The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-06-12
EVERGREEN LEAF OILS.
Find Their Way Into Shoe Backing
Giving Peculiar 0dor.

Shoe backing owes its peculiar arc
matte odor, family suggestive Of til
deep woods where spruce or hemlocl
needles pad the ground, to an oil whel
is manufactured from these same kind
of needles Similar oils are obtaine,
from the foliage and small twigs OF va
rious cone hearing trees, and find use fol
"a number OF purposes. In Europe thu
finer of these ellis are used extensively
as perfume in soap. They are common
lcomponents of liniments and other medi
Icinal preparations. Cedar oil is chiefly
used in the preparation of insecticides
land, to some extent, in making liniment
Investigations OF the yield and the
value Of the the oil obtainable from
some of our southern and western trees
have been made by the forest service
partly with view to the possible utili-
cation of waste material left after lum-
herring in the national forests. In these
investigations, longleaf and western vel
low pine leaves produced the most prom
Using results, but the needle oils obtained
from these pines did not surpass the al
ready firmly established spruce and hem
lock oils. The large quantities of nee
dies and twigs on forest service timber
sale areas are not only a sheer waste,
but also form a special fire hazard. An
increased market for leaf oil would make
possible the utilization of some of this
waste material.
The industry. though small, is fair
ly old in the United States. The value
of the annual production of needle oil is
about $4,000. Black and white spruce
and eastern hemlock produce very SINH
lar oils. 10000 TO $4,000 pounds annual
ly. worth As to 90 cents per pound. Red
cedar produces 100000 TO 20,000,000 Of
oil having the same value per pound as
the spruce and hemlock oil. A few other
species furnish the rest OF the confer
leaf oil produced in the United States.
Besides the home product, small quanti
ties of needle oil are imported from Eu-
rope. One of these. given fir oil. brings
four dollars q pound. In most cases
these oils have pleasant odor. A few
are disagreeable when first distilled but
become pleasant with age.
The greater portion OF the oil produced
in the United States is distilled by small
farmers in New England during the
winter months when farm work is slack.
In 1912. a Seattle firm began the distil- !
lation of leaf oil from western red cedar
on large scale. but found that at the
going market value Of 40 cents a pound 1
the oil scarcely repaid the cost of pro
iuctiou. Il was chiefly used in manu- /
featuring an insecticidc containing Is 4
per cent Of cedar oil and IS per cent Of
In absorbent made from the finely ground /
shells Of peach pits. -Four dollars and
, half 10 five dollars and . half per ton /
depending on the oil cement. wss paid I
or the leaves and twigs. n
A firm at Grants Pass. Oregon. has
ratents covering methois and apparatus
or utilizing western yellow pine needles
n the production Of fibre after the oil is
emoved b. distillation. Their plant con-
lists Of wooden tanks vith steam CON
iections with a daily capacity IF 700
'ounds Of raw material from which ten
'ounis ~ oil are ohssinei and. By suit
BE treatment. the spent needles pro