TREES AND FORESTRY 47 extremely slow in growth. For piling, long-leaf, short-leaf and loblolly pine, white and red oak are used on the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, while Douglas fir supplies the demand in the Pacific region. Under the waning supply of durable woods, experiments have been in progress which prove that the power of posts, ties, poles, mine and wharf timbers to resist decay in moist situations may be greatly enhanced by treatment in a preservative fluid. So successful has been the work that it is likely to revolutionize the market as regards these products. By treatment, not only do the durable woods gain a lengthened period of service but also less durable woods may be made to take the place of durable woods. The United States Forest Service states the following concerning fence posts: “Resistance of all treated posts to decay is alike, regardless of kind of wood used; posts with much sapwood take a deeper impregnation of the preservative.”’ This means that the cheapest, least durable woods, like poplars, will come into service for posts, leaving the durable woods for use in interior finish and cabinetwork. According to the open-tank method of teatment (Fig. 38), formerly given the highest recommendation by the United States Forest Service, the wood is kept immersed in coal-tar creosote for a number of hours, depending on the kind of wood, and is then plunged into cold creosote, or is left in the cooling preservative over night. ‘Vhe wood should have been previously seasoned (Fig. 39) and its sapwood should be saturated with the oil. Brush treatment, by which the wood is painted with hot creosote, is less expensive, but also less effective because of the slight penetration by the oil (Fig. 40). Treatment in closed cylinders under pressure, is considered the best method as far as results are concerned, but it is five times as expensive as the tank method. The effectiveness of the tank treatment lies in two facts, namely, (1) creosote oil protects the wood from the entrance of water and (2) creosote — being antiseptic fungi which grow rapidly in damp situations and whose growth means decay protects the wood from the attacks of bacteria and various of the wood. ‘The theory that insures the impregnation of the wood by tank process is as follows: heating in the creosote expands the air contained in the wood until much of it is driven out; plunging the wood into cold preservative causes the air left to contract leaving a partial vacuum which is filled at once by the cold oil forced in by atmospheric pressure (also by capillarity).! Treatment of wharf timbers with creosote protects absolutely from marine borers (Fig. 41). Zine chloride is used to some extent in treatment of woods but the resulting protection is not permanent because the preservative is soluble in water.
1Theimportationof25,000,000gallonsofcreosoteintoNewYorkCityin1908wasan increaseof21,500,000gallonsoverthatof1904.Thisindicatesgreatdevelopmentofwood preservation.
FIG,40.BRUSHMETHODOFTREATMENT Cheaper but far less effective than a saturation method 48 FIG. 41. DESTRUCTION BY MARINE BORERS Piles at Norfolk, Virginia. Treatment of wharf timbers with creosote protects absolutelyfromsuchattacks
FIG. 42. BLACK WALNUT (Juglans nigra) 49 New England to Florida, Michigan to Texas. Wood hard, susceptible of a high polish, prized for cabinet work and interior finish. Forestry hall, Case G, 7-8
aks. the) mash VALUATION SURVEY AT WASHINGTON D, C. umount of saw timber in a forest but also the posts, ties, poles and firewood over and above 9 cD) ra o = ° = Ss S o o 2 = + oO — = 3 uw a2 xs oO D> a oS > pS pe =5 a onpa = ee >= a) — S | =| ac =p —8 — & Sl ig an) a qe Ss 0 ae n Pt ae oF — © eee ) qs 5.5 O -5 ge n 4 i=] oq 1D +
FIG44.GUMPICKER'SCAMP Spruce woods near Barneveld, N. Y. Gum gathered from the trunks of spruce trees is a paying by-product of the northern forest FIG. 45 SUGAR MAPLES AT BURLINGTON, VERMONT 51 Maple trees may be tapped for maple sugar and still yield good timber.
