1 84 A MANUAL OF FORESTRY 



of chemical pulp. The reason that less chemical pulp is made 

 from the same amount of wood is that the lignin is dissolved by 

 this process. 



Three chemical processes are in use: " sulphite," which is most 

 extensively used in this country and is adapted for not too resin- 

 ous conifers; "soda," which is well-established and adapted for 

 either deciduous or highly resinous woods; and the " sulphate," 

 which is at present little used in this country, but promises to be 

 successful for very resinous woods. 



Firewood. The poorest products of the forest find a market 

 for fuel, but the prices paid are so low that there is usually only a 

 narrow margin of profit. Although there is an immense amount 

 of wood used annually for fuel it is not a serious drain upon the 

 forest, because it is made up mostly of material which cannot be 

 used for other purposes. In many parts of New England the 

 demand for cordwood, and the price paid for it is less than it was 

 seventy-five years ago, because there is so much more land 

 growing this class of material, because the rural population has 

 declined, and because coal has so largely taken the place of wood 

 as fuel. The price of firewood is regulated not by the supply of 

 wood, except locally, but by the supply of coal. In the year of 

 the great coal strike, for example, the price of wood advanced 

 materially. In the same way the phenomenal industrial develop- 

 ment of the country since the beginning of the war in Europe, 

 and the shortage of cars, has brought about a coal shortage and 

 is raising the value of wood. 



In selling wood there are two units, both called "cords," which 

 are apt to be confused. The " standard " cord is made up of wood 

 cut 4 four feet long; while the "stove-wood" or "running" cord, 

 as it is called in northern New England, or "run" for short, is 

 made up of wood 16 inches long. Each is a pile 8 feet long and 

 4 feet high. It will be seen that the standard cord contains 128 

 cubic feet, while the "run" contains only one- third as much. 

 Since the shorter the pieces, the less amount of crookedness, a 

 cord of stovewood actually contains a little more than one-third 

 the volume of a standard cord. Cords made up of thick pieces 



