lawsuits hinge on the result of an ex- 

 amination of a few chips or shavings, 

 sawdust, or wood flour. In criminal 

 cases the careful identification of pieces 

 of wood may furnish valuable evidence ; 

 an outstanding example was the Labo- 

 ratory's discovery of the source of the 

 wood from which the ladder used in 

 the Lindbergh kidnaping was made. 



Naval stores 



A major forest industry of the United 

 States is the production of gum resin 

 and turpentine, the naval stores of 

 commerce, from the longleaf and slash 

 pines of the South. The United States' 

 world leadership in output has unfor- 

 tunately been gained and held at a high 

 cost in destructive working of stands 

 and impairment of prospects for future 

 yields. In research looking to the im- 

 provement of this situation the Lab- 

 oratory works in collaboration with the 

 Southern Forest Experiment Station. 

 Field tests and microscopic examina- 

 tion of wound response have shown the 

 practicability of maintaining the flow 

 of oleoresin by light, narrow chipping 

 at as high a yield as by heavy chipping. 

 The establishment of this fact is having 

 wide influence in securing a longer 

 working life for turpentine stands, with 



M-31575-F 



Thousands of wood specimens submitted to 

 the Laboratory are identified by their micro- 

 scopic structure. 



greater returns per tree in both naval 

 stores and wood products. 



Biochemical research reveals the 

 course of formation of the resin-yielding 

 compounds in the tree; microscopic 

 research seeks to identify and trace the 

 occurrence of these mother substances 

 in the cells of the wood and of the 

 phloem, or inner bark. Progress in both 

 lines of investigation encourages the 

 hope that high -yielding strains may be 

 further developed in oleoresin-producing 

 tree species. 



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