The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-10-14
BETTER UTILIZATION
PRODUCTS FROM WASTE OF TREES
 ARE VALUABLE.
In Fifteen or Twenty Years, at Present Rate of Cutting, South's Longieaf Yellow Pine
 WiH Be Exhausted.

washington. D. C.. Oct. 1s-(speciaD --aIn fifteen or twenty years, at the present rate of cutting, the supply or the longieaf yellow pine of the Soutn. one of Ameriea's most, usefui Ioress trees will be nearly exhausted. say the experts of the United States Forest Service. If these pine forest are wiped mi one of the South's important tn- dustries will die--the productlon ol the so-called naval stores.
 The lumber of the Southern yellow nine brings SIS to $35 per thousand feet. It's turpentine fifty-six cents per gallon. its rosin from s4.35 to $6.s5 per 2ae pounds. and its pitch $S.2b per 2s0 pounds. All of these prices are gradually becoming higher and higher on account of the increased demand and the scarcity of the products. For merly. turpentine could be purchased for thirty cents a gallon. Now fifty six cents must be paid at wholesale. and the consumer of gallon lots will pay at times as high as si.0o
 Tn the face of these fast increasing prices. people are still found who say that there is yet an inexhaustible sup ply of yellow pine in the South, and that all talk about a famine is unwar- ranted. Such statements are not justt- fled by conditions and the yellow pine numbering industry will soon be In the face of a serious shortage unless de- cided changes are made in the present methods. and unless valuable products now going to waste are utilized. The longleaf pine is a slow-growing tree and does not make timber with any where near the rapidity that 1t Is be- ing cut. The situation calls for mak- ing the very best of the present sup- ply.
 aw lac Aw of the South vast quantities Of pine logs and tall stumps left as a result of careless numbering in the past. This material is rich in turpentine and could be made to yield from ten to fif- teen gallons of refined spirits per cord. Besides this, there Is great waste at the sawmills in the form of slabs. edgings. and sawdust, all of which must have a value. but at present Is, for the most part. not more than fifty per cent of the tree as 1t stands in the forest comes to the mar ket in the form of valuable materials
 Tn the year of 1906 the reported cut of Southern yellow pine was some twelve billian board feet. A conserva- tive eStimate of the actual amount of turpentine alone. to- say nothing of wood fiber and other materials, which could be produced from the wastewood of this one year, would place the amount at not less than thirty million gallons. This is a surprising figure, when it is remembered that it repre- eents an amount almost equal to the present annual production of gum spirits in this country. If this product were extrasted from the wood and sold at even the current price of good wood turpentine, the gross savings would be easily S1A, 100000.
 Enormous Waste.
 Men have realized for some time that an enormous waste of valuable sub stances Is going on. and g few have succeeded in extracting the turpentine and placing on the market a material of a fairly good quantity. Tn the majority of cases. however. the article has been of an inferior grade, due generally to the fact that the technical methods used have been faulty. As a result of this, wood turpentine is at terated material. or at best as a poor substitute for gum spirits. It is true that in some cases these opinions are well founded. but inferior products have put an unnecessary damper on the whole industry.
 The Section of Wood Chemistry of the Forest Service has lately been in vestigating this subject, and some valuable results have been obtained. It has been found that for the recovery of turpentine from wastewood, the steam distillation process Is far superior to that of distilling the wood destructively. The crude turpentine is in all cases more uniform, and the final refined materials are as a rule of bet fer grade and can demand a higher