOOD INDUSTRY. 1 2') 



Yaroslav and other governments it is an industry of the jieople. In the district of 

 Kineshma, government of Kostroma, there are about 30 small peasant fabrics, where 

 wood powder (dry acetic lime) is piuduced from wood acid b^' a process of dry dis- 

 tillation of birch wood. The manufacture of wood acid has greatly developed since 

 the industiy began several years ago, as much of this acid is used in the chintz 

 manufactories. The product is prepared according to regular and scitiutitic methods 

 and is therefore of good quality. 



As to the technical means used fjr producing tar they are, in many localities, 

 very primitive: the tar is burned in ditches dug in the earth, and very often much 

 of the tar serves at the same time as fuel. Little by little more improved methods 

 are adopted, namely, tiie Icorchdzhnl (earthen pot), the kazani (kettle), thus giving 

 the name to the processes. In former times earthen pots, set in the ground, were 

 used, and later, iron kettles set in the ovens came into use. The latter has become 

 the predominating metliod at the tar works, although it is often replaced by 

 another, where tar is produced in kettles of sheet iron, set at different angles in 

 the ovens. 



Although the tar industry is almost exclusively in the hands of the peasants, 

 nevertheless, it has shown great improvements in recent years in technic, in the 

 construction of the apparatus and condensers, as also in other economic processess, 

 among which may be mentioned the use of other material for fuel, especially coal. 

 This development has been attained by the peasants themselves, as learned technol- 

 ogists have paid little attention to the tar industry. 



Still more independent is the occupation of making pitch, an industry that is 

 especially Eussian. In spring the thin upper bark is stripped from birch trees, either 

 when the trees are standing or after they are felled; by means of distillation in 

 simple apparatus, in many places by burning the wood in ditches, pure pitch is pro- 

 duced. It differs from tar by the complete absence of turpentine, contains less creo- 

 sote and much more parafline. As birch bark is much dearer now, pure pitch cannot 

 be used for greasing leather and for other home necessities. Therefore, the Russian 

 peasant has invented another surrogate as a substitute in leather dressing, which 

 differs very little in its exterior from pure pitch. It is called poZof/nc/ij/c (half-pitch), 

 and is produced through distillation of tar mixed with some birch or aspen bai'k. 

 This product has lately attained great development, especially in the forest regions 

 of Eussia; thence it is sent to the steppes and is called dc<jot. 



The statistics of the tar industry are rather complicated. It is estimated, 

 however, that the Eussian foi'ests produce yearly about 4,000.000 pouds of pure 

 pitch and of polovinchik, about 2,000,000 pouds of tar, 150,000 pouds of resin and 

 60,000 pouds of turpentine, to the value of 8,000,000 roubles, including the charcoal, 

 produced at the same time. This industry consumes yearly about .'320,000 cubic sagenes 

 of stumps and roots (osmol), about 100,000 cubic sagenes of wood and 2.000,000 

 pouds of birch bark, so that the total consumption of wood amounts to 600,000 cubic 

 sagenes, that is, the yearly growth of 1,500,000 dessiatines of forest. 



