16 BULLETIN 1437, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
The usual methods of manufacture are followed. The logs, cut 
into 4-foot lengths, are boiled in water for 48 hours, after which 
they are revolved rapidly against a fixed knife, which peels off a 
thin, continuous sheet. Sometimes two lathes of different sizes are 
used, the smaller one peeling the log down to a 4V2-mch core. The 
veneer is usually cut one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness. 
This class of veneer is used largely by the furniture industry in 
the production of built-up lumber, or plywood. Strong and light 
in weight, alder plywood makes very satisfactory drawer sides, backs, 
and bottoms. The veneer is also used as a core and cross-banding 
stock in the manufacture of high-grade panels. 
Sliced veneer. — Woods-run logs, which cost about $18 per thousand 
feet delivered at the plant, are used in the production of sliced veneer. 
The logs are first squared and then dropped against a sharp knife 
extending the full length of the log. Preliminary boiling or steam- 
ing is not always necessary if the logs are sliced while in the green 
condition. Sliced alder veneer is usually cut one-sixteenth of an inch 
thick. 
Most of the sliced veneer produced from alder is used in the manu- 
facture of wire-end dishes for containing butter, lard, etc. ; also grape 
baskets and berry hallocks. 
PULP AND PAPER 
Eed alder has been used only to a very limited extent, if at all, in 
the production of commercial pulp. Experiments conducted at the 
Forest Products Laboratory indicate, however, that it is adapted for 
pulping by the soda process, which is used almost entirely for the 
reduction of soft, short-fibred, deciduous wood, such as aspen (Popu- 
lus tremuloides) , black cottonwood, red gum, basswood, etc. The 
results obtained from these experiments on alder, in fact, were prac- 
tically the same as from pulping black cottonwood (an unexcelled 
wood) by the soda process. Other than its extreme susceptibility 
to decay, there seems to be no reason why red alder would not make 
an excellent pulp wood for the manufacture of soda pulp. 
DESTRUCTIVE DISTILLATION 
Distillation tests made at the Forest Products Laboratory suggest 
that red alder will yield a smaller quantity of crude alcohol and 
acetate of lime than beech (Fagus grandifolia), sweet birch (Betula 
lenta), and sugar maple (Acer saccharum), the chief hardwoods 
used by the distillation industry of the United States. The average 
yields of red alder, in comparison with the three standard species, 
are given in Tables 6 and 7. 6 In Table 6 the yields are shown as a 
proportion of the oven-dry weight of the wood distilled. It is on 
this basis only that results independent of varying percentages of 
6 Tests were made in the same way as those reported in the following bulletins : 
Hawley, L. T., and Palmer, R. C, Yields From the Destructive Distillation of Certain 
Hardwoods. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 129, 16 pp., illus. 1914. 
Palmer, R. C, Yields From the Destructive Distillation of Certain Hardwoods. Second 
progress report. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 508, 8 pp., illus. 1917. 
The results here reported are of most value when compared with laboratory distillations 
of species whose yields in commercial practice are well known. Laboratory methods are 
not directly comparable with commercial conditions, and the calculated yields per cord 
from laboratory distillations on 100 or 200 pounds of wood are frequently much higher 
than the yields from distilling several thousand pounds in a commercial plant. 
