UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 1003 



Contribution from the Bureau of Chemistry 

 W. G. CAMPBELL, Acting Chief 



And the University of Idaho, A. H. UPHAM 

 President 



M^SJV 



Washington, D. C. 



December 5, 1921 



THE DISTILLATION OF STUMPWOOD AND LOGGING 

 WASTE OF WESTERN YELLOW PINE. 



By M. G. Donk, Assistant Chemist, Leather and Paper Laboratory, Bureau of 

 Chemistry, C. H. Shattuck, Professor of Forestry, and W. D. Marshall, 

 Research Fellow, Forestry Department, University of Idaho. 1 



CONTENTS. 



Importance of western yellow pine 1 



Distribution of western yellow pine_ 2 



Purpose of investigation 13 



Taking samples 15 



Distillation of samples; 22 



Crude products of retort distillation- 31 

 Products obtained in refining crude 



turpentine 37 



Calculation of yields of refined tur- 

 pentine and pine oil 41 



Page. 



Commercial distillation processes 43 



Feasibility of distilling western yel- 

 low pine 46 



Relation of wood distillation to land 



clearing 51 



Small, semi-portable wood-distilling 



plants 53 



Use of oil for ore flotation 54 



Refining crude wood turpentine 56 



Summary 67 



Literature cited 69 



IMPORTANCE OF WESTERN YELLOW PINE. 



Western yellow pine (Firms ponderosa) is the most widely dis- 

 tributed of the western commercial softwoods (4, 10) 2 (fig. 1). 

 The Forest Service estimates the amount of standing timber of this 

 species to be approximately 335,000,000,000 board feet, or more than 

 that of any other species except Douglas fir (6). The reported cut 

 for this species for 1917 was 1,862,914,815 board feet. This repre- 

 sents an area of more than 350,000 acres of land annually cleared 

 and left covered with stumps after logging operations. About one-- 

 third of this is within the national forests and is generally of little 

 value for agriculture, because of the roughness of the land. Much 

 of the remaining two-thirds, however, is valuable for crops. 



1 The sections on the importance and distribution *of the western yellow pine are by 

 C. H. Shattuck. The report of the investigation is by M. G. Donk. 



2 The numbers in parenthesis throughout this bulletin refer to the bibliography on 

 page 69. 



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