Canadian Forestry Journal, November, 1919 



455 



It would appear, therefore, that Scientific For- 

 estry and the wood-using industries of Canada 

 are camping on the same lot. Not only the 

 lumberman and the pulp man, but the forester 

 quite frankly recognize that there can be no 

 forestry in this country without prosperous 

 private enterprises; there is no room for any 

 forestry except that which is "economically 

 sound." Ah, there's what rubs! Whose economy 

 comes first? A logging jobber skins a tract of 

 white pine that feeds a mill that maintains a 

 town. His feat is economically faultless -for 

 the jobber. And it is economically hollow and 

 politically crazy for the ruined municipality and 

 for the combination of municipalities called the 

 state. Is it impossible then, to tone up private 

 exploitation of forests so as to attain the great 

 ideal of a perpetual timber yield, so as to inject 

 permanence mto lumbermg and permanence mto 

 the whole machinery of its production and dis- 

 tribution? The trump card of state control over 

 the forest properties is permanence, the rights 

 of Tomorrow in an estate that belongs as much 

 to Tomorrow as Today. The state's first con- 

 sideration is, however, in more or less conflict 

 with the tradition of Canadian lumbering. But 

 commercial lumbering is open to evolution — an 

 evolution that will finally establish the principle 

 of permanent forests, so operated as to secure 

 our annual lumber cut out of earned interest 

 (new growth) rather than from capital account. 

 The lumber industry in Eastern Canada is not 

 averse to this principle, but it has no inclina- 

 tion to usurp a state function; it has no special 

 call to fix public policy. The state, meaning in 

 this matter, the Provincial Government (or the 

 Dominion Government on Prairie Province 

 lands) is the obvious leader in placing the lum- 

 ber supply of the provinces on a secure basis. 

 The job does not call for violence, nor confisca- 

 tion; it calls for an investigation of forest con- 

 ditions, patient experimental work in devising 

 remedies, and province-wide mandatory appli- 

 cation of such new methods of forest operating 

 as may be called for. 



MAKING PAPER FROM DEAD LEAVES. 



Both in Europe and in America there has been 

 a sharp rise in the cost of paper, and this has 

 been peculiarly critical in France. Even before 

 the war France imported half a million tons of 

 paper pulp yearly from Austria and Germany, 

 or about half of the whole amount used. The 

 cutting off of the supplies from the Central 

 Powers, and the severe deforestation due to the 



war, have made paper pulp so scarce and so 

 expensive that many periodicals have been 

 forced to suspend publication. It is now pro- 

 posed to make use of fallen leaves to supply this 

 lack of raw material. M. Edmond Perrier, of 

 the French Academy of Sciences, presented be- 

 fore that body an account of the successful ex- 

 periments along this line of Madam Karen 

 Dramson. 



The process is very simple, rapid and inex- 

 pensive; the leaves are first crushed, which re- 

 duces the blade to powder, which is carefully 

 separated from the ribs and veins. It is the 

 latter which form the raw material for paper 

 pulp. They are subjected to a somewhat rapid 

 lixiviation and are then washed and bleached, 

 whereafter the pulp is ready for use. The leaf 

 powder which remains is useful in two ways. It 

 has a high food value, since it contains the 

 digestible and nutritious parts of the letf after 

 the removal of the cellulose. As a food for 

 cattle its nutritious value is almost equal to 

 that of hay, especially when mixed with mo- 

 lasses and compressed into cakes. The leaf 

 powder may also be used as a combustible. For 

 this purpose it may be compressed into bri- 

 quettes, either with or without being previously 

 mixed with charcoal powder. 



Madam Dramson recommends, however, the 

 practice of dry distillation, by means of which 

 she obtained a comparatively pure porous char- 

 coal, rich in calories (6,500 to 7,000 cal.) and 

 easy to agglomerate. The proces salso yielded 

 an excellent tar, having all the qualities of the 

 so-called Norwegian tar, as well as acetone and 

 pyroligenous acid. One thousand kilograms of 

 the leaves yielded 250 kilograms of pure carbon 

 (or 500 kilograms of edible powder), 30 kilo- 

 grams of tar, one kilogram of pyroligenous acid 

 and 600 grams of acetone. According to a re- 

 cent estimate by the Director of the School of 

 Grignon, France, produces annually between 

 thirty-five and forty million tons of dead leaves. 

 It is calculated that only four million tons would 

 required to furnish the paper pulp required in 

 an average year. The economic importance of 

 the question is evident from the fact that in 

 1913 France paid $20,00.0000 for the paper 

 pulp imported from the Central Powers. 



It is believed that the collection of leaves can 

 be done by women, children and war cripples. 

 The leaves can be transported to the paper mills 

 in compressed blocks, but it would be better 

 to build factories on the borders of great forests, 

 so as to eliminate the cost of transportation. 

 — Scientific A mcrican. 



