DISTILLATION OF STUMPWOOD. 13 



TABLE 12. Annual lumber cut of western yellow pine in the United States (9). 



1 From records of the district foresters. 



2 For 1917 only. 



SUMMARY OF TABLE 12. 



Total volume, 1914-1917, inclusive (board feet). . 6, 127, 511, 815 



Total area equivalent cleared, 1914-1917, inclusive, assuming 5,000 feet 



as average per acre .' (acres) . . 1, 225, 502 



Total stumpwood, 1914-1917, inclusive , (cords) . . 3, 063, 755 



If the areas are not agricultural in character, they should be 

 allowed to reforest. In this case the land-clearing problem is not 

 so important, although the stumps should be utilized, if it is economi- 

 cally possible to do so. Table 12 shows that for the entire area of 

 western yellow-pine land the average volume of stumpwood is 2.5 

 cords an acre, or 100 cords for every 40-acre tract. Probably half 

 of this land carries double this amount of stumpwood. Be that as it 

 may, it is certain that many thousands of cords of stumpwood must 

 be removed before those who desire to make homes on the splendid 

 yellow-pine lands, some of which are known to be among the best 

 remaining lands obtainable for agriculture, can bring them into the 

 proper state of cultivation and production. 



PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATION. 



In January, 1914, the Bureau of Chemistry, United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, in cooperation with the Department of For- 

 estry of the University of Idaho, at Moscow, Idaho, began a study 

 of the destructive distillation of logging and land-clearing waste in 

 the State of Idaho, particularly of the yellow-pine stumps of that 

 region. These investigations were instituted with the twofold pur- 

 pose of ascertaining the feasibility of more effectively utilizing the 

 timber resources of the Northwest and of reducing the net cost of 

 clearing cut-over lands for agricultural purposes by the recovery of 

 commercially valuable products from the stumps. The work resolved 

 itself into determining (a) the nature, amount, and probable value 

 of certain by-products obtained in clearing the land of stumps by 



