RAW MATERIAL FOR THE PAPER INDUSTRY 



BY A. F. HAWES, FOREST SERVICE 



DURING the war period the forests were levied upon 

 for numerous products, such as lumber and tim- 

 bers for cantonments and ships, wood for use in 

 airplanes and rifle stocks, and material for the manu- 

 facture of distillates and tanning extracts. In this way 

 the forests of the United States were of material assist- 

 ance in the winning of the war which was fought by the 

 Allies in the name of democracy. The forests have an 

 equally important part in the peaceful work of making 

 democracy safe for the world, for the ultimate solution 

 of all our problems must come through education, and 

 the printed page is one of the most powerful educational 

 agencies. 



The present paper shortage is probably the result of 

 the unusual amount of advertising carried by the news- 

 papers rather than of any scarcity of wood, but it has 

 impressed upon the country the importance of maintain- 

 ing an adequate supply of paper, and this, in the last 

 resort, means providing a permanent supply of wood. 

 Substitutes are being found for lumber and, conse- 

 quently, the per capita consumption of it has somewhat 

 declined, but wood is still the cheapest of all paper- 

 making materials. The per capita production of paper 



in the United States has increased since 1880 from 18 

 to 118 pounds, and by far the largest proportion of paper 

 is made from wood. The better grades of paper are 

 still made from rags, as they were before wood was used 

 for the manufacture of paper. While paper can be made 

 from various plant fibers, straws and certain other sub- 

 stances, still the collection of these materials in bulk is 

 so costly that none of them can compete with wood, and 

 there seems to be no prospect of anything taking the 

 place of wood for the production of newsprint and the 

 other cheaper grades of paper. Of the 6,000,000 tons of 

 paper made in the United States in 1916, three-sevenths 

 was used for printing, one-fourth for boxing, one-seventh 

 for wrapping, one-eighth for writing and typewriting, 

 and the remainder for miscellaneous uses, including 

 building and wall papers. 



There are four processes of making wood pulp the 

 mechanical process, by which wood is ground under 

 great pressure by grindstones, and three chemical 

 processes known as the sulphite, soda and sulphate 

 methods. By the chemical processes wood chips are 

 cooked in a liquor in immense digesters for a period of 

 several hours. By the mechanical process the wood 



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THE SUPERCALENDER, SLITTING AND REWINDING PART OF A PAPER-MAKING MACHINE. THE PAPER PASSES 



THROUGH FROM THE LEFT 



