UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



dft BULLETIN No. 227 



Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief 



JiWf^Wl. 



Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER 



August 23, 1915. 



THE TOXICITY TO FUNGI OF VARIOUS OILS AND SALTS, 

 PARTICULARLY THOSE USED IN WOOD PRESERVATION. 1 



By C. J. Humphrey, Assistant Pathologist, and Ruth M. Fleming, Scientific Assist- 

 ant, Office of Investigations in Forest Pathology. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 



Historical 



Tests conducted at the Forest -Products 

 Laboratory 



Toxicity to fungi of the more important pre- 

 servatives 31 



Summary 35 



Bibliography 37 



INTRODUCTION. 



Within comparatively recent years the subject of wood preserva- 

 tion has become of paramount importance, largely resulting from the 

 economic conditions which necessitate the utilization of timber inferior 

 in its resistance to decay to species formerly readily obtained. The 

 rise of wood preservation in the United States within the last two 

 decades has been very rapid. The principal preservatives used have 

 consisted of coal-tar creosote and zinc chlorid, either alone or in 

 combination. Such experimental work as has been done prior to the 

 last two or three years has been directed in large part toward perfecting 

 the mechanical processes of injecting the preservatives into wood, 

 with an idea of securing the greatest relative efficiency as compared 

 with the cost involved — purely an engineering proposition based on 



1 The writers wish to thank Mr. Howard F. Weiss, Director of the Forest-Products Laboratory, Madison, 

 Wis., for the interest displayed and suggestions offered during the progress of this work, as well as for the 

 laboratory facilities placed at their disposal. Thanks are also due to Mr. Ernest Bateman, Chemist in 

 Forest Products at the Forest- Products Laboratory, for all the data on chemical analyses of the different 

 preservatives, and to Drs. R. H. True, F. D. Heald, E. P. Meinecke, Caroline Rumbold, and Mr. W. H. 

 Long, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, for many helpful criticisms of the manuscript. The investiga- 

 tions were conducted at the Forest- Products Laboratory, Madison, Wis., maintained by the Forest Service 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin. 



Note.— This bulletin gives the results of a series of investigations conducted at the Forest- Products 

 Laboratory, Madison, Wis., as to the preservative value of various oils and salts and their toxic effect on 

 wood-destroying fungi. • 



88340°— Bull. 227—15 1 



