PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



Although the British forester has usually little or nothing 

 to do with what we might term the volatile products of the 

 forest tar, pitch, turpentine, rosin, wood-spirit, acetic acid, 

 etc. nor, indeed, with paper-pulp, still, it may not be out 

 of place to briefly point out the minor uses to which waste 

 timber and by-products generally are applied. 



Tar, ^hich at present is largely imported from the Baltic 

 ports and Southern United States, is obtainable principally 

 from three species of Pinus : P. palustris, P. Pinaster, and 

 P. sylvestris. 



Pitch is simply tar deprived of the volatile oils, which is 

 brought about by boiling- 



Turpentine comes from incisions made in the stems of 

 some of the pines, principally Pinus palustris, P. sylvestris, 

 and P. tseda. 



The common silver fir (Abies pectinata) produces the 

 famous Strasburg turpentine, while the larch is the source 

 of the Venice turpentine of commerce. 



In New England the whole of the younger sapling pines 

 stem, branches, bark, and leaves are made into paste- 

 board, while in other countries the lime and poplar are con- 

 verted into paper-pulp of great value. That the great and 

 ever-increasing demand for paper of all qualities will yet 

 cause a corresponding demand for the material used in pro- 

 ducing it cannot be doubted. From the sap of the larch and 

 Scotch firs "coniferin" is obtained, while "rubber," a 

 valuable product for mixing with gutta-percha, which is 

 very durable, is got from the bark of the common birch by 

 distillation. The value of gorse as a food for horses and 

 sheep is well known even in this country, while in Italy 

 poplar leaves have long been used as cattle-food, and ground 

 fir-needles in Styria for the same purpose. 



Dried leaves make excellent litter, and they are valuable 

 as manure ; and sawdust, though without manurial value, 

 absorbs liquid manure, and is thus used as an excellent top- 

 dressing. Leaf-mould, too, is well known for its many uses 

 in the garden, as also for top-dressing and mixing with other 

 poorer soils in the making of composts for planting. These 



are some of the many uses to which the minor by-products 



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