THE FORESTER. 



VOL. VI. 



JUNE, 1900. 



No. 6. 



THE PAPER INDUSTRY AND FORESTS. 



The paper industry is based upon the 

 vegetable kingdom, the materials used in 

 paper-making being almost exclusively of 

 vegetable origin. That portion of the 

 vegetable growth which is essential for 

 paper-making is the cellulose (C 6 H 10 O.) 

 which forms an important part of the 

 structure of all plants. 



All vegetable matter which is treated 

 chemically to prepare it for paper-making, 

 is reduced to the form of almost pure cel- 

 lulose. When prepared mechanically a 

 large part of the lignin and other intercel- 

 lular matter also remains. It is the cellu- 

 lose of which the fiber consists. The 

 proportion of cellulose fiber in different 

 vegetable growths varies greatly, and with 

 it their availability for paper-making. It 

 may be said that almost the whole vege- 

 table kingdom is available for paper-mak- 

 ing, and that the use of one species or an- 

 other is a matter of selection, based on the 

 cost of the various processes of treatment 

 and other commercial factors. 



Those fibers which are commonly used 

 in paper-making, may be divided into four 

 classes :* 



1. Seedhairs such as cotton, which is 

 the only representative of the class. 



2. Bast fibers as linen, jute, manila 

 and arsonia. 



3. Those derived from whole stems, or 

 leaves, and associated with various vessels 

 or cells not properly fibrous as straw, 

 esparto, sorghum and bamboo. 



4. Those derived from wood. 



For the purposes of this article, it is un- 



*This classification is taken from A. D. 

 Little's "Chemistry of Paper Making," from 

 which much of the information of a chemical 

 nature has also been derived. 



necessary to treat of the first three classes, 

 except to say that a very considerable part 

 of the paper manufactured, is made from 

 the fibers which they comprise. 



The principal woods which are used for 

 making paper are Spruce and Poplar; 

 but a large number of other woods are 

 used more or less, according as the factors 

 of price, length of fiber, ease of reduction, 

 and relation of the mill to the source of 

 supply vary in particular cases. 



TREES USED FOR PULP. 



Professor Sargent, in his report on 

 Forest Trees, in the Tenth United States 

 Census, gives a list of the most available 

 species with the localities in which they 

 occur, the substance of which I reproduce 

 in this article, using the scientific names 

 given by him. This list is by no means 

 exhaustive, but simply typical of the dif- 

 ferent sorts of wood that may be utilized. 

 For instance, there are thirty-five species 

 of Pinus in the original report. 



BLACK SPRUCE {Picea nigra). New- 

 foundland, northern Labrador to Ungava 

 Bay, Nastapokee Sound, Cape Churchill, 

 Hudson Bay, and northwest to the mouth 

 of the Mackenzie River and the eastern 

 slope of the Rocky Mountains ; south 

 through the Northern States to Pennsyl- 

 vania, central Michigan, Wisconsin and 

 Minnesota, and along the Alleghany 

 Mountains to the high peaks of North 

 Carolina. 



Easily reduced to a strong, long-fibered 

 pulp by the sulphite process ; with some- 

 what more difficulty by the soda process. 

 Pulp made by the latter process is bleached 

 with difficulty. 



