THE USE OF WOOD FOR FUEL. 21 
If weight instead of volume is adopted as the standard measure, it 
will be necessary to fix certain standards as to time of seasoning of 
wood offered for sale. This can easily be regulated in the case of 
larger dealers, wood yards, and probably without serious difficulty 
even for individual farmers, by use of a licensing system under which 
a seller shall be required to certify under oath as to the date when 
his wood was cut. 
SELLING PRICES OF WOOD FUEL, 
The Federal Government is without authority to fix prices on wood 
fuel, as the act granting this power for coal and coke does not cover 
wood. Some States, however, have gone ahead and set price limits 
on the ground of public necessity in.an emergency. While this may 
be desirable in restricted areas, fixing of a maximum price on wood 
is scarcely a good general policy, for two reasons: 
First, the cost of producing wood fuel depends so much upon local 
conditions that it would be hard to adjust prices equitably. 
Second, price-fixing might tend to limit production to such an ex- 
tent as to aggravate the crisis by decreasing the amount of wood fuel 
available during the emergency. 
The production of wood will be greatest if prices are left to regu- 
late themselves, possibly with some local supervision. In all cases the 
producer of wood should be considered entitled to a reasonable profit 
on the costs of his operation. Some of the “ war fuel companies” 
which were formed during the fuel crisis in the winter of 1917-18 - 
limited their profits to 6 per cent. Municipal yards as a rule sell at 
cost. | 
MANUFACTURE OF SAWDUST BRIQUETS.! 
Practically all of the European machines use some kind of binder 
mixed with the sawdust, or rely upon the resinous material in the 
wood to hold the briquet together, but American and Canadian in- 
ventors have apparently preferred mechanical binders. One com- 
pany in Los Angeles is now building machines for the manufacture 
of briquets of the wire-bound type, and a company in Vancouver 
is perfecting machines for making the rope-core type. As far as can 
be ascertained, both of these machines give promise of satisfactory 
service under conditions of continuous operation. Another Van- 
couver company is manufacturing machines for the production of 
briquets composed of sawdust, coal dust, and binder in about the fol- 
lowing proportions: Sawdust, 65 per cent; coal dust, 25 per cent; 
binder (coal-tar pitch, petroleum refuse, or sulphite waste liquor), 
1“ Briquetting of Sawdust on a Commercial Basis,” R. Thelen, forest products labora- 
tory, Madison, Wis., in Canada Lumberman and Woodworker, vol. 36, No. 5, pp. 39-40, 
Mar. 15, 1916. 
