UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
i BULLETIN No. 227 | 
Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 
WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief 
Washington, D. C. PROFESSIONAL PAPER August 23, 1915. 
THE TOXICITY TO FUNGI OF VARIOUS OILS AND SALTS, 
PARTICULARLY THOSE USED IN WOOD PRESERVATION. 1 
By C. J. Humphrey, Assistant Pathologist, and Ruth M. Fleming, Scientific Assist- 
ant, Office of Investigations in Forest Pathology. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Introduction 1 
Historical 2 
Tests conducted at the Forest -Products 
Laboratory 14 
Page. 
Toxicity to fungi of the more important pre- 
servatives 31 
Summary 35 
Bibliography 37 
INTRODUCTION. 
Within comparatively recent years the subject of wood preserva- 
tion has become of paramount importance, largely resulting from the 
economic conditions which necessitate the utilization of timber inferior 
in its resistance to decay to species formerly readily obtained. The 
rise of wood preservation in the United States within the last two 
decades has been very rapid. The principal preservatives used have 
consisted of coal-tar creosote and zinc chlorid, either alone or in 
combination. Such experimental work as has been done prior to the 
last two or three years has been directed in large part toward perfecting 
the mechanical processes of injecting the preservatives into wood, 
with an idea of securing the greatest relative efficiency as compared 
with the cost involved — purely an engineering proposition based on 
i The writers wish to thank Mr. Howard F. Weiss, Director of the Forest-Products Laboratory, Madison, 
Wis., for the interest displayed and suggestions offered during the progress of this work, as well as for the 
laboratory facilities placed at their disposal. Thanks are also due to Mr. Ernest Bateman, Chemist in 
Forest Products at the Forest-Products Laboratory, for all the data on chemical analyses of the different 
preservatives, and to Drs. P. H. True, F. D. Heald, E. P. Meinecke, Caroline Rumbold, and Mr. W. H. 
Long, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, for many helpful criticisms of the manuscript. The investiga- 
tions were conducted at the Forest-Products Laboratory, Madison, Wis., maintained by the Forest Service 
of the United States Department of Agriculture in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin. 
Note.— This bulletin gives the results of a series of investigations conducted at the Forest-Products 
Laboratory, Madison, Wis., as to the preservative value of various oils and salts and their toxic effect on 
wood-destroying fun^i. 
88340°— Bull. 227—15 1 
