1308 



Canadian Forestry Journal, September, 1917 



The Pulp Industry as a Conservator 



(By J. L. Love, in "Canada Lumberman.") 



Probably no industry sheds so 

 much waste as lumbering. Com- 

 petent authorities, such as Dr. John 

 S. Bates, head of the Forest Products 

 Laboratories of Canada, estimate the 

 logging waste left in the woods to 

 be about 25 per cent, of the original 

 tree. It is just here that the pulp 

 mill gets in its first good work in its 

 mission of conservation, and that in 

 a double sense. Every lumberman 

 is familiar with the "slash" that 

 marks the trail of the logger through 

 the bush; the tops and branches that 

 are left behind to choke new growth 

 and add to the fire hazard. Where a 

 pulp mill is operated in connection 

 with the sawmill a large proportion 

 of this "slash" is trimmed and sent 

 down the drive with the logs to be 

 made into pulp. Not only is this 

 hitherto absolutely waste material 

 turned into considerably more money 

 value than its bulk in merchantable 

 logs is worth, but the fire risk is re- 

 duced considerably. 



Waste eradication in the woods is 

 only part of the pulp mill's mission, 

 however. Having accounted for all 

 the tops four inches and up at the 

 narrow end, the mill still has a large 

 field for raw materials to draw upon 

 in the waste from the saws. This 

 waste amounts to about 40 per cent, 

 of the original tree, and only a neglig- 

 ible part of it is used in developing 

 power to operate the plant. A con- 

 servative estimate is that the total 

 waste lumber for the pulp mill to 

 work up amounts to between 60 and 

 70 per cent, of the tree, and of this 

 less than half is available for pulp, 

 but in spite of this margin of quite 

 irreclaimable refuse, the above fig- 

 ures indicate that the pulp mill is 

 doing its bit in the present world- 

 wide campaign to cut out waste, 

 and, incidentally to place the lumber 

 industry on a more stable founda- 

 tion than its own unaided feet have 



ever provided, of late years, at any 

 rate. 



There is a broad economic aspect 

 to the operations of a pulp mill in 

 addition to that already noted. A 

 mill producing one hundred tons of 

 pulp a day calls for two hundred 

 cords of pulp wood. To provide 

 this raw material requires larger 

 lumbering operations than most con- 

 cerns cover, and the farmer has to 

 be called in to make good the deficit. 

 Hitherto, clearing his land has been 

 the bane of the farmer's existence, 

 and it has been done largely only as 

 government regulations compelled. 

 Now, under the spur of high and ad- 

 vancing prices for pulpwcod, land 

 is being cleared as if by magic, and 

 large sections of the reclaimed sur- 

 face are being put under crop. The 

 economic aspect of this is obvious. 

 The farmer has more money to spend 

 and industry is benefited right along. 



GOOD STROKES ! 



Readers of Industrial Canada may 

 have been surprised during the past 

 two months to see large advertise- 

 ments for "Thrift In Forest Fires," 

 in which were given reasons for keep- 

 ing 1917 clear of needless loss. 



The Provincial Paper Mills Ltd., To- 

 ronto, undertook to co-operate with 

 the Canadian Forestry Association's 

 work by using an entire page to set 

 forth the message against careless- 

 ness with fire in the forest. Mr. 

 I. H. Weldon, is President of Pro- 

 vincial Paper Mills, Limited, and a 

 generous supporter of the work of the 

 Association. 



A half page advertisement was 

 placed in the same magazine by the 

 Howard Smith Paper Mills, Limited, 

 Montreal, so that many hundreds of 

 readers could not have failed to take 

 some useful suggestions from the 

 printed warning. 



