730 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



wish to enjoy their outings in the National forests, and 

 now that wc have I Park Service Bureau, it would seem 

 that the time has come when some sort of sensible co- 

 operation should be established between that Service and 

 the Forest Service. The latter is bound, by the sheer 

 nature of things, to be called upon to protect tourists in 



their pursuit of insouciant pleasure in the wilds, no matter 

 how many national parks we have or how well they are 

 advertised and administered. When this fact is thor- 

 oughly recognized and a practical basis of cooperation is 

 established, there will be a vote of thanks coming to 

 someone from every one concerned. 



Little-Known Forest Products 



IN addition to the ordinary uses of wood with which 

 we are familiar, mankind is dependent upon the 

 forest for a variety of products whose appearance 

 docs not indicate their origin, say members of the Forest 

 Service. Numerous as these products are, and as exten- 

 sive as is their use at the present time, science is con- 

 stantly learning new constituents which enter into the 

 make-up of wood and is finding new uses to which these 

 constituents and those already known can be put. Powder 

 for munitions or blasting, disinfectants for protection 

 against contagious diseases, and artificial silk for clothing 

 are among the products obtained in whole or in part 

 from wood. 



Charcoal, as everyone knows, is essential for the 

 manufacture of black powder. All of the acetone used 

 as a solvent in making nitrocellulose powders is derived 

 from acetic acid, a product of hardwood distillation. 

 Great Britain, it is said, is dependent upon the United 

 States for acetone used in making cordite. Black walnut 

 is a standard for gunstocks, and has been so much in 

 demand for the past two years that our supply of this 

 valuable wood has been considerably reduced and other 

 woods, notably birch, are being substituted. From 

 Europe comes the complaint that there is a shortage of 

 willow for making wooden legs. 



Pure wood alcohol is the only substance which can be 

 converted commercially into formaldehyde, which is uni- 

 versally used for disinfection against such contagious 

 diseases as smallpox, scarlet fever, and tuberculosis. The 

 experts at the Forest Products Laboratory have conducted 

 extensive experiments on the production of grain or ethyl 

 alcohol from wood and have been successful in experi- 

 mental work in raising the yield and lowering the cost 

 of production. If this process can be put on a commer- 

 cial basis, the foresters say, it will result in putting the 

 millions of tons of coniferous sawdust and other material 

 which is now wasted every year to a profitable use. 



By converting cellulose, one of the elements of wood, 

 into a gelatinous material, known as viscose, a wide field 

 is opened up for the utilization of wood waste, and a new 

 line of products, varying all the way from sausage casings 

 to tapestry, is added to the already lengthy list. Many 

 of the so-called " silk " socks, neckties and fancy braids 

 now on the market contain artificial silk made from wood. 



About nine-tenths of all the paper which wc use is 

 made from wood. Besides the detailed investigations 



of the methods of making newsprint paper, and of the 

 production of paper from woods hitherto unused for that 

 purpose, which have been conducted, kraft paper, which 

 compares favorably with the best on the market, has 

 been produced experimentally at the Forest Products 

 Laboratory from longleaf-pine mill-waste. This kraft 

 paper is brown in color and is very much stronger than 

 ordinary papers. It is used for a variety of purposes, 

 and, cut into strips, is spun or twisted into thread which 

 is then woven into onion and coffee bags, matting, suit- 

 cases and wall covering, similar to burlap, and furniture 

 closely resembling that made from reeds, as well as other 

 articles of common use. 



Within the past year the Forest Products Laboratory 

 has, by cooperating with manufacturers, succeeded in 

 getting a dye made from mill waste of osage orange put 

 on the market as a substitute for fustic, which we import 

 from Jamaica and Tehuantepec. 



These are only a few examples of the various lines of 

 work carried on at the Forest Products Laboratory, say 

 the men in charge. Other activities, ranging all the way 

 from the study of decay in wood to that of the resistance 

 of wood to fire, are in progress, and new discoveries are 

 constantly being made. Incidentally, the Forest Labora- 

 tory, at Madison, Wisconsin, was the first of its kind in 

 the world and is probably still the best equipped. With 

 the possible exception of Germany, no other country has 

 done as much as the United States systematically to in- 

 vestigate the possibilities of its forest resources. 



AS a result of recommendations of the Secretary 

 of Agriculture, based upon approved classifica- 

 tion reports submitted by the Forest Service, 

 19,840 acres of land have been eliminated from the 

 Routt National Forest in northwestern Colorado by 

 a Presidential proclamation. This action is in accord- 

 ance with the policy of putting all lands in the National 

 Forests to the use to which they are best suited. 



THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING 



The 37th annual meeting of the American Forestry 

 Association will be held at Washington, D. C, on 

 Thursday and Friday, January 18 and 19, 1917. All 

 members are urged to attend. 



