The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-07-19
LEAD PENCIL SUPPLY MAY SOON GIVE OUT
AMERICAN CEDAR FROM WHICH THE PENCIL WOOD COMES IS
 ABOUT EXHAUSTED.
NOTHING TO TAKE ITS PLACE
Scarcity Will Be Felt All Over Eu- rope-GeFmany Uses 100000 Tons
 of This Wood a Year.

of This Wood Year.
 An impending shortness of lead pen ,ils throughout the entire world is forecast in cuffent number of the Scientific American, unless a substitute wood can be found to take the place of the practically exhausted supply of American pencil cedar. The proper lies of the native pencil cedar-which includes the Northern red cedar and Southern cedar-are so marked and 90 different from those of other com nercial woods that it seems almost hopeless to find a satisfactory sub stitute- Even now earnest experi- ments are being made with several varieties in the hope of finding a suit with an African variety of wood resembling cedar.
 There is no other wood-using in- dsstry in the United States so depen-1 dent upon a single species as the pen ell industry is upon red cedar,'' says the scientific journal "The scarcity of the pencil material will son be felt also in Europe. A firm in Nuren-S burg. Germany, makes annually over 300. 100000 lead pencils out of the Am erican cedar. About 100000 tons, or 7,6OO,000 cubic feet of wood are re- uuired for making these pencils. An equal amount is consumed annually In the United States in the pencil inc dustry alone. This makes a total of over 200, 900 tons, or about 15.000, GOO cu- bic feet of wood annually; or g. little Over 500 tons of cedar wood are used tor pencils each day in the year How long the supply will last at this rate of consumption is difficult to say, but 1t is certain that unless a. suitable substitute is introduced some. of the &-1,a,4 inside Of a few years.
 The requirements for wood used in the pencil industry are most rigid. The wood mnst be soft, light, strong, close and strong grained, free from defects. and must not check or warp. The physical properties of cedar are sub- ject to considerable variations due to soil and climatic conditions, and for this reason 1t must be carefully in- spected and graded as to quality. The Iightest and softest wood is produced in the swampy hunmocks of Florida and Georgia.
 .sTheS older the tree the softer and better the wood becomes. The wood of the shell of rotten logs is said to be the best for making lead pencils. The hard f1intY wood. such as is obs tained principally from trees on the dry upland or near its western limit of distribution is considered poor grade. |
 Pencil makers both in this country and abroad have long since been searching for a suitable wood to take the placs of cedar. and an announce rfent fmmAbeen made that a substitute was discovered in East Africa which may be obtained in sufficiently large quantities at. reasonable price. In Europe this announcement was ac- cepted at it's full face value. In Arnerica the pencil makers prefer to wait. pending more exact information for fear that this discovery may share the fate of many others, which, under the rigorous test of quality, amount of available supply and cost of produc- tion. have failed to realize the antici- patton formed by them or even to es- tablish a claim to commercial value. There can be very little doubt, how ever. in case Of the wood from East Africa, because it is known to be a very good wood, and pencil makers have tested it and found it to be an excellent substitute for the American cedar.
 ssThe introduction of a new wood is usually very slow, and the promoters and exploiters of strange woods fre- quently score heavy losses although the kinds they import are good and useful. This East African cedar is now being imported into Germany and it is likely that it will soon be used in this country. The tree which yields this wood is very closely allied 
 tanically as Juniperus procera. It forms a beautiful tree from 75 to | 125 feet in height, and from 2 to 4 feet in diameter. Sclater an English naturalist, states that in British East Africa the tree often attains height of 200 feet and a diameter of feet. East African cedar is distributed over the mountainous districts from Abys-; sinia souttward into German East Africa, and is found In great abund- ance around Kilimandschare.
 Similar to our native cedar, the wood is soft, light, durable, easily worked, highly scented, of good color, uniform texture, and fine grained. The annual rings of growth are indistinct to the unaided eye. The surface ex- posed by cutting the wood with sharp knife is very smooth and has a satiny lustre. These are facts which will place this wood on a par with the American pencil cedar, not only in the manufacture of lead pencils, but for other purposes requiring especially fine grained and durable wood.''