KINDS OF WOOD 



11 



The reports for 1915 give for Quebec a total saw-mill cut of 170,794,000 feet 

 board measure of balsam fir. The ten industries which have reported its use 

 altogether consume 122,947,000 feet. The wood-pulp industry is responsible for 

 the bulk (over 96 per cent) of this consumption. 



Balsam fir is a softer and more perishable wood than spruce. It is also much 

 weaker, but it has long, tough and colourless fibres which make it valuable in 

 paper-making and nearly equal to spruce for that industry. Apart from wood- 

 pulp the bulk of balsam fir material was used by the box and crating industries. 



Photo 8273. J. A DOUCET. 

 Spruce and fir pulpwood ready for consumption, Belgo-Canadian Pulp Co., Shawinigan Falls, Que. 



On account of the great resemblance between balsam fir and spruce wood 

 the former species is generally mixed with the latter and sold as such for rough 

 construction material and dressed lumber. As in the case of spruce, the large 

 proportion of balsam fir used by the wood-pulp industry in the rough state con- 

 tributes to lower its average price to $9.83; otherwise it would be $16.49 per 

 thousand feet board measure. 



Balsam fir will probably never be very much desired by other wood-using 

 industries than those manufacturing wood-pulp, boxes and crating. In boxes 

 and crating it is used as a substitute for pine and spruce. However, in consequence 

 of the rapid decrease of available pine, the increasing demand for spruce by most 

 of the industries, and the probable ascendency of balsam fir over the two other 

 species in the natural regeneration of the forests it is logical to suppose that the 

 use of balsam fir is bound to increase in proportion to the decrease of pine and 

 spruce. 



Outside of its consumption for wood-pulp, boxes and crating, the use of 

 balsam fir is less a matter of suitability than of economy and necessity. 



