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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 23, 1963)
2 B MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23. 1963 Economic Backbone of Oregon Feted The fiber which is the econo mic backbone of Oregon is be ing feted during National For est Products week, Oct. 20-26, say the Oregon Committee of American Forest Products In dustries, Inc. Today there are some 10,000 products made of wood. The manufacturing of these products now account for some 50 per cent of the jobs and 54 per cent of the payroll of Oregon's manufacturing industry. Oregon's economy literally stands on wooden legs. Since the early pioneer days of the Oregon Territory, wood and wood products have served as major factors in the develop ment and growth of the state. However, the scene is an ever changing one as science and technology find new keys to uses of the magic fibers which come from our surrounding forests. Reducing Pills In this day of space explora tion, wood is finding its way into nosecones of missiles. As our figures grow around the waist and the scales read higher, men and women add to Ihe consumption of wood by reaching for their reducing pills. Wood pulp is a basic in gredient of several popular re ducing pills. The loss of appe tite is brought about by the expansion of the pulp in your stomach. Milady's fineries are often found to be wood as wood pulp is dissolved and scientifically spun into rayon. Newspapers are obvious wood products in their familiar form. However, less obvious are ci garette filters and cellophane wrappers. Another even more obscure use of the magic fiber is its transformation into plas tics. Wood by-products are ba sic components of the plastic in your telephone. Other Wood Products Wood products and by-products are found all around us to day. Quite often the presence of wood is not recognizable, but it is generally there. As men tioned above, plastics have wood in them so do such items as lacquers, photographic film and disinfectants. For that matter, wood pro duces acetic acid which goes into perfumes; baking yeast used by the baking industry; bu tadiene which is used in syn thetic tires; carbonic acid used in industrial chemicals; ethyl alcohol used in solvents; cattle feed and chicken feed; glycer ine used in medicines and in dustrial chemicals; sugars used in stock feed and ethanol. The list of products made from wood and wood distillation and hydrolysis is endless and these mentioned here are but a very few. The committee points out that wood is making our life more comfortable, is he'"ing stretch our buying power and helping raise our standards of living. National Forest Products week gives us all an opportunity to give this great natural resource a little thought. Oregon has provided wood to the nation and will continue to do so so long as man lives on this earth. Sound forest man agement is assuring the perpet ual supply of an abundant amount of timber to fill man's needs, the committee adds. Imports Helped To Mold Lives of Ancient Chinese and many were the wealthy Chi nese who took instruction from some "barbarian" in the art of mastering a foreign instrument. Porcelain Horses The Tang dynasty is noted for the magnificent procclain horses created by its artisans. But little known is that fact that important as horses were, mostly for purposes of war, the finest steeds came from other lands. It was not uncommon, says Schafer, for a vassal state to send the emperor thousands of horses. Merchants often brought whole herds (o sell and the Chi nese snapped them up. From the west came Arabian chargers and from the north, lough, long-winded plains ponies "loved and admired." Maps and books on science from western nations, metal armor and precious jewels, silks and textiles, drugs and fancy foods all found their way into China and helped mold the fab ric of life during T ang. Itv JAMKS J. IIKAI.V SAN FRANCISCO (IJPI) When scholars and sinologists refer to the glories of ancient China chances are they mean the more than three centuries of ' Ihe T'ang dynasty, from about (103 to (117 A D. The men of T'ang (pronounc ed Tong) gave the world fine porcelain, its first block print ing, paper and gun powder. A little known trulh of the "Glory of T'ang" was the ex tent of importing done during that era, either by camel train from the north and west or by huge junks which plied the oceans lo such far away places as Africa. Sinologist Kdward II Schafer recently brought to light in a volume published by the Univer sity of California Press the thirst for exotics during the time of T'ang. Titled the "Golden Peaches of Samarkand," Schafer's work at tempts to explain the natural de sire for objects from "enchanted lands." In this, he says, the Chinese of the period were lit tle different than Americans of today with Iheir purchases of cameras from Germany and Japan, autos from Kngland, fur niture from Denmark and per fumes from France. Were Tributes T r e e s bearing the "Golden Peaches'' were sent to the Chi nese court as a tribute fro m the Iranian city - state of Sa markand. Schafer said he titled his book from thorn "because Ihe peaches symlxly.e all the exotic things longed for ... by Ihe people of Ihe T'ang empire." Other tribute often took more lnarre forms, such as the two albino troglodytes sent by Cam bodia, or the heavily bearded Aiiuis brought to the "Middle Kingdom" from Japan. Hut along with those ambas sadors w h o brought tributes fame merchants from far lands i all considered barbarians by t h e Chinese) whose caravans carried spices and aromatic woods, brocades and small, rare animals, richly plumed birds for the pleasure of Ihe private citi zens, books and metals Other things brought to Cbang'an, the capital city of T'ang, were intangibles, such as music. Imported "western" m u s i c was greatly favored during T'ang. according lo Schafer, LOGGING Requires Modern Machines Clay's logging Co. uses a Caterpillar 955 Traxcavator for loading logs on the landing. Although some of the biggest logs have to be "one-ended" the landing is kept clear and trucks loaded out fast. The 955 will easily pull trucks or do other jobs quickly wtihout loss of time. FRONT END LOADERS CUT COSTS - PLUS -the Caterpillar loader moves to a new landing fast and is readv to work immediately. -sorting over a wide area is easy with the Caterpillar loader and it will help to prepare the landing. -trucks can be towed and countless other odd jobs around the landing can be done with the Caterpillar loader while your other tractors are doing more Im portant work. -the Caterpillar loader costs less to buy, costs less to operate and costs less to maintain than shovel-type loaders. YOUR CATERPILLAR DEALER CRATER LAKE MACHINERY CO. Redmond, Oregon Medford, Oregon Klamfah Falls, Oregon Caterpillar, Cat and Traxcavaior are Registered Trademarks of Caterpillar Tr.icicr Co. REMODEL YOUR KITCHEN? See Our Complete Display of Beautiful MODEL KITCHENS Featuring Lovely, Natural Finish HARDWOOD CABINETS By ySfadlfnt, Available in a wnle range of sues and finishes, competitive ly pr iced (or emetic ting cr new construe' ion. THE KITCHEN CENTER, Division of... 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