OLD PINE STUMPS BECOME 'ASSETS BY LATEST PROCESSES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 77, 16 December 1949, Page 3

OLD PINE STUMPS BECOME 'ASSETS BY LATEST PROCESSES

A wide variety of new uses for chemicals extracted from old pine stumps is bringing new value to thousands of acres of stumplands in the southern part of the United States.

Three basic chemicals obtained from pine stumps—rosin, turpentine and pine oil—are used to manufacture products ranging from protective coatings to plastics, from printing inks to shoe polish. The chemicals also are used in solvents for lacquers and waxes, thinners for paints and varnishes, synthetic camphor, sizing for paper and paper boards, laundry soaps and soap powders.

The pine stumps were left as wastage when lurhbermen sawed their way through the virgin forests years ago. Until World War I, practically all pine-tree chemicals—known as “naval stores”—were obtaine from the gum of living trees. Recent processes, however, have made it practical to extract them from pine stumps and fallen pine tops. As a result, more turpentine and rosin were extracted from pine stumps and fallen tree tops last year than was obtained by tapping live pines, according to the magazine Science News Letter.

The stumps are rooted out ground with . bulldozers, chopped into better size for /handling, washed, ground, shredded and then processed either by steam distillation or heating in sealed vessels. The steam process separates the turpentine, pine oil, rosin and other products, , leaving a residue th.at may be used as fuel or as pulp for paper making. In the second process, the basic wood is destroyed. The gases are driven off and condensed, yielding fvood turpentine, tars, tar oils, rosin pitch, and charcoal.