28 



TIMBER DEPLETION, PRICES, EXPORTS, AND OWNERSHIP. 



become dependent upon foreign sources for approximately two- 

 thirds of our newsprint or its raw material. 



The factors which have held our newsprint industry prac- 

 tically at a standstill in the face of rapidly growing domestic 

 requirements are pertinent in a study of timber depletion. The 

 various requirements of paper making have restricted the num- 

 ber of species which have, gone into newsprint paper, and inci- 

 dentally into all kinds of pulp and paper, very largely to four, 

 of which spruce supplied 55 per cent of the total pulp manu- 

 factured in 1917, hemlock 16, balsam 7, and poplar 6, a total of 

 84 per cent from four species. The overcentralization of the 

 industry in the Northeast and Lake States and the consequently 

 serious overcutting of the timber in these regions is due in no 

 small degree to this restricted use and the occurrence of these 

 species chiefly in New England and the Lake States. 



The lumber industry has followed the timber, but a much 

 smaller investment per unit of output is required in the lumber 

 mill than in the pulp and paper plant. On a prewar basis an 

 investment of approximately $1,500 per thousand board feet of 

 daily product is required in lumber manufacture, whereas pulp 

 and paper establishments require approximately $50,000 per 

 thousand feet of daily consumption. Large investments have 

 therefore tended to hold the pulp and paper industry in the 

 regions in which it was first established, and timber has been 

 hauled increasing distances to the mills. A rail and water 

 transport exceeding 500 miles is now not uncommon. 



When overdevelopment of the American industry in the 

 Northeast and the Lake States, as compared with timber sup- 

 plies within our own borders, prevented further development, 

 and when Canada begaij to take measures to withhold pulp wood 

 for the upbuilding of a home industry, new construction to meet 

 growing demands shifted to the other side of the international 

 boundary, where it was welcomed by the Canadian and the 

 various provincial governments. Since 1909, the year which 

 marked the suspension in American development, Canadian 

 production has increased from 150,000 tons to 800,000 tons, or 

 approximately 433 per cent. 



The depletion of supplies in the Lake States is clearly indi- 

 cated in the rapidly increasing distances from which the pulp and 

 paper mills find it necessary to secure their material. A repre- 

 sentative of one of the purchasing companies which supplies 

 a large number of the Wisconsin mills reports that in 1904 sup- 

 plie,s were largely obtained within the State. Five years ago it 

 had become necessary to go far north into Minnesota, but it 

 was rarely necessary to ship material from points more than 

 50 miles north of Duluth. At the present time, however, a very 

 material part of the supply is secured from the extreme north- 

 ern part of the State. Spruce from Minnesota is now being 

 hauled from 700 to 750 miles by railroad to the Wisconsin mills, 

 and from Canada up to distances of 1,000 and 1,200 miles. The 

 situation has become so critical that the Wisconsin mills are 

 seriously considering the possibility of securing their raw mate- 

 rials from the Rocky Mountain region of Montana. For hem- 

 lock the paper industry must compete with the lumber industry 

 for logs of saw timber size, and, unfortunately, from the stand- 

 point of future supplies, the cut now includes a very consider- 

 able amount of material obtained from trees under saw 

 timber diameters. 



It is reported from New York, where nearly 50 per cent of our 

 domestic newsprint production is now centered, that 60 per cent 

 of the pulp and paper mills have absolutely no timber supplies 

 of their own. For these mills there seems to be little ahead 

 except closing in a comparatively few years. At least 60 per 

 cent of the remaining spruce pulp wood in New York is in the 

 State preserves, on which no cutting is allowed. 



In New Hampshire the coniferous pulp wood has been cut 

 vecy heavily, and 10 or 12 years will probably see the end of 

 the supply. Aside from the State preserve in New York, the 

 bulk of the remaining coniferous pulp wood of the East is 



located in Maine. One of the best supplied pulp and paper 

 companies in the State has holdings which at the present rate 

 of cutting various estimates give a life of from 40 to 60 

 years. Holdings of another large company are estimated at 

 about 20 years; of still another at 15 or 16 years. There are 

 about 15 mills which have no lands of their own and which 

 will probably have difficulty in purchasing material within 10 

 years. 



The pulp and paper mills of the Northeast in general are be- 

 coming more and more dependent upon Canadian wood. So 

 far as known, no company in the Northeast has sufficient hold- 

 ings under present methods of management to guarantee any- 

 thing approaching a continuous supply. Probably not over six 

 companies control or own timberlands with supplies for more 

 than 20 years. 



The drain upon the forests for newsprint is very heavy. 

 One large daily, for example, which consumes 20,000 tons a 

 year, requires for that brief period the product of a century's 

 growth on 7,500 acres of eastern spruce forest. 



The present situation from the standpoint of timber supplies 

 in the eastern United States for the newsprint industry is 

 therefore very unfavorable, and the future holds no particular 

 promise. The supplies already limited are being rapidly cut; 

 many mills are already without timber of their own ; the stands 

 in eastern Canada have apparently been very much overesti- 

 mated in the past ; and little concerted effort has yet been 

 made to increase the production of pulp woods in the North- 

 east, where the industry is at present centered. Only such 

 effort, together with the development of the industry in the 

 West and in Alaska, where there are still large stands of timber 

 suitable for newsprint paper, can assure production in the 

 United States which will even approximate domestic require- 

 ments. The situation as to other classes of paper is somewhat 

 similar, although it may not yet be so serious, and is usually 

 of less importance from the standpoint of public welfare. 

 ALASKAN SUPPLIES OF PULPWOOD. 



Alaskan timber is so important from a national pulp-wood 

 standpoint that it can not be allowed to pass without special 

 comment. The timber, which is of particular interest, is on 

 the Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska. 



While much of this timber is of saw-timber size and will in 

 the future become increasingly valuable for lumber, it is be- 

 lieved that its real future is for pulp and paper. The stands 

 are largely western hemlock and Sitka spruce, species now in 

 use on the Pacific coast for newsprint and other paper manu- 

 facture. It is estimated that there are in the Tongass Na- 

 tional Forest in the neighborhood of 70 billion feet board 

 measure, in a comparatively narrow belt along the 12,000 miles 

 or more of coast line. Water power is available, as is also deep- 

 water transportation from numerous mill sites. This timber is 

 for sale under practical and favorable terms and in amounts 

 sufficiently large to justify the installation of plants. Since it is 

 in a National Forest it will be cut under methods which will 

 insure permanence of production. 



It is estimated that the cut from this region alone will 

 insure a perpetual supply large enough to meet one-half of the 

 present newsprint requirements qf the United States. There 

 seems to be no reason why southeastern Alaska, situated in 

 practically the same latitude as Norway and Sweden, should not 

 become the center of a large pulp and paper industry which 

 will be a source -of local prosperity and of great national im- 

 portance in the light of our present dependence upon foreign 

 pulp and paper production. Alaska, in other words, is one of 

 the centers to which the newsprint industry of the United 

 States should look for a large future development. The same is 

 true of other centers in the West, where immense sources of 

 pulp wood supply are now almost wholly undeveloped. Much of 

 this timber is in the National Forests. 