4 AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS Hardwoods and Cooperage White oak and elms have been the standards for cooperage work which, like tanbark, entails great waste of material. Coopers have been forced into using beech, red oak, maple, ash and birch, especially for slack cooperage barrels for dry materials). Logs grown for cooperage should be more than ten inches in diameter. Their market prices are unusually good. Beech, Maple, Birch, and Acid Factories In certain eastern districts acid factories demand large supplies of wood for distillation, preferably of beech, maple and birch (S000 cords per year). Some of the products of these factories are wood vinegar used in dye works; wood alcohol of special value in chemical works; acetic acid utilized as vinegar; and charcoal. A Timber Forest and tis Varied Products If a woodland consists, or can be made to consist in the future, of valuable trees grown for timber from the seed, the owner can well make his aim the production of saw logs for quartered and other high-priced lumber which will find ready sale in home or foreign market. A timber forest may have a wood capital twenty-five times as large as that of a sprout forest. Some of the most valuable timber trees are black walnut (Fig. 42), black cherry, white oak, white ash, hickory, red oak and sugar maple. In a timber forest the distance of trees from one another is an important item: if too far apart, the trunks do not clear well and the lumber is knotty; if too close together, the trunks remain too small in diameter.! A timber forest may vield many products besides high grade lumber? A forester can estimate not only the saw timber in the trees to be cut but the number of posts, ties, poles and firewood over and above this timber (Fig. 43). More and more the entire timber is being used, proving one of the most effective methods of conservation. This complete utilization has been made possible by the establishment in many localities of charcoal 1See‘RulesandRegulationsfortheGradingofLumber,”Bulletin71,ForestService, U.S.Dept.ofAgriculture 2 The following figures are of interest: TheUnitedStatesusesannually100,000,000cordsoffirewood 40,000,000,000 feet of lumber 1,000,000,000 posts and poles 118.000,000 railroad ties 1,500,000,000 staves 133,000,000 sets of heading 500,000,000 barrel hoops 3,000,000 cords of native pulp wood 165,000,000 feet of mine timbers 1,250,000 cords of wood for distillation
FIG. 46. TURPENTINE FOREST OCILLA, GEORGIA 53 Long-lcaf pine trees, if properly managed, may yield a turpentine product and have their timber value remain unimpaired. The Naval Stores industry of the United States in 1908 put out 36,500,000 gallons of turpentine and 4,000,000 barrels of rosin at a combinedvalueof$32,000,000
o4+ AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS blast furnaces and chemical plants to convert bark, limbs, edgings (Fig. 12) and even sawdust into some valuable product. If near a spool factory, birchlands may be profitable. Excelsior may be a paying product of mixed woodlands; the United States uses annually for excelsior 60,000,000 feet of timber (about 10,000 acres of forest). Each winter there is a large market for Christmas trees, especially near cities. Dealers estimate that New York City annually handles 125 carloads of Christmas trees, each carload containing 2000 trees. Large numbers of these come from the Adirondacks and from Canada. Gum picking may bring a considerable sum to dwellers near spruce forests (Fig. 44). The maple sugar and turpentine industries market “by-products” of a woodland without injuring its timber value, provided in the latter case that the trees are cut before injury comes to the chipped trees from insects or fungi (Figs. 45 and 46).
WORK OF FORESTATION ORESTRY is of economic interest to landowners throughout the country, but planting trees in largest numbers must lie with the western farmer on prairie or newly-irrigated land. Each farm there, as well as in the East, should have its wood lot. In installing tree plantations in these regions, not only must fast-growing trees be chosen but also the young trees must be protected in nurseries until strong enough to endure exposure and until possessing top enough to shade the ground, for in summer the soil becomes dry. Greatest success has come in raising hardy catalpa trees (Fig. 47). A famous experiment with this tree was made on the Yaggy plantation in Reno County. The trees were grown from seeds and the seedlings were transplanted when one year old between rows of corn to the permanent site. One hundred and twenty acres were planted in 1890, eighty acres in 1891, two hundred and forty acres in 1892. Ten years’ growth realized a net gain of $197.55 per acre, which amount will be greatly increased by a few years’ delay in harvesting. Hardy catalpa is a species with known values in the present market, i. e. trees six years old produce posts valued at ten cents each; trees fifteen years old make ties worth fifty cents each, and two or more posts besides; trees twenty-five vears old can be cut for telegraph poles which may realize fifty dollars each. Tree planting is advisable as follows:
(1). In the forest where gaps made in thinning or in removing a crop \eee