Vol. XLVI. No. 4 25 Cents a Copy October, 1933 MID-PACIFIC MAGAZINE lava Ire, un the bland 01 Hawaii—preserved by lily lava, cull; eh once encircled it. 1S 4, r r /coca --- ri I oil r gith_tittriftr maga3tur .;...%-• >„_.• CONDUCTED BY ALEXANDER HUME FORD 7. • Vol. XLVI. 4 Number 4 • 1• • CONTENTS FOR OCTOBER, 1933 • .0. ; 1 A World-Wide Study of Wood - - - - 303 By Professor Samuel J. Record • • .5. Birds of Vancouver Island - - - - - - 309 • By M. Eugene Perry r.' g 4 The Story of Coral - - - - - - 313 By F. A. McNeill 1 4• 1 i Growth of the Printing Industry in the Philippines - - 319 • By Jose A. Carpio • Edible Oils Used for Food - - - - - - 323 ,..4. 4 4 The Honduras Banana - - - - - - 327 ..;,.4! 4 • The Macadamia Nut Industry in Hawaii - - - - 331 ii By John Harden Connell I ■ Journal of the Pan-Pacific Research Institution - - - 333 • Vol. VIII, No.0° 9 ,.<4. (..4 Bulletin of the Pan-Pacific Union, New Series, No. 164 - 349 i i 11. • L My, viii-Farifir Ragaznt ' Published monthly by ALEXANDER HUME FORD, Pan-Pacific Club Building, Honolulu, T. H. Yearly sub- ; scription in the United States and possessions, $3.00 in advance. Canada and Mexico, $3.25. 1 For all foreign countries, $3.50. Single Copies, 25c. I Entered as second-class matter at the Honolulu Postoffice. i 4 Permission is given to reprint any article from the Mid-Pacific Magazine. ., mpAtmrnmp, 9999 • • • • • • • I • i • • • 1=7M7I J Printed by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Ltd. 302 THE MID-PACIFIC In Nature the location of a tree is purely through chance. It must grow where it starts or not at all: and for those who can read it, the tree writes in wood a plain autobiography THE MID-PACIFIC .303 The banyan tree of the tropics, whose aerial roots produce additional trunks. UPVII177117r"IAMMI A World-Wide Study of Wood By SAMUEL J. RECORD, Professor of Forest Products, School of Forestry, Yale University Before the Pan-Pacific Science Weekly Meeting, May 19, 1933 This world-wide study of wood in- furniture woods, such as mahogany or volves the working together of individ- your koa, or any other beautiful furni- uals, institutions, and others engaged in ture wood, have just beneath the surface research on wood and its uses in all parts a rich golden luster that cannot be of the world, for scientific institutions are imitated. You saw tonight a very thin coming more and more to realize the im- sheet of plywood, but despite its thinness portance of cooperation, not merely in the wood on the surface will show the name, but in fact. same luster, the same configurations, The Wonders of Wood flashings, variations, that you would find in solid pieces. Though you try to re- There is nothing in common use about produce it exactly, a picture or painting which so little is really known as wood. lacks that changeability or "life." The No one invented or discovered wood. It eyes in a portrait, painted straight-for- has been always with us. We take it as a matter of course, and yet wood is one ward, seem to follow you about as you of the most remarkable substances in all change your position. Wood is not like the world. Consider it from any angle that, for it has a myriad aspects and to and you still have something at which to no two people does it present an identical marvel. There is beauty of color, and appearance at one time,—and that is a you get all colors and shades, except reason one never tires of lovely wood- bright green and bright blue. Cabinet or work. 304 THE MID-PACIFIC Wood is a material of manifold uses. but a tree does not reciprocate that in- It provides fuel, building materials of all terest in the least. From the tree's stand- kinds, furniture, vehicles, implements point man must be classed as a blight or and an endless list of accessories to our ravaging pest, the archenemy of the daily wants. Reduce it to its component forest. fibre and you have the basis for the great It is important to keep in mind that paper industry. Cut paper into narrow wood is made by a tree to serve its own strips, twist it tightly and you have cord- purposes. That is why there is such an age ; weave this and you have paper tex- infinite variety of woods ; that is why tiles for emergency clothing. Dissolve there is so much variation in the wood wood substance, squeeze it out through from trees of the same species and even tiny holes like the spinnerets of a spider from different parts of the same indivi- and you get silk that rivals the product dual. In nature the location