1922 



Canadian Forestry Journal, Xovember, 191H 



New Use of Birch for Paper Making 



Important Experiments May Prove Great 

 Boon to Spruce and Balsam Forests 



The most serious obstacle to the 

 proper handhng of the mixed forests 

 of eastern Canada has been the lack 

 of utilization of the hardwood species, 

 particularly birch. This has been 

 especially true as to mixed forest 

 lands held as pulpwood limits, where, 

 over vast areas, the coniferous species 

 comprise only from 25 per cent, to 

 50 per cent, of the stand, the balance 

 being hardwoods. The cutting of 

 the conifers, particularly spruce and 

 balsam, has a constant tendency to 

 convert the stand into a hardwood 

 forest, partly because of the actual 

 reduction in numbers of the conifers, 

 while the hardwoods are left standing; 

 and partly because the coniferous 

 seedlings are prevented from making 

 adequate growth, on account of the 

 dense overhead shade of the hard- 

 woods, which spread out and close in 

 the spaces made by the removal of 

 the conifers. 



Effect of Cutting Birch. 



If the hardwoods, particularly 

 birch, could be used to commerical 

 advantage, their removal would per- 

 mit spruce and balsam seedlings to 

 come in much more satisfactorily 

 and to make a much better rate of 

 growth, on the 'average, instead of so 

 many remaining suppressed for a 

 long period of time. 



The primary reason why the hard- 

 woods have not been utilized in 

 most of our northern forests has been 

 the difficulty of transportation, in 

 the absence of railways. Hardwoods 

 are too heavy to be driven long dis- 

 tances in streams, without very severe 

 loss by sinkage; and besides, the 

 amount of flood water in the majority 

 of driving streams is hardly adequate 

 in volume to float the spruce and 

 balsam to their destination, to say 

 nothing of carying large quantities 

 of birch in addition. As a con- 

 sequence, birch has remained prac- 

 tically a weed tree over enormous 

 areas of our eastern forests where 



there is no rail transportation. 



At last, however, there is a pos- 

 sibility that the problems of trans- 

 portation may be at least partially 

 solved through the winter use of 

 motor tractors for log-hauling on 

 iced roads. This would apply not 

 only to hardwoods but to coniferous 

 species as well, where, in the case of 

 long drives, the loss by sinkage is 

 serious, especially as to the smaller 

 sizes, and more particularly in the 

 case of balsam. Several concerns 

 are experimenting, or are preparing 

 to experiment, along these lines, the 

 River Quelle Pulp and Lumber Com- 

 pany being the pioneer in this direc- 

 tion as to eastern Canada. The 

 Laurentide Company, Limited, has 

 this year purchased some lighter 

 tractors of the caterpillar type and 

 will this winter experiment under 

 conditions in the St. Maurice Valley. 

 The use of tractors for log hauling 

 is already established in parts of 

 British Columbia and in various 

 sections of the United States. 

 New Market for Birch. 



The second obstacle to the removal 

 of the hardwoods in our northern 

 mixed forests has been lack of a 

 suitable market, particularly by the 

 pulp and paper companies, which 

 hold rapidly increasing areas af such 

 lands. Formerly, only spruce was 

 accepted for use as groundwood in 

 the manufacture of newsprint; later, 

 balsam was accepted in an increasing 

 proportion, and now both species 

 are used practically without dis- 

 crimination. It has always been 

 considered impracticable, however, 

 to use birch or other hardwoods 

 acceptably for groundwood. The 

 Forestry Department of the Lauren- 

 tide Company has, however, for a 

 long time urged that experiments be 

 made with a view to the utilization 

 of birch in the manufacture of news- 

 print, and an experiment was recent- 

 ly made by the Company which 



