/S FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 



4.000,000 board feet annually. This falling olf is due to two 

 causes : First, manufacturers abroad do not pay high enough 

 prices to attract small dealers into the business ; and, second, 

 large tracts of European birch in Finland and the Scandinavian 

 countries are now becoming available. This European white 

 1)irch, while not of such high quailty as the paper birch of this 

 country, can, nevertheless, be used for spools and is cheaper 

 because of its nearness and because of the lower wage scale in 

 those^ countries. 



Other paper birch products are mainly manufactured near 

 the source of supply and are marketed, for the most part, in 

 this country. Shoe pegs, and to a lesser extent shoe shanks, 

 are, however, sent in considerable quantities to Germany, to 

 Japan, and to other countries. Quite recently shipments of 

 toothpicks have been made to England. France, and Germany. 

 In all, the manufactured equivalent of about 12,000 cords of 

 paper birch, or approximately one-seventh of the total cut, is 

 exported annually. 



Distribution of Paper Birch . 



r.OTANICAE RANGE. 



Paper birch is one of the most widely distributed trees of 

 North America. It was formerly thought to be transcontinental 

 in range, but the western forms are now divided into two dis- 

 tinct, although closely related, species. Of these Betula alas- 

 kana grows in Alaska, and Betula occidcntalis in southwestern 

 British Columbia and northwestern Washington. 



Paper birch proper extends from Maine and Labraror north- 

 ward almost to the Arctic Circle and westward to the Rockv 

 Mountains and the valley of the Mackenzie River in British 

 Columbia. It is decidedly a tree of the north and has been 

 found as far as latitude 65° N., a point nearly as far north as is 

 reached by any broadleaf tree of North America. In the United 

 States it is found only along the northern border, and its south- 

 ern limits are Long Island, northern Pennsylvania, central Mich- 

 igan, central Iowa, and northern Nebraska. Its western limits 

 are as yet imperfectly defined. In the southern part of its range 

 it is small and comparatively rare, and never attains the com- 

 mercial importance that it does farther north, where it is more 

 at home. 



