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A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 



PULPWOOD 



Pulpwood supplies present a highly ^specialized problem involving 

 many economic and technical complexities, some of them matters of 

 world supply and demand. Although a satisfactory estimate of 

 economically usable present pulp wood supplies can hardly be attempt- 

 ed, it may be appropriate to present some quantitative estimates of the 

 supplies of species either now cut in quantity for pulpwood or which 

 seem to be technically capable of use by the pulp and paper industry. 



The relation of pulpwood requirements and supplies is not static. 

 The tendency in^pulp and paper manufacture as in other fields of 

 wood utilization is toward an increasing number of species regarded 

 as suitable, with a consequent enlargement of the volume of potential 

 pulpwood supplies. There has been a drift toward lower requirements 

 as to size, form, and quality of material. In some regions, notably 

 the Pacific Coast, a large part of the pulpwood is cut from saw-timber 

 trees, with the tops and limbs left unutilized in the woods. In other 

 regions, such as the Lake and South, much of the pulpwood comes 

 from cordwood stands. 



Table 5 shows the gross estimate of the species more commonly used 

 for paper pulp by regions, and for softwoods and hardwoods separately. 

 This is presented without any implication that these supplies are any- 

 thing like completely available in an economic sense either nationally 

 or for any single region. Nor is any prediction here attempted as to 

 what proportion may ultimately be cut for pulpwood and what for 

 other purposes. 



The 1,830 million cords thus indicated constitutes about one third 

 of the gross volume of all commercial forest material in the United 

 States saw timber 860 million cords, or 47 percent; small trees on 

 saw-timber areas 420 million cords, or 23 percent; and cordwood on 

 cordwood areas 550 million cords, or 30 percent. Largely because of 

 the inclusion of southern yellow pines (now used mainly for sulphate 

 pulp) the South is shown to have two fifths of the total supply. The 

 Pacific Coast region with only spruce, hemlock, and true fir included 

 has one fifth. If the saw-timber stands of Douglas fir, ponderosa 

 pine, western white pine, sugar pine, and larch all western species 

 potentially important for pulpwood were included another 1,800 

 million cords would be added. 



TABLE 5. Stand of principal kinds of wood now used in pulp and paper manu- 

 facture, by regions 



1 Includes material suitable for saw logs, small trees on saw-timber areas, and cordwood on cordwood areas. 



