178 UTILIZATION OF FOREST FRUITS— IMPREGNATION 



PARAGRAPH XLII. 

 UTILIZATION OF FOREST FRUITS. 



(A) BEECHNUT OIL. Mast years of beech occur, according to climate, every 3 to 8 years. The 

 nuts are gradually dried, slightly roasted, peeled and cleaned of shells; then either ground, applying moderate 

 heat, or pounded in mills by stampers.. The oil oozing out is strained and placed in a coo! room (in 

 earthenware vessels), where the clean oil forms a top layer to be poured off gradually. 



The residue is pressed into cakes and used as feed for stock. 

 Two hundred pounds of dry beechnuts yield 5 quarts of oil. 



(B) OLIVE OIL. Olive oil is obtained from the fruit of Olea Europea by crude grinding and pressing 

 processes. 



(C) CHESTNUTS, pecans, walnuts, acorns. The chestnut yields, in certain sections of France and 

 Italy, the daily bread of the natives. 



The food value of American chestnuts, pecans, and walnuts is beginning to be realized. 

 The acorn of the white oak yields a beverage (coffee) of astringent, medical qualities. 

 The cups of the acorns, particularly rich in tannin, are used as a raw material in many tanneries 

 ("Valonea" of Quercus aegilops). 



(D) RHAMNUS SPECIES. The fruit of the buckthorns yields a valuable dye. 



(E) NUT PINES. The Indians of California and Arizona subsist, at certain seasons, on the fruits of 

 the Western nut pines. 



(F) THE TRADE VALUE OF THE SEEDS OF WHITE PINE, Douglas fir, Abies concolor, Lawson's 

 cypress, red oak and in fact of all seeds of American timber species, is beginning to be realized. Sylvicul- 

 ture, in America and notably in Germany, requires enormous quantities of American tree seeds. The 

 various methods of "coning" are described in Schenck's Lectures on Sylviculture, paragraph XXII. 



PARAGRAPH XLIII. 

 IMPREGNATION. 



Impregnation of wood intends :- 



(a) To destroy the bad hygroscopic qualities (shrinking, warping, working, permeability) of lumber 

 and timber; 



(b) To impart a desirable color to furniture woods; 



(c) To cause a fireproofing of shingles, wood, and timber; 



(d) To increase the durability of wood e.\posed to decomposition by the injection of antiseptic liquids. 



(A) WATERPROOFING. The use of certain woods (beech and gum) is barred from many industries 

 by the fact that these woods will continue to "work" after having been put in place, be it within a piece 

 of furniture, or in the flooring of rooms. 



Beech flooring is impregnated with common pine rosin (colophony) by the process of Amendt, 

 Oppenheim, Germany. The manufactured flooring is thoroughly seasoned. It is placed loosely on steel 

 cars and run into retorts sealed hermetically. The colophony, in molten condition, heated to 345 degrees, 

 is forced into the wood by the pressure pump under 75 pounds pressure. The whole pressure process 

 takes five minutes only, for each charge. Ten pounds of colophony are used per cubic foot of flooring. 



If it is desired to obtain a heavier degree of impregnation (up to 20 lbs. of colophony per cubic foot 

 of wood), the pump is allowed to work for a correspondingly longer period. 



