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The Country's Pulpwood Supply w 



In Ji rori'iit inlilri'ss hv Raphael Zori of tho Fiirost t<or\ ice before 

 tho American Tulji aiul Taper Assoeiatioii iu Now York, the 

 otitlook of tlio pulp iutlustry iu this country was reviewed. 



"Whatever the future use of wood may bo in tho construction 

 and buililiug trades,'' says Mr. Zon, "the use of wood in the 

 pulp and paper industry has been constantly on the increase, 

 and as far as our present knowledge goes, there is no substitute 

 that will take the place of wood in pul|> and paper making. 

 While there are many jdants the fibres of which are as well or 

 better adaj'ted to the manufacture of paper, there is no other 

 plant which is capable of producing cellulose so cheaply and so 

 compactly as the tree. No other plant can be grown on such a 

 large scale, nor in such adverse climates nor on such poor, rocky 

 soils as our northeastern spruce, hemlock, and balsam, which 

 are the chief sources of the juilp and paper industry. Practically 

 all of the substitutes for wood which have so far been suggested 

 are bulky, producing a short fibre and a small yield. These maj' 

 ])0ssibly become important in paper making when the suitable 

 woods are no longer obtainable. Meanwhile the use of wood 

 in the pulp imiustry is increasing rapidly at the expense of all 

 other materials. Within the last ilecade alone, from 1899 to 

 1909, the use of wood in the manufacture of pulp has increased 

 from two to four million cords annually, an increase of_ 100 per 

 cent; this use is bound to increase in tho future, though probably 

 4 at the same rate as in the past. It has been estimated by 

 c Forest Service that by 1950 the amount of wood probably 

 needed each year for the pulp and i)aj)er industry will be in the 

 neighborhood of l(i,000,000 cords, or appro.xiniately four times the 

 present requirement. Of course all such estimates must be taken 

 with some grains of salt, as it is impossible to tell what the 

 actual demand may be; but judging from the variety of uses 

 now made of pulp and paper, and the rapid increase in output 

 which has taken place during the last ten years, these estimates 

 are probably sufficiently conservative." 



The speaker went fully into the problem of growing wood for 

 pulp and showed that satisfactory returns could be expected. 

 Then turning to the matter of utilizing waste, and thereby 

 making present supplies go farther, he declared that he did not 

 know of any other wood-using industry that practices such close 

 utilization as the J>ulp and paper industry. Topwood, including 

 branches, is now being used by some pulp and pai>er manu- 

 facturers, especially in Pennsylvania, in sizes as small as two 

 inches outside bark at the middle of the stick, and the only 

 other competitors for the same kind of material are the acid 

 factories. The use for pulp of waste material left after lumbering 

 has recently been introducefl in i)arts of I'ennsylvania. Hemlock 

 tops and broken, defective logs aro peeled, cut into .5foot lengths, 

 piled in the woods, and sold by the cord. From 250,000 to 260,000 

 cords of slab wood and other soft mill waste are now consumed 

 every year for i)ulp. In 1908, hemlock formed forty-one per cent 

 of the sawmill waste used, and its average value was $4.07 per 

 cord, about two-thirds, that of hemlock cord wood in the round. 

 In Wisconsin, sawmills often sell their hemlock slabs to paper 

 mills for from two to three dollars i>er cord. 



It has been estimated that the total stand of woods chiefly used 

 for pulp is ].'J0;000,000,000 board feet; of this 50,000,000,000 board 

 feet is spruce, 75,000,000,000 board feet hemlock, and 5,000,000,000 

 board feet balsam fir. These three sjiecies are now being cut for 

 both jmljiwood and lumber at a rate that should exhaust the 

 entire stand in about twenty five years, not counting the growth 

 of new timber on one hand nor the increasing demand for it on 

 the other. 



This discouraging outlook, however, is not so black as it seems. 

 First some now growth is added on every year. Our wild woods, 

 poorly as they are stocked, burned, and overcut, are still pro- 

 ducing some new wood. Kven assuming that the increment on 

 the 1. '50,000,000,000 feet of standing timber is only one and one- 



lialf I'cr ci'Mt, that would mean an annual increment of about 

 2,000,000,000 feet, or 1,000,000 cords, provided tho forest area 

 occupied by this timber is not being actually devastated. Con- 

 sidering, therefore, the entire spruce-bearing land of the North- 

 east and the Lake States, there is just enou;it timber produced 

 every year to maintain the present demand for pulpwood. The 

 pulp industry, however, is not the only one that lays claim on 

 this increment. As a matter of fact, the lumberman still uses 

 nearly three fourths of the entire cut of spruce, hemlock, and 

 balsam for lumber. Small as this increment is, still it con- 

 tributes to the prolongation of the present stand. 



Mr. Zon discusses prol)able additional supplies which may be 

 had by bringing in species not now much used. Among such are 

 firs of tho western part of the United States. lodgepole pine 

 and Kngelmaun sj)ruce of the same region, and jack pine of the 

 northern part of the United States and Canada. 



In addition to the conifers, there are still untouched supplies 

 of hardwood which grow within the same region as the spruce, 

 such as maple, beech, and birch, which are already finding use 

 in the manufacture of chemical |iu!p and paper. 



Lightning and Forest Fires 



Philosophers, sucalled, formerly spent much time in theorizing 

 how mankind procured the first fire. To those lazy thinkers it 

 seemed a great mystery; but if they had spent half as much time 

 in observation as they wasted in meditation, they might have 

 found something out. Lucretius thought man first obtained fire 

 from "hot ores," but neglected to explain what heated the ores. 

 Others thought trees rubbing together started the first fire; others 

 traced the origin to rolling stones; still others to sparks struck 

 from horses ' feet. Not one suggestion of lightning occurs any- 

 where in the literature of ancient times, unless the lines of an 

 old Greek poet may be so interpreted when he wrote: "With 

 sacrilegious hands Prometheus stole celestial fire and bore it down 

 from heaven." 



Henry S. Graves, chief of the United States Forest Service, has 

 been conducting some investigations that would have caused 

 Lucretius, Pindar, Hesiod and the other dreamers to sit up and 

 take notice. He has collected statistics of forest fires in 1913, 

 and shows that more were set that year by lightning than were 

 caused by any other agency, not even excepting locomotives and all 

 other steam engines. That finding is remarkable. Nearly everj- 

 woodsman can recall an instance where a tree was fired by light- 

 ning; but few have supposed that no other agency equals light- 

 ning in the number of fires set. 



Twenty-two states last year reported forests set on fire by 

 lightning; but of all regions in the whole country, California was 

 the worst. A single storm started a string of fires 750 miles long 

 in that state, extending along the mountains from Oregon to 

 Mexico. More than 700 separate fires were set in a brief period. 

 Tho situation was aggravated by the absence of rain during a 

 period of unusual electrical disturbance. 



All the precautions which it is possible for man to take cannot 

 greatly lessen the danger of forests being set on fire by lightning; 

 but the consequent damage may be much decreased by being jeady 

 to fight. In time of peace prepare for war is the policy pursueil 

 by Forester Graves. He has his forces organized, his tools and 

 apparatus at strategic points, trails built and telephone lines 

 strung, and when lightning, locomotives, incendiaries, or campers 

 start a fire, the fighters converge from all sides to the point of 

 danger and usually win in a short time. The effectiveness of the 

 system is shown by the fact that half of the fires are extinguished 

 before they burn over a q\iartcr of an acre, and half of the re- 

 mainder before they spread over ten acres. 



It is easy to see what the result would be if fires were left to 

 burn themselves out as formerly was the custom. 



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