32 



BOTANICAL ASPECTS OF THE 



PAPER-PULP AND TANNING 



INDUSTRIES IN THE UNITED STATES 



An Economic and Historical Survey 



Edmund H. Fulling ^ 



It is always impressive to state that modern man has not found any really 

 important food or fiber plant that was not known and utilized centuries ago, 

 in some cases even by primitive man ; that of the approximately quarter-mil- 

 lion species of known flowering plants, only some 3,000 have been used; and 

 that of these, there are only two really important food plants — rice and wheat ; 

 two fibers — cotton and flax; and two oil plants — coconut and cotton. 



A more realistic understanding of plant utilization directs attention to the 

 manifold ingenious ways in which modern man utilizes thousands of kinds of 

 plants, less extensively, to be sure, than the above-mentioned, but, neverthe- 

 less, to such a degree that the present high standard of living in many parts 

 of the world is, to a very great extent, the result of such utilization. One may 

 well wonder which is the more worthy of awesome contemplation, the in- 

 genuity of man in discovering and utilizing the utilitarian qualities inherent 

 in plants, or the fact that plants, in their complicated make-up, offer him such 

 a seemingly endless array of raw materials upon which to exercise his in- 

 genuity — oils, fibers, vitamins, waxes, latices, alkaloids, and other drugs, all 



^ The author herewith gratefully acknowledges the valued assistance of the fol- 

 lowing authorities in furnishing certain data in this article and for critical reading 

 of it in manuscript: Paper-pulp: Dr. I. H. Isenberg, Research Associate, the In- 

 stitute of Paper Chemistry, Appleton, Wisconsin; and Professor C. E. Libby, Pulp 

 and Paper Technology, North Carolina State College, Raleigh, N.C. Tanning: Mr. 

 E. L. Drew, Economist, Tanners' Council of America, New York, N.Y. ; Mr. B. W. 

 Roberts, Vice President, Barkey Importing Co., New York, N.Y. ; and Dr. Fred 

 O'Flaherty, Tanners' Council of America, University of Cincinnati. 



So8 



