The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-15
UTILIZATION OF
 THE YELLOW PINE
Waste Will Be Stopped By the
 Forest Service
MANY VALUABLE PRODUCTS
Shortage In Southern Yellow Pine Will Be Forestaled By Better Use Being Made of Varied
 Products.

Products.
 Washington October 14.-(Special) l)-'In 15 or 20 years at the present rate of cut ting, the supply of the long leaf yellow pine of the south, one of Americas most useful forest trees, will be nearly eN- hausted" say the experts of the United States forest service. If these pine for ests are wiped out one of the south's i'm portant industries will die-the production of the so-called naval stores.
 The lumber of the southern yellow pine brings s15 to S35 per thousand feet, itsftur- pentine 56 cents per gallon, it's rosin from l35 to- .95 per eS0 pounds, and it's pitch s. .25 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. Formerly turpentine could be purchased for 90 cents a gallon Now 56 cents must be paid at wholesale and the consumer of gallon lots will pay at times as high as Sl.
 In the face of these fast increasing prices, people are still found who say that there is yet an nexhaustible supply of yellow pine in the south, and that all talk about a famine Is unwarranted. Such statements are not justified by condtions,l and the yellow pine numbering industry will soon be in the face of a serious shortage unless decided changes are made in the present methods, and unless val uable products now going to waste are utilized. The long leaf pine is a slow growing tree and does not make timber with anywhere near the rapdity that 1t is being cut. The situation calls for 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 a result of careless lumbering in the past. This material is rich in turpentine and could be made to yield from ten to fifteen gallons of re- fined spirits per cord Besides this, tbere is a great waste at the sawmills in the form of slabs edgings, and sawdust all of which must have a value, but at pres ent is, for the most part, simply 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 12,Q000 00O0,- 900 board feet A conservative 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 3O,000,- 900 gallons. This is a surprising figure when 1t is remembered that it represents an amount almost equal to the present annual production of gum spirits in this country. If this product were extracted from the wood and sold at even the cur rent price of good wood turpentine, the gross saving would be easily $14, 900.
 Men have realized for some time that an enormous waste of valuable substances is going on, and a few have succeeded in extracting the turpentine and placing on the market a material of a fairly good quality. In the majority of cases, how ever, 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 present often considered as an aduter- ated material, or at best as a poor sub stitute 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 in- dustry.
 The section of wood ch emistry of the forest service has lately been investi- gating this subject, and some valuable results have been obtained. It has been found that for the recovery of turpen- tine from wastewood, the steam distil lation process is far superior to that of distilling the wood destructively. The crude turpentine is in all cases. more uniform, and the final refined ma terials 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 composition than the gum turpen- tines. and for all practical purposes contain the identical substances. The odor often can not be distinguished from that of the gum spirits, but even if it could, this is a small matter in many cases, as infinitesimal and un- detectable amounts of certain impuri- ties left in the refined product as the result of the methods of production cah produce this slight difference in odor, and the wood turpentine should not be condemned for practical purposes on this account This becomes still more evident when it is known that the sweet odor of the gum turpentine is not characteristic of itself, but is due to an impurity produced by the chem icaI action of air upon it.
 These are important discoveries and are well worthy of consideration. If they are true, then refined steam tur- .pentine properly prepared, should bring at least an equal price in this country with the gum turpentne. In- is often tl c and instances are on record where the re- fined steam turpentine has, by virtue of it's more uniform composition. brought five cents a gallon more than the gum spirits, and is in much greater demand. Further investigations along these lines will be pushed vigorously .bv the forest service.