of any given of the silk worm. tree is purely through chance ; it must Through processes of extraction there grow where it starts or not at all. Whether are obtained tanning materials, dyes, buffeted by winds or storms or in some mordants, resins, gums and many other protected spot, whether in good soil or useful things. Through distillation there poor, in keen competition with other trees is obtained gas, wood alcohol, acetic acid, or by itself, subject to the ravages of wood tar and charcoal, while resinous disease and fire or immune from these woods produce, in addition, turpentine dangers, all of these are reflected in the and oils. Trace these to their final uses quality and character of the wood pro- and you will marvel at the extent to which duced. For those who can read it, the these derivatives of wood are interwoven tree writes in its wood a plain auto- in the complex fabric of our civilization. biography. And these are by no means all. Wood The Need for Scientific Study of Wood was made from sugar and chemists can Though the timber we use is a salvage turn it back to sugar so that wood is a product, we often complain because it rots possible source of food for man and beast. or is eaten by insects, or burns, or other- Introduce yeast into a wood sugar solu- wise fails to meet certain of our needs tion and "grain" alcohol is produced. Re- for which it was not primarily intended. fine wood substance and pure cellulose is But did you ever stop to think that in obtained which can he used in place of the great scheme of nature if wood did cotton for powerful explosives. not decay or in some way disintegrate But why extend the list? A substance into its original elements, it would ac- that can afford us shelter, heat, light, cumulate and finally choke out all vege- clothing, food, drink, means of transpor- tation ? Nature seeks to preserve wood tation by land, sea or air, tools and ma- only so long as it is serving the purpose chines, writing and printing materials, of a living tree, after that it becomes the and so on to the end of man's wants— legitimate prey to all the elements of de- surely such a substance is deserving of struction. Man's interest in wood nor- our highest esteem. Can any one claim mally begins where that of the tree leaves a thousandth part as much for clay or off, and upon him falls the burden of stone or concrete or metal? There is no thwarting the agencies of disintegration. better measure of civilization than the ex- If we would use woods intelligently we tent to which wood is utilized. must learn the shortcomings as well as Wood Designed for the Tree, Not for the merits of each kind and to the ac- Man cumulated wisdom of experience add the What is wood ? It is an intricate struc- scientific knowledge of the laboratory. ture built up by a tree to serve the tree's So long as wood is directly useful to own needs. Man is interested in trees a tree it is fully saturated with water. THE MID-PACIFIC 305 A sawmill in Queensland, Australia, and a trainload of its products. For most purposes for which man em- sible had it not been for the many years ploys wood it is necessary that it be dried. of painstaking delving in the pure science The drying process is always accompanied of timber by laboratory workers who by shrinkage which is very unequal in the seemed apart from the busy world but different dimensions, thus causing warp- were able to come to the front and lead ing, twisting, and splitting. Centuries of the way out of a great emergency. practical experience evolved slow drying Every Wood Peculiar to Itself methods that served well enough in more It is a matter of common knowledge leisurely times, but are not in step with that woods are not all alike. Their dif- the tempo of modern business. Through ferences in composition, color, odor, grain, the practical application of principles dis- texture, weight, strength and durability covered by timber physicists it is now are of much economic importance in the possible to fell living trees, cut the green timber industry. What is not so generally timber into lumber. pass it through dry appreciated is that there are no two woods kilns, and have it in finished and manu- exactly alike. In a great many cases it is factured form in a few weeks with more now possible to identify a wood with cer- satisfactory results than could be ob- tainty as to its genus, frequently as to its tained by the old methods in years section of a genus, and sometimes as to of open-air seasoning.