The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1906-03-05

is then shoveIed out and discarded and
the still refilled, About twenty-fouI
hours Of boiling is required to extract
all the oil, and to get the best results
it is said the water should be kept
boiling continuously. This is never
done, however, at least in the region
| studied.
The oil is sold BIZ the distiIIers at
local drug stores. 1t is sold by the
pound Troy weight, thirteen fluid
ounces to the pound. These stores sell
Il in New York and other Eastern mar
kets twelve ounces to the pound. The
stores claim that they are obliged to
buy it at thirteen ounces to the pound
on account Of its averaging one ounce
Of water and other foreign matter per
pound, which they have TO remove.
The price of crude oil changes with
the market. 1t is sometimes as low
as $l.25 pound and again the price
will run as high as So per pound. The
storekeepers in the local towns ship ii
in three-gallon cans in its crude form
to the chemists in New York and other
Eastern cities, selling it at an advance
cf about twenty five to thirty per
cent. more than they paid for It,
The wholesale chemists refine ii and
sell II as essential oil of wintergreen. -
This is the natural oil" Artificial
oil" is made by purely synthetic pro-
cess in the. laboratories. Chemically,
it is exactly the same, and being pro-
duced at less expense sells at much
lower price. The price of the natural
oil, as quoted by wholesale chemist
April, 1905, was $3.50 per pound, while
the artificial oil was quoted at seventy
five cents. These were prices on oil
sold in small amounts. In twenty
pound cans the price was $1.95 for the
natural oil. and the artificial oil sold
for fifty cents in five-pound bottles or
forty-two cents in fifty-pound cans.
Larger quantities were sold at CORE
spondingly lower figures.
| was told that birch tree twelve
inches in diameter yields $2.25 worth Of
crude oil. Taking this as the average
prize per pound Of thirteen fluid ounces
and considering twelve inches as the
average size of the trees felled for the
purpose, the average tree will yield one
pound of oil. was unable to get a
statement as to the amount of Clipped
bark obtainable from a single tree, but
since vat full, equivalent to thirty
six cubic feet, yields one and one-haIf
pounds Of OIL and an average tree
yields about one pound. it is safe to
say that the bark from the average
tree viii fill the still two-thirds full
equivalent to twenty-four cubic feet Of
Clipped bark which yields one pound
of oil.
Deducting twenty cents. the price
paid per tree to the owner of the tim
ber, from the price realized on the oil
it will produce, or say 1920. the profit
to the producer of the crude oil is 50
per tree or per pound of thirteen
ounces. When it is considered that
two-thirds of twenty-four hours, or six
teen hours are spent in distilIing one
pound of oil, besides the labor and
time involved in telling the tree, chip
ping the bark and feeding the fire, the
actual returns are not great. When
two or more stills are in operation at
the same distillery, as is usually the
case, the question of time involved is
not Of as great weight, since it takes
no more time to distill three pounds of
oil from three stills than it does one
pound from one still, but the larger
distillery entails a greater labor to chip
a larger amount of bark and to keep
the watts full and the fires fed Usu-
ally, however, the labor in the process
involved is not considered by the dis
tiller from its economic standpoint
Forestry and Irrigation.