NEWS AND NOTES 



381 



Consumption of Pulp Wood in the United States 



The Census Bureau issued on May 15 a 

 preliminary report on the consumption of 

 pulp wood in the United States during the 

 calendar year ending December 31, 1908. In 

 it is found the following table : 



Waste in Iron Menaces Race 



A London dispatch to the AY;v York 

 Herald says: 



"Mr. Allerton S. Cushman, assistant di- 

 rector of the Office of Public Roads in the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, 



Japan Fights Paper Famine 



The Japanese also have looked over the 

 contents of their industrial stores and have 

 decided that something must be done toward 

 conserving their remaining supplies of raw 

 material for paper-making. 



In Japan, paper is used for almost every- 

 thing from the silver-figured partitions of 

 the Buddhist temple to the rude hut walls 

 of the laborer; from the silklike vestments 

 of the priest down to the rainproof shield of 

 the traveler. In fact, the ingenuity of the 

 Japanese is only matched by the variety of 

 uses to which paper may be adapted. 



The work of the United States Government 

 toward determining the amount of paper 

 materials used and the source of future sup- 

 ply is being followed by the Japanese, ac- 

 cording to an advice from U. S. Consul 

 John H. Snodgrass, at Kobe. The immi- 

 nence of the danger is apparent from the 

 fact that the Japanese authorities have re- 

 quested the paper-mills department of the 

 Mitsu Bishi Kaisha to take over some 7,500 

 acres of the bamboo forests of Formosa. 



It is known that the bamboo tree has been 

 the raw material from which the Japanese 

 have recently made the larger portion of their 

 paper products ; so it is thought that, by in- 

 troducing improved methods of forest cul- 

 tivation and harvesting, this tract of woods 

 will furnish yearly 10,000,000 bamboos adapted 

 for conversion into paper pulp. 



No matter whether the paper company will 

 establish its mills in Formosa or ship the 

 bamboo to Japan in a partly finished state, 

 the development of this new source of raw 

 material will be of high importance and may 

 overcome the necessity of the island empire 

 looking to foreign countries for the future 

 supply of paper pulp. 



has been warning the iron and steel p'eople 

 in England against the waste that is going 

 on in the world's natural resources. To 

 the Herald correspondent Mr. Cushman ex- 

 pressed some very strong views on this sub- 

 ject. He said the increasing consumption 

 of the world's supplies, and the constant 

 decay of materials menaced the future of the 

 human race. If the present insane riot of 

 trade continued the time was not so very- 

 far distant when the members of the human 

 race would find themselves in a very difficult 

 situation. 



"If the processes of civilization were 1o 

 be carried on, it seemed quite certain that 

 civilization must learn to conserve more 

 efficiently its stores of iron and steel already 

 manufactured and seek methods to prevent 

 the almost resistless tendency of iron to 

 return to its lethargic union with oxygen. 

 If steel could by any means whatsoever be 

 ennobled and protected from corrosion fu- 

 ture conditions could be viewed with com- 

 placency. 



"Probably we could not to-day, with all 

 our boasted knowledge, build an iron monu- 

 ment like that at Delhi, which with no pro- 

 tective covering had stood since the dim be- 

 ginning of history without rust or decay. 

 It was his belief that we had started now 

 on the right track, and that a very few 

 years would see very decided improvement, 

 not only in the incorrodibility of material 

 manufactured, but also in methods of pre- 

 serving iron and steel after manufacture. 

 The waste of iron and steel also meant the 

 waste of coal, and the whole problem of 

 conservation of these resources was one of 

 the most important now facing civilization." 



Mr. Cushman went to London as a dele- 

 gate to the International Congress of Ap- 

 plied Chemistry, which opened May 22. 



