50 



and as the virgin supply is limited, the writer sees no reason, in view of 

 the steadily raising price of pulp wood, why the growing of trees for pulp 

 can not be made a profitable business in forest culture. 



Historical. 



From the earliest Egyptian papyrus to the paper of today the predom- 

 inant characteristic is that it consists of the enduring portion of vegetable 

 growth known as cellulose or pure fiber. All parts of plants have been 

 used for this piirpose and a list of raw material used for paper would in- 

 clude linen and cotton rags, jute, hemp, esparto gi'ass, wood pulp, clay, 

 straw, peat, cornstalks, and a half dozen others. 



The discoveiy that wood could be converted into its component fibers 

 ami freed from ligniu, gums, etc., became the basis of modern paper mak- 

 ing and brought the wood pulp industry into prominence in a largely 

 forested country. The German process for making "ground wood" was 

 introduced into this country about the middle of the nineteenth century, 

 the soda process from England a century earlier, and the sulphite process 

 is an American invention of about 1867, and owing to its cheapness in 

 producing a strong cellulose fibre from spruce, its use has increased more 

 rapidly than that of the soda process. The first wood pulp made in this 

 country sold at 8 cents per pound; today the pi*ice of "ground wood" pulp 

 is about 1 cent per pound. The scarcity of rags and the cheapness and 

 abundance of the pulp supply in the great forests of spruce and other 

 woods caused the new material to be generally adopted. At first aspen 

 and basswood were preferred for paper making, but as the supply of these 

 woods was quite insufficient for the demand, coniferous wood vras tried, 

 and spruce soon came into the first rank for the purpose. This wide- 

 spread demand, which has steadily increased, has been one of the chief 

 causes of the destruction of large areas of forests — forests, too, in which 

 no steps were taken toward reproduction either natural or artificial. In 

 North America during the three years ending in 1894. 200,000 acres of 

 forests had been denuded to satisfy the demands of 210 paper factories. 



Uses of Wood-Pulp. 

 The principal use to Avhieh wood pulp has been put is in the manu- 

 facture of the coarser kinds of printing, writing, and wrapping papers. 

 The use of the German process for making a ground wood fiber has 

 steadily increased, to a great extent superseding the use of rags, entirely 



