88 POEEST CULTURE AKD 



hundredths from the wood. Local powder-mills are 

 sure to be established here, especially as sulphur is 

 readily obtainable from New Zealand. The increase 

 of manufactures is also certain to augment the de- 

 mand for wood and coal hereafter. For many indus- 

 trial purposes charcoal Is far preferable to fossilj(|al. 

 Coals from various kinds of Victorian wood are placed 

 before you. 



It was my intention, while explaining the industrial 

 resources of the forest, to show also how tar, vinegar 

 and spirits might be obtained by heating wood in 

 close vessels, at a temperature of three hundred to 

 three hundred and fifty centigr. , under a process call- 

 ed dry distillation. But I must reserve this subject 

 for another occasion ; for, however simple the proced- 

 ure may be regarded, as far as the actual performance 

 of this artisan's work is concerned j yet the-chemic 

 processes, which are active in this form of decomposi- 

 tion, are of the greatest complexity ; they present, 

 moreover, according to the wood employed and ac- 

 cording to the degree of heat applied, some peculiar- 

 ities, which as yet have not been fully investigated, 

 holding out hope for the discovery of some new dyes 

 and other educts. It will be scarcely credited by most 

 of this audience that the paraffin, which now large- 

 ly enters into the material for the candles of our house- 

 holds, is not only obtainable from bituminous slates, 

 turf and fossil coal, but is also produced by the heat- 

 ing of wood under exclusion of air. This substance 

 is furthermore a hydrocarbon of great purity ; and its 

 cheap preparation, along with other substances from 

 our native wood, may possibly become a local source 

 of immense wealth. For obtaining information on the 



