416 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



of paper. In the timber belts of this 

 country are many kinds of wood in 

 great quantities, and upon its soil are 

 annually grown to maturity many 

 plants which, it is believed, will be used 

 in the manufacture of paper by proc- 

 esses yet undiscovered. The planting 

 and growing of new forests is already 

 an assured fact. Thus will be brought 

 to the paper industry an inexhaustible 

 supply of raw material from farm and 

 field and from forests now grown and 

 growing and forests hereafter to be 

 planted and grown. 



A cord of spruce, weighing about 

 4,300 pounds, yields on the average, by 

 present methods employed, 1,700 pounds 

 of groundwood pulp, or thirty-nine and 

 fifty-three one-hundredths per cent of 

 its weight. A cord of hemlock, weigh- 

 ing about 5,000 pounds, yields in sul- 

 phite, 800 pounds, being further re- 

 duced in the process of converting it 

 into paper to 727 pounds, or fourteen 

 and fifty- four one-hundredths per cent 

 of its weight. Therefore, in convert- 

 ing spruce and hemlock into paper, 

 there is at present a direct loss in ma- 

 terial of sixty and forty-seven one- 

 hundredths per cent and eighty-five and 

 forty-six one-hundredths per cent, re- 

 spectively. 



This illustration is sufficient to show 

 the great loss of raw material in the 

 manufacture of pulp and paper by the 

 processes now known. 



As yet, no successful method for pro- 

 ducing suitable groundwood pulp from 

 hemlock has been discovered. 



What a wonderful saving in raw ma- 

 terial there would be if a way were 

 found of producing from hemlock 

 groundwood pulp equal in weight and 

 usefulness to that now derived from an 

 equal weight of spruce ! This alone 

 would more than double the present 

 pulp product from hemlock. 



\Yhat a wonderful addition there 

 would be to the raw material for use 

 in paper manufacture, should ways and 

 means be discovered for use of the 

 many other kinds of wood, cornstalks, 

 and the numerous grasses found and 

 grown in plenty in this country. Wealth 



is always increased to the extent that 

 waste is prevented and new sources of 

 supply discovered. 



In this respect the paper industry is 

 no worse off than any other. Alan's 

 ways and devices for reducing to usable 

 form the things which nature has pro- 

 vided in such abundance for his happi- 

 ness and comfort have usually been too 

 crude and wasteful. He thinks seri- 

 ously of efficiency and saving only when 

 he can see the end of what he thereto- 

 fore regarded as an inexhaustible sup- 

 ply. It has been by one competent to 

 speak, truthfully and timely written 

 that : 



"Nature's operations are character- 

 ized by marvelous efficiency and by lav- 

 ish prodigality. Man is a child of na- 

 ture as to prodigality, but not as to 

 efficiency. If it had happened the other 

 way if he had followed nature's lead 

 as to efficiency, but had taken up par- 

 simony as a distinctly human virtue 

 the human race would have become 

 wealthy beyond conception." 



So, till very recent years, the people 

 of this country, blessed with everything 

 that goes to make a great people pros- 

 perous and happy, rested on the as- 

 sumption that its mines and forests 

 were practically inexhaustible. They 

 now know better, and the great prob- 

 lem of the da\ is to reduce to a mini- 

 mum the waste in Hie present ways of 

 converting raw materials into product 

 fit for consumption, to bring into serv- 

 iceable, economical use everything that 

 nature produces, and to provide ways 

 and means for the reproduction of that 

 which has been consumed. 



Timber has, and will continue to 

 have, a multitude of useful purposes. 

 However, while buildings, bridges, and 

 other structures will in increasing num- 

 bers and proportion be hereafter con- 

 structed from stone, brick, cement, iron, 

 and other like materials, thereby lessen- 

 ing the claims on our forests for such 

 purposes, resort must ever be had to 

 the vegetable kingdom for materials out 

 of which to make paper. 



*Harrington Emerson in July, 1908, En- 

 gineering Magazine. 



