DISTILLATION OF STUMPWOOD. 51 



sideration applies to the light-oil fraction. From the prevailing price 

 of articles with which such refined or special products must compete, 

 it is doubtful if the balance between production cost and market value 

 of the output of a plant would be materially affected thereby. 



The acetone, wood alcohol, and acetic acid content of the aqueous 

 distillate is, roughly, one-fourth that obtained in the crude distillate 

 from hardwood plants. The value a cord of the alcohol and acetic 

 acid recovered as acetate of lime, based on 1915 prices, is approxi- 

 mately $1 and $1.50, respectively. The crude liquor as obtained from 

 the retorts is so heavily charged with tarry bodies that the acetate if 

 obtained therefrom by the ordinary method is of a low grade and 

 at best usually commands too low a figure to make its recovery profit- 

 able. Even by some improved processes, the recovery of these three 

 products, which would increase the gross income by about $2.50 a cord, 

 could be accomplished at best only on a narrow margin of profit, 

 and the earning power of a plant thus equipped would not be ma- 

 terially increased by so doing. A company in the Northwest, oper- 

 ating a wood-distilling plant on selected Douglas fir mill-waste, in- 

 cluding the recovery of these products in their margin of profits, 

 found the enterprise, as then carried out, unprofitable. 



One other possibility needs to be mentioned. It has been stated 

 that lean and also medium resinous stumps contain small propor- 

 tions of heartwood nearly if not quite as rich in resin as the resinous 

 portions of rich stumps, but the proportion of such wood is so small 

 that the cost of splitting it out would be prohibitive. Should the 

 nonresinous portion rot off the lean and medium stumps in the 

 course of a few years, as happens in the longleaf yellow-pine cut- 

 over lands, the remainder or heart of the stump would then be prac- 

 tically 100 per cent resinous and suitable for distillation. Unfortu- 

 nately, few such rotted stumps showing only the sound, rich heart 

 were observed in any of the districts visited. The rotting off of the 

 sapwood would unquestionably proceed more rapidly farther south. 



RELATION OF WOOD DISTILLATION TO LAND CLEARING. 



One of the purposes of this investigation was to secure informa- 

 tion on what part of the cost of clearing land for farm purposes 

 might be paid for by distilling the wood or by selling the wood for 

 distillation. 



The cost of clearing land for farming in the Pacific Northwest 

 varies widely, depending on the size, number, and age of the stumps, 

 the lay, nature, and water content of the soil, cost of labor and ma- 

 terials, and other factors. The United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, in cooperation with the State agricultural experiment sta- 

 tions of Washington, Wisconsin, and Minnesota (11), and the Uni- 



