NOTES AND COMMENT 



To everyone who has reflected upon the profound importance of 

 paper in the maintenance of our modern civilization there will be matter 

 of interest in the report made by Franklin H. Smith, Statistician of the 

 Forest Service, on the production of wood pulp in 1918. During that 

 year 5,251,000 cords of wood were converted into 3,319,000 tons of 

 pulp in the United States. This production represents a decrease of 

 6% from the preceding year, at the same time that our imports of wood 

 pulp fell from 605,000 to 516,000 tons, and our exports of news print 

 paper increased 5% and some other classes of paper as much as 14 f ", . 

 In these war time figures lies a large part of the explanation of the recent 

 shortage of paper and consequent increase in the subscription price of 

 most newspapers and journals. In 1918 over 75% of the wood used for 

 pulp was domestic or imported spruce, hemlock, and balsam fir, the 

 heaviest cuttings of these trees being made in Maine, New York, Wis- 

 consin, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. In view of the growing 

 shortage of hardwood lumber it is interesting to note that inroads are 

 now being made on such trees as maple, beech, birch, and chestnut for 

 wood pulp, although they form only about 4% of the total amount of 

 wood consumed. The soda and sulphate processes are used for the 

 reduction of hardwoods, while the sulphite and mechanical method 

 are used for the conifers. 



The incredible view that certain evergreen plants possess "starch 

 leaves" and "fat leaves" has been refuted by Miss Gwynethe M. 

 Tuttle for several herbaceous plants of western Canada (Annals of Bot- 

 any, April, 1919). In late October the leaves were found to be poor in 

 starch and rich in fats and oils. When potted plants of Linnaea and 

 Pyrola and shoots of Picea were subjected to a temperature of 68°F. 

 in the dark there was a reappearance of starch and a disappearance of 

 the fats and oils. The epidermal cells of Linnaea are without starch 

 during the summer, but filled with globules of oil in the autumn. In 

 from two to eight days at the higher temperature the epidermal cells 

 were found to contain a large amount of starch. The presence of lipase 

 was demonstrated in the material. No evidence w T as found to indicate 



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