The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1903-07-01
WASHINGTON FIR STUMpS
ARE VALUABLE ASSETS
Analysis of the Stumps Of Douglas
Fir Opens Possibility of a Great
Industry.

sity of Minnesota. has been making an
exhaustive study of the uses to which
the stumps of the Douglas fir and north
eln pine may be put. DR.. Frankfortcr
mas been Investigating the Douglas fir
at the request OF J. W. Clark of New
Charles +. Gordon. president of the Min
neapolis Dry Goods Company. DIR.
Frankforter will point out the great
value OF the stumps of the Douglas fir
III paper to be read before the Ameri-
can Chemical Society at Cleveland on
June %. The same paper will announce
the discovery of IL new and superior tur-
pentine.
1t is the pitch in Douglas fir that has
proved to be SO valuable. 1t was the
same pitch heretofore that made much
OF the fir so valuelcss. Any part of the
tree that contained an excess of pitch
could not be used for lumber Hence
the tree has usually been cut off ten
feet above the ground, fifteen feet. even
twenty feet. according to the amount of
pitch in the lower part of the trunk
Even after the logs have been hauled to
mill. part of them have been found
to be 50 pitchy that they were thrown
away.
That the pitch contained commercial
M, In ..
known. but the Importance of those
products has been revealed by Professor
trankfortcr. He was surprised to find
that no less than 40 per cent of the
abandoned stump is pitcn, and that this
pitch produces turpentine with which
the turpentine now manufactured can
not be compared,
The new turpentine has all the chemi-
cal and medicinal properties of the ordi-
nary product, but is free from the dis
agreeable odor and the equally disagree
able taste. that have prevented the more
general use of turpentine in medicine
and in the arts. The odor of the fir
turpentine is mild and balsamic-almost
a perfume. The taste is beguiling. 1t
might flavor new chewing gum or draw
forth Olympian refreshment from a
soda water fountain.
Each of the fir stumps. DR.. Frank
torter estimates, contains. on an aver
age, five or six cords of wood, and the
value of the byproducts of each cord
would range from $40 to $50 Forty
per cent of the wood would be pitch, of
which 20 per cent could be resolved into
turpentine, 80 per cent in tar oil, and
80 per cent into common tar. This tar
is of excellent quality and finds ready
sale on the Pacific Coast. A minor pro-
duet is pyroligneour acid. containing
acetic acid.
The proportion of pitch is much small
er i'll the white pine of Minnesota and
the stumps of the white pine, less than
half the diameter of the fir, are cut off
Just above the ground.
All the foregoing products of the fir
can be removed by burning the wood in
retorts according to the process known
as destructive distillation."
Not the least marvellous fact is that
in the very process of distillation the fir
gives out gas which affords sufficient
fuel to maintain the process.
After the by-products- turpentine. tar
oil, tar, acids, gas, etc, have been re-
moved charcoal is left which can be
sold at a good profit The whole of the
fir, in other words, may be converted
into something saleable There is no
loss.
And to cap the economic climax, Prof.
Frankforter announces that sufficient
illuminating gas can be extracted from
the fir pitch to compete with the product
of gas coal. Already, in fact, half a
dozen towns in the Douglas fir district
have taken steps to establish gas plants
that will sell the brilliant light con-
cealed in old fir stumps.
Thus it appears that the abandoned
and abused stumps of Washington and
Oregon, the very refuse of saw mills,
can easily be converted into illuminat-
ing gas of the best quality; that none
of the fir will be wholly lost; but that
even the residuum of gas retorts will
provide charcoal, acetic acid, tar oil, tar
and turpentine more valuable than
any yet produced.
A new source of turpentine is of par
ticular importance at the present time