University of Idaho School of Forestry - Forester Yearbook (Moscow, ID)

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THE PLACE OF CHEMICAL RESEARCH IN FORESTRY E. C. JAHN Associate Professor of Forestry THE proper utilization of the products of the forest is just as important a part of the science of forestry as is the growing of timber. Forest utilization has concerned it- self primarily with lumber and timbers which, both in quantity, as represented by board feet of wood consumed, and in value, are our most important forest products. These products possess in general the properties of the origi- nal wood in the tree and, because of these properties, such as strength, lightness, elas- gm: WEB static complex structure is still the subject of intensive investigation. Woon OFFERS MUCH STUDY Neither botanically nor chemically is wood a homogeneous substance. Botanically it is made up of a variety of cells, most of which are spindle-shaped fibers about 1 mm. long in hardwoods and 1.5 to 9 mm. long in conifers or softwoods. Communication exists between most of the cells in wood by means of pits in tk The lfVood Conversion Laboratory is oi Valuable Addition to the Idaho School of Forest'ry. ticity, and workability, they are particularly useful for structural purposes. There are, however, many very important and valuable forest products which no longer resemble the wood from which they were ob- tained. The wood is the raw material for these products which are manufactured principally by chemical processes. Wood as a raw ma- terial is becoming increasingly important as a basis for chemical and technological proc- esses which furnish man with many useful articles. First let us briefiy consider the raw ma- terial-wood. Wood is organic tissue pro- duced by biochemical and physiological proc- esses and is, therefore, a complex substance. A knowledge of the chemistry of wood is fun- damental to its utilization by any of the chemi- cal processes. Of the mechanism of the growth and synthesis of the various components of wood we know practically nothing, Our knowledge of wood is only of the product as has been elaborated by the plant, and yet this their walls. The cells are all cemented to one another by a common medial layer known as lamella. This cementing layer or the middle matrix is made up of a complex material not clearly defined, and known as lignin. The cell walls are composed mostly of a strong tough substance, cellulose, together with hemi- celluloses and some lignin. The cell wall en- closes a lumen or central cavity which con- tains extraneous material, since these cavities function in the storage of food, the transporta- tion of food and water, and in other life proc- esses. The scope of this paper does not permit dis- cussion of the chemistry of these major com- ponents of wood. Although the chemistry of wood still offers many baffling problems, the gradual unfolding of these mysteries adds to human knowledge and in turn to the increased usefulness of wood to man. There are several important chemical in- dustries which depend upon the forest for their raw material and yet do not utilize wood. For

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14 THE IDAHO FORESTER grazing capacity of the available range, plus supplemental feed if provided, should be prac- ticed. It is inhuman to raise game in the summer and let it suffer the agonies of starva- tion in winter. Where there is conflict be- tween game and livestock on National Forest lands, a balance between the interests of both should be worked out. Game and livestock are both valuable resources and one must not un- necessarily crowd out the other. The problem of game on private lands is ditlicult to solve. Fortunately most land owners are friendly to- ward game and gladly tolerate game in rea- sonable numbers and complain only when it becomes burdensome. Lands which are the key to a particular game problem should be publicly owned and administered primarily for the benefit of game. This applies chieiiy to game winter rangesg summerranges are usu- ally adequate. CHANGES NEEDED IN GAME LAWS The conditions surrounding each game herd vary, with no two herds having the same prob- lems to meet. This brings out the need for fiexibility in game laws to permit the handling of any game herd as a unit, separate and apart from other herds, in accordance with its par- ticular conditions and needs. Big game con- servation has a wider field than mere law en- forcement and most of the states have now enacted laws giving to some one, either the Fish and Game Commissioner, a Game Com- mission, or a Board, authority to regulate hunting seasons, limit the kill as to numbers and sex for the purpose of controlling numbers where necessary to prevent range depletion and damage to private property and to use wisely any surplus of game that may exist. The first duty of every game administrator is to produce the maximum amount of game consistent with the forage supply and eco- nomic needs of the people. The ideal would be to remove only the surplus game animals. A surplus may be considered as existing when numbers exceed the year-long forage supply fnatural or artificialj, when control is neces- sary to safeguard against undue damage to private property, when the density of game is out of balance with numbers of livestock, and when there is a greater ratio of males to females than is necessary to maintain a proper breeding herd. The application of management principles will provide for producing and maintaining the greatest number of game animals possible on any given area and will also give the sportsmen maximum hunting privileges con- sistent with the welfare of the individual game herds. On some areas less hunting would be necessary, while on others it would be in- creased. Ultimately with wise management, the optimum of numbers would be reached and under a system of regulated hunting the perpetuation of game would be assured and the needs of the sportsmen, recreationists, and big game lovers would be provided for to the highest degree possible. THE NEW PUBLIC DOMAIN UCH has been said in recent years about the public domain remnant of the original public land wealth of the United States, comprising the culled over leavings after the more desirable lands had been privately acquired. Its final disposition is a problem of great mag- nitude. But there is a new and somewhat similar problem that is of growing importance. Forest land from which the original timber crop has been removed is gradually going through the stages of tax delin- quency until, as county land, it becomes a new public domain-a new no man's land -since the counties are doing no more with it than has the government undertaken hitherto with the old public domain. There are some distinct differences. The old public domain is constant in size or, if anything, slowly diminishing. The new public domain is growing very rapidly. The old public domain is the the poorer land,' the new public domain was originally the best of the timber producing lands. M. H. WOLFF.

