THE PAPER AND PULP INDUSTRY 

 AND CONSERVATION 



By B, R, GOGGINS 



An address delivered by the author, representing the American Paper and Pulp Association at the 

 opening of the Forest Products Laboratory, June 4, 1910 



IT IS gratifying to the paper and pulp 

 manufacturers of this country that 

 the paper industry is specifically in- 

 cluded within the purposes of this in- 

 stitution. 



Wisconsin is the greatest paper- 

 making state of the middle west, and 

 ranks third in the Union. Its location, 

 the extent and variety of its forest 

 products and other natural conditions 

 make it fairly typical of the paper- 

 making sections of the United States 

 and an ideal location for this Forest 

 Products Laboratory. 



Wisconsin's seventy-five mills, owned 

 by forty-five different concerns, manu- 

 facture annually 459,000 tons of paper, 

 264,900 tons of groundwood pulp. 

 216,000 tons of sulphite pulp, or a total 

 annual product of 939,900 tons, requir- 

 ing annually for the production of such 

 groundwood and sulphite pulps (480,900 

 tons), 300,000 cords, or 645,000 tons 

 of spruce, and 540,000 cords, or i-, 

 350,000 tons of hemlock. 



Thirty years ago, as compared with 

 to-day, but little paper was made or 

 used in this country. At that time, little 

 or no groundwood pulp was made, and 

 no chemical pulp at all in the west. 

 Commencing shortly after that time, 

 groundwood pulp from poplar was 

 made and used on a small scale, and 

 within the next ten years, owing to its 

 superior quality, groundwood pulp 

 from spruce was largely used. 



About twenty-five years ago, sulphite 

 pulp came into use in a very small way, 

 and for a number of years was made 

 entirely from spruce ; but, as this tim- 

 ber became scarcer, hemlock came into 



use for this purpose and has since been 

 used therefor with success. 



Less than twenty-five years ago. 

 paper-makers of Wisconsin regarded 

 the supply of spruce in this state as in- 

 exhaustible, but it grows sparsely and 

 mixed with other timber, and in a few 

 years they were undeceived, and for 

 some years past have been forced to 

 look to Minnesota and Canada for a 

 supply of this timber. 



An important progressive step was 

 the combined use of sulphite, manufac- 

 tured from the more plentiful hemlock, 

 with groundwood pulp from spruce. 

 But, notwithstanding our va^t forests 

 of hemlock and spruce, it soon became 

 apparent that without provision for 

 new growths and use of other kinds of 

 timber or vegetation, the supply of both 

 hemlock and spruce would in time be- 

 come exhausted. And as they have be- 

 come less in quantity, their cost has 

 greatly increased. Within the last 

 twenty years for a considerable period 

 the price of spruce pulp wood of the 

 best quality, delivered f. o. b. cars at 

 points in the Fox River Valley. Wis- 

 consin, ranged from $4.50 to $5 per 

 cord. Now, a comparatively inferior 

 quality runs in prices from $10 to $ti 

 per cord. Hemlock, then practically 

 without value, now ranks even higher 

 than spruce did at that time. 



Thus far, the production of pulp, 

 groundwood or sulphite, has been prac- 

 tically confined to spruce and hem- 

 lock. Theoretically, there is no reason 

 why any plant of the vegetable king- 

 dom having fiber cannot be converted 

 into pulp suitable for the manufacture 



415 



