60 OUR VANISHING FORESTS 



two hundred million dollars a year, its output in 

 shoes alone amounting to some 250 million pairs. 

 In so far as tannin is obtained from bark alone, and 

 the rest of the tree is used for lumber, the tanning 

 industry has no great effect upon our wood supply. 

 Unfortunately, however, the difficulties of transpor- 

 tation have sometimes resulted in hundreds of 

 peeled logs being left in the woods to rot. The 

 wood of the chestnut tree also contains a high per- 

 centage of tannin capable of extraction, and today 

 about two-thirds of all the tannic acid produced in 

 the United States is derived from chestnut trees 

 cut for this exclusive purpose. California and 

 southern Oregon possess an asset of great value in 

 the native tan-bark oak which has been widely ex- 

 ploited, while the forests of Washington and 

 Oregon contain, still untouched, great quantities of 

 western hemlock. This latter wood, although quite 

 different in many characteristics from its eastern 

 relative, is also a tannin producer, but, as it happens, 

 the western forests are too far away from the chief 

 centers of the tanning industry, and it pays better 

 to import from the abundant supplies of South 

 America and Europe rather than foot the railway 

 bill. 



Charcoal is another interesting wood product. It 

 is chiefly used in the manufacture of iron and steel, 



