HARDWOOD DISTILLATION 195 



purposes. This feature constitutes an important contribution to the 

 cause of forest conservation. The removal of all of this material from 

 the forest also means that the fire danger is greatly lessened. 



The larger refuse from the manufacture of lumber in sawmills is 

 used to advantage in the largest plants in this country in Michigan. It 

 is believed that this form of utilization of sawmill waste will come into 

 greater prominence in the industry in the future. Only the larger forms 

 of sawmill waste, such as slabs, edgings, trimmings, and similar material 

 can be utilized to commercial advantage. The sawdust, shavings and 

 similar material usually cut up by the slasher cannot be utilized profit- 

 ably except as fuel, but experiments are now being undertaken which 

 may permit of the utilization of sawdust and shavings for distillation 

 within a short time or as soon as some promising experiments can be per- 

 fected on a commercial basis. 



Management of Timber Lands. 



Several of the wood distillation companies in New York and Pennsyl- 

 vania own tracts as large as $0,000 acres each or lease tracts nearly as 

 large. These are managed on a permanent basis and carefully protected 

 from the annual fire hazard during the dangerous dry seasons. These 

 companies are practicing one of the best forms of forestry because they 

 utilize the products of the forest most completely, the maximum growth 

 of the forest is stimulated, and forest fires, the greatest enemy of the 

 forest, in so far as practicable, are eliminated. The rougher and more 

 mountainous portions of the forest are admirably suited to forest culture 

 on account of the steep, rocky hillsides which contain many springs and 

 seepage flows, thus permitting the most rapid growth of timber and 

 stimulating the sprouting capacity in all of the larger trees. The cutting 

 is usually done in the winter time. The following spring the stumps 

 sprout up thriftily and vigorously to a height of from 5 to 10 ft. the first 

 year. After a period of from twenty to thirty years the stand is cut 

 over and the same process is repeated. In one section, four different age 

 classes of timber were noted where average yields of one cord per acre per 

 year had been obtained after the original forests were cut over. These 

 tracts are in much better condition than they would be under ordinary 

 conditions of lumbering because the forest is renewed both from sprout 

 and from seed. The vigor of the forest is, therefore, maintained, forest 

 fires are kept out and all of the available wood product is utilized. It 

 would be a highly desirable situation if all forest industries could be run 

 on the same basis. 



