Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-10-20

the longleaf yellow pine of the south, one of Americas most useful forest trees, will be nearly exhausted" say 1 the experts of the United States forest l service. If these pine forests are wiped out On of the south's impOr- tant industries will die-the produc- l tion of the so-called naval stores. The lumber of the southern yellow pine brings $15 to $35 per thousand | feet, it's turpentine fifty-six cents per gallon, it's rosin from $4.35 to $6.95 per 280 pounds, and it's pitch $3.2o per 2S0 pounds. All of these prices are gradually becoming higher and higher on account of the increased de- mand and the scarcity of the products. Formerly, turpentine could be pur- chased for thirty cents a gallon. Now fifty-six cents must be paid at whole sale, and the consumer of gallon lots will pay at times as high as $1.
 In the fact 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 un- warranted. Such statements are not justified by conditions and the yellow pine numbering industry will soon be in the face of serious shortage un
 less decided changes are made in the present methods, and unless valuable products now going to waste are util- ized. The longleaf pine is a slow growing tree and does not make tim Der with anywhere near the rapidity that it is being cut The situation calls fol making the very best use of the present supply.
 There are at present in the woods of the south vast quantities of pine logs and tall stumps left as result of careless numbering in the past. This material is rich in turpentine and could be made to yield from ten to fifteen gallons of refined spirits per cord. Besides this, there is a great waste at the sawmills in the for moi slabs, edgings and sawdust, all of which must have a value, but at present is, for the most part sim ply burned to get it out of the way In fact not more than 50 per cent of the tree as it stands in the forest comes to the market in the form of valuable materials.
 In the year 1906 the reported cut of southern yellow pine was some twelve billion board feet. A conservative es- innate of the actual amount of tur- pentine alone, to say nothing of wood fiber and other materials, which could place the amount at not less than thirty million dollars. This is sur prising figure, when it is remembered that it represents an amount almost equal to the present annual produc- tion of gum spirits in this country. If this product were extracted from the wood and sold at even the current price of good wood turpentine, the the gross saving would be easily $14,- 100000.
 Men have realized for some time that an enormous waste of valuable substances is going on, and few have succeeded in extracting the tur- pentine and placing on the market material of fairly good quality. In 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 result of this, wood tur- pentine is at present often considered as an adulterated material, or at best as a poor substitute for gum spirits. It is true that in some cases these opinions are we'll founded, but infer for 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 val uable results have been obtained. It has been found that for the recovery Ol IuTpCutluc lIOL WdotcWOOO, LuC steam disillaion process is far su- perior 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 better grade and can demand a higher price. When properly made and refined experiments have shown that the steam turpentines are in many cases even more uniform in compost tion than the gum turpentines, and for all practical purposes contain the identical substances. The odor often ! can not be distinguished from that of