UTILIZATION OF FOREST PRODUCTS 183 



used in distillation and this offers a means of disposing of the top 

 wood, small trees and low-grade material. This material is 

 taken with the bark on in lengths of 4 feet or 50 inches, and to 

 minimum diameters of usually 3 or 4 inches. Pieces over 6 

 inches are required to be split. Most wood for this purpose 

 comes from the tops of trees in large lumber operations. For- 

 merly charcoal was made by the slow burning of wood in pits. 

 Large amounts of charcoal made in this way were used in the 

 early iron and brass industries of New England. Charcoal was 

 the chief product, but under present methods of distillation it 

 has been relegated to a position of least importance. Burning 

 charcoal in the old way has become almost a lost art, and it can 

 hardly be made in that way, to compete with distillation charcoal. 



Pulpwood. A very large amount of wood is used annually for 

 the production of paper (over 4,000,000 cords in the United States 

 in 1909). Of the total amount used, 60 per cent was spruce, and 

 15 per cent hemlock. Pulpwood dealers buy either unsplit bolts 

 by the cord, of 128 cu. ft., or logs by the thousand board feet, o' 

 cord. The wood is taken either peeled or unpeeled, most com- 

 panies paying $1.00 more per cord for peeled wood. Bolts are 

 bought in 4-foot lengths with a minimum diameter of 4 inches. 

 Since the beginning of the war paper prices have been steadily 

 advancing, and the prices paid for wood have also increased 

 though not in proportion to the price of paper. In some localities 

 prices paid for pulpwood have become so high that it pays better 

 to put ordinary spruce into pulp than into lumber, but this is 

 not usually the case. 



Two general methods of manufacturing pulp are recognized: 

 mechanical and chemical. Practically the entire supply of 

 " ground-wood" pulp, as the product of the first method is 

 called, is made from spruce. Much of the cheaper paper, such 

 as newsprint, is made from this kind of pulp. The finer and 

 stronger grades of paper are made from chemical pulp. Besides 

 the spruce, hemlock, balsam, poplar, white and jack pine and 

 tamarack can be used for chemical pulp. One cord of wood 

 makes approximately one ton of ground-pulp; or one-half ton 



