THE WAR AND THE LUMBER INDUSTRY 



625 



purchase $"<JO,000 print paper, payment 

 conditions determined later. Please ob- 

 tain quotations, Havre or British port." 



"This is a sample of many appeals 

 reaching this market daily. In London 

 it is a case of paper at any cost. The 

 United States and Canada are the only 

 available sources of supply, and paper 

 is not contraband. Our mills will be 

 obliged to enlarge their equipment to 

 meet the situation." 



What seems to be one of the best op- 

 jxDrtunities for enlarging American out- 

 puts is that of supplying the products 

 usually imported. Germany, for ex- 

 ample, in the twelve months before July 

 1, supplied some 150,000,000 pounds of 

 wood pulp, valued at more than two 

 and one-half millions of dollars. This 

 was of kinds we could just as well pro- 

 duce in this country, according to in- 

 vestigations of the Forest Service 

 laboratory at Madison. Norway and 

 Sweden furnished about forty-five mil- 

 lion pounds, valued at more than eight 

 millions. Our own mills will have to 

 make uj) for this, because little of it is 

 likely to come here. 



Cabinet woods, except those directly 

 from Central and South America, have 

 come mainly through Great Britain, 

 which shipped to us last year more than 

 one and a half million dollars' worth. 

 We don't grow Circassian walnut, it is 

 true, but we do grow many handsome 

 fmishing woods : of these we should 



and could use more. Some, of which 

 red gum is a notable example, are grow- 

 ing in popularity and use. Possibly a 

 dearth in the supply of some foreign 

 woods will lead us to consider more 

 carefully the possibilities of our own. 



Newspapers have pointed out that 

 Germany normally supplies some 

 twelve million dollars' worth of potash, 

 used as fertilizer, and in the arts, and 

 that this supply will cease, at least for 

 the present. It is mainly a mineral 

 product, but chemists are suggesting 

 that where large quantities of wood 

 ashes are available, as at the waste 

 burners of big sawmill plants, the de- 

 mand for such a product may make a 

 source of profit from the leached ashes. 



Here again, these examples are held 

 out as a few suggestions. Many others, 

 not within the space or scope of this 

 article are possibilities. 



On the whole, however, immediate 

 l)enefits will not accrue to the lumber 

 industry in America as a result of the 

 stupendous and regrettable struggle in 

 Europe. During the continuation of 

 the war there is likely to be marked de- 

 pression, and the war will not soon 

 cease. But the longer it lasts, the more 

 chance will the lumber business of the 

 country have to make adjustments inde- 

 pendent of the European states, and 

 when the peace comes the United States 

 will be in the best position to profit 

 bv it. 



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