144 &EW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 



tion of wood alcohol, oxalic acid, various extracts from bark, and so called 

 chemical wood fibre for paper making, all of which as above said, involve a 

 knowledge of applied chemistry for their successful pursuit. 



Of these two classes of manufactures the simple sawing of deals, boards, 

 shingles and laths in our different saw mills, and the manufacture of chemical 

 fibre in our pulp factories, easily rank as the first or most important. We 

 possess indeed important tanning extract factories but I do not think there 

 is yet established in our midst any factory for the production of wood alcohol 

 and other of the chemical products above mentioned. And it seems strange 

 that this is so, for the so-called waste of our saw mills might be utilised in a 

 great variety of ways for the production of such like products, or indeed. for 

 the manufacture of paper pulp or of paper itself forming a valuable asset of 

 the State. So far as I am aware there is only one manufacturer in this 

 province who has successfully attempted the utilisation of saw mill waste by 

 converting it into a variety of paper or paper board which I understand finds 

 a ready sale as a sheathing and for other purposes. Kindred methods of 

 utilising such waste have been in vogue for many years in Europe, the pro- 

 ducts of whose factories rank high in quality and yield excellent profits to- 

 the manufacturer. 



To give an idea of the enormous \vaste going on in our mills I have 

 computed the following : For every thousand superficial feet cut it has been 

 stated in evidence that the edgings obtained measure when piled from 

 9/10ths to one cord of 128 cubic feet. I am however disposed to consider 

 the actual amount obtained in ordinary practice, after deducting laths, 

 pickets, barrel heads and staves, etc., cut from the slabs to be more nearly 

 2/3rds of a cord. The estimated cut of deals in New Brunswick alone I set 

 down as 350 millions so that 2/3rds of 350,000 or 233,333 cords of waste 

 edgings are produced annually. As two cords of such waste when properly 

 treated will yield by any of the well known chemical processes, one ton of 

 chemical w r ood fibre, and one ton of such fibre will yield one ton of paper, 

 this waste wood if converted into paper would therefore yield 116,666 tons 

 whose value taken at 75 dollars per ton would be equivalent to a total value 

 of over 8| millions of dollars. I am well aware that a portion of this waste 

 wood is sold locally for fuel and probably the whole 2/3rds of a cord per 

 thousand cut is not available for conversion into useful trade products. But 

 the above is a measure of the possibilities for utilising this waste wood and 

 it is a significant fact that the trade value of the product produced from such 

 waste, is far in excess of the actual value of the deals and other accessory 



