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220 ILLUSTRATED WORLD
of crude camphor secured from the various
parts of the camphor tree:
Wood 0.61%
Twigs 1.50%
Green Leaves 2.37%
Dried Leaves 2.52%
Dead Leaves 1.39$
And further, the camphor tree is made
to bear profitably at the age of six or
seven years by giving up its leaves and
twigs, and to bear annually. So instead
of waiting until the tree becomes fifty
years old and then killing it the modern
process is to harvest yearly, thus securing
many times as much camphor without
destroying the tree. In fact, when
the trees are correctly placed to form
hedges and then properly trimmed they
not only yield a satisfactory harvest of
camphor each year but also afford a
'most desirable ornamental or shade tree.
Although camphor can be secured by
distilling the fallen leaves, for the actual
benefit to the tree, for its appearance and
for the quality and quantity of camphor
secured it is much better practice to trim
back the trees each year and immediately
distill the fresh trimmings. In this connection
the United States Department of
Agriculture has to say :
"After the spring growth begins there
occurs the fall of the leaves twelve and
eighteen months old. Under normal
conditions all leaves remain on the tree
one full year. Distillations made from
leaves of different ages showed a slight
decrease in camphor content after maturity
is reached, but a large proportion
of the camphor remains in the leaf until
it falls. Distillations from dead leaves
fallen from the tree gave a yield of two
per cent of oil of camphor. The loss of
camphor in the leaf as it matures and
dies is greater, however, than the percentages
show, since there is also a loss
of water and a consequent decrease in the
weight of the material.
"With the twigs the difference is still
greater. At the close of the growing
season the twigs were found to contain as
high a percentage of camphor as the
leaves on them, but the yield from older
twigs was very low. This is due to the
fact that in the twigs the camphor is in
the bark and almost none is localized in
the new wood." (This is because there
is practically no camphor in the wood of
the tree until after it reaches the age of
ten.)
"These experiments show that if the
hedges are trimmed at the end of each
growing season a maximum quantity of
camphor is obtained with a minimum of
useless material to handle. The hedges
can be trimmed by machinery, so that the
cost of harvesting will be small, and with
some minor changes some types of machines
now in use can be utilized. The
Department of Agriculture is working on
the problem, but as yet the tests are incomplete.
After cutting, the trimmings
should be taken to the distilling plant at
once, since if they are allowed to dry in
the sun or remain exposed to the dew
and rain there is some loss of camphor."
Camphor finds about as ready sale as
steel—it is in ever increasing demand.
It is easier to enumerate what camphor
is not used for than what it is used for.
It is not used for many things that it
can be used for and will be used for when
America is producing camphor. At present,
however, camphor is perhaps the
most widely used of any drug, its medicinal
uses are innumerable; it is a great
insecticide, it is famed as a purifier, it is a
fever remedy. Tremendous quantities of
camphor are used in the conversion of
cellulose nitrate into celluloid and it is a
most important item in the pyroxylin
plastic industry in the United States. It
is used extensively in the manufacture of
artificial leather and for imitation rubber.
The photographic film manufacture alone
could practically use up the entire camphor
product at present, in consideration
of the volume of movie films being manufactured.
That the world at large is rapidly
awakening to the value of camphor is
emphasized by the fact that England has
planted the camphor tree in large quantities
in many of her provinces and is
using every method to facilitate the