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16 example, in the production of naval stores fturpentine, pine oil, rosinj, maple syrup, rubber, tung oil, and many other products the woody structure of the tree is not utilized, but materials which are naturally produced by the tree and only require collection are used. Only those industries which utilize the Woody struc- ture will be considered here. CHARCOAL INDUSTRY CENTURIES OLD Although most chemical industries depend- ing upon wood as raw material are of recent development, there are some which originated several centuries or more ago. The most notable example is the destructive distillation of wood. However, the modern wood distilla- tion industry is a far cry from the charcoal making of five centuries ago. The old collier THE IDAHO FORESTER duction of acetic acid, acetone and wood alcohol. The pulp and paper industry is the greatest of the chemical forest industries and is the seventh ranking industry in the United States. Paper was invented by the Chinese in 105 A. D. and was made by hand from that time until after the middle of the past century. With the advent of the chemical processes for producing pulp from wood, the paper industry passed, in a relatively short time, from making a few hundred hand sheets per day to mills produc- ing 400 tons of paper for the same period of time. Paper is a thin sheet of plant fibers made by separating the individual fibers in the plant and then felting them together again in a uni- form sheet. Since wood is composed mainly The Wood Conversion Laboratory Contains Considerable Modern Equipment and Machinery for Instructional Purposes. obtained only charcoal from wood and thereby unwittingly burned and wasted the most valu- able products. At present, thanks to research, chemicals which were formerly lost in gases and smoke are now the most important prod- ucts of wood distillation. The more im- portant chemical products are acetic acid, wood alcohol, acetone and tar oils which rind wide industrial uses as solvents, for the manu- facture of one form of rayon, in preparing formaldehyde, synthetic resins, various druys, dyes, perfumes, and other valuable products. The wood distillation industry is constantly undergoing radical development and improve- ment in economy of manufacture, in yield of products, in the refinement of products and the recovery of by-products. In the more re- cent plants sawdust and chipped waste wood may be fed continuously to the distillation re- torts, effecting both economy and improved production. The refinement of the products is carried out in complex modern chemical en- gineering equipment. It is believed that with these improvements the industry will be able to compete successfully with the synthetic pro- of fiber-shaped cells it is an excellent raw material for paper. But in order to separate these cellulose fibers the cementing substance, lignin, must be removed. The gradual accumu- lation of research on Wood during the nine- teenth century led to the discovery of the present-day pulping process in which the lig- nin is dissolved from the Wood, thereby freeing the fibers. WOOD A RAW MATERIAL FOR TEXTILES As in other modern industries, research is constantly bringing about improvements. The actual pulping processes are still but imper- fectly known and are the center of very in- tensive research. The number of forest spe- cies which may be used for pulp is gradually being enlarged. Also improved pulping proc- esses and the development of pulp refining methods is broadening the market for pulp. Highly purihed wood pulp is competing to a greater extent with cotton as a raw material for rayon and other cellulose products. A new industry which is related to the pulp and paper industry is the manufacture of fiber LContinued on page 495