CAN AVIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 57 



cutting and driving pulp wood to the rossing mills is greater than the cost 

 of handling an equal quantity of deal logs, the cost of rossing and handling 

 the pulp wood is less per thousand than the cost of manufacturing and 

 handling a like amount of deals, thereby causing a decrease in amounts paid 

 for labor. While this statement is technically true, it is practically untrue, 

 the margin being considerably in favor of the pulp wood business. More- 

 over, as a matter of fact, one supplements the other, and we should have 

 both. 



The actual cost of rossing and handling pulp wood per thousand is 

 slightly less than for manufacturing deals per thousand, but when it is 

 taken into consideration that a considerable portion of the pulp stock would 

 be simply left in the woods and wasted by the saw mills, the actual amount 

 of labor cost on the trees each year destroyed in lumbering, if converted 

 into rossed wood and shipped away, would be considerably greater than 

 the labor cost of manufacturing and handling the deals that would naturally 

 be taken from the same territory. When, in addition to this, is taken into 

 consideration the fact that a very large amount of lumber can be utilized by 

 the pulp wood handlers that is utterly useless for the saw mills, the argu- 

 ment is strongly in favor of perpetuating the rossing mills. It is not denied 

 that the presence of rossing mills enhances the value of licenses and stump- 

 age on logs, and raises the cost of labor by sharper competition, but from 

 the point of view of the public this is grain, not loss. 



It is certain that if the argument is good that the exportation of pulp 

 wood should be prohibited on account of the expectation that paper mills 

 will be established, which will cause a greatly increased demand for labor, 

 and thereby distribute a very large amount of money for the wages cost 

 of manufacturing, the argument is equally strong in favor of prohibiting 

 deal exporting for the same reason. Deals are no more a finished product 

 than is rossed pulpwood. They are virtually all remanufactured before 

 being suitable for general use, the same as pulp wood. 



It is not intended to argue this point, however, but rather to discuss the 

 advisability of prohibiting one kind of established business in the hope of 

 encouraging the location of a more desirable style of manufacture. This is 

 commonly known as the pulp wood question, but you see it involves both 

 rossing and deal mills. But before we "kill the goose that lays the golden 

 eggs,", let us consider well whether it is an assured fact that it would 

 be possible to locate paper mills in this Province, and particularly on the 

 east side of the Province, sufficient in size to consume the entire natural 

 growth of our forest lands each season. I submit that it is not possible. 

 In fact, it is practically an imposibility to locate mills of any considerable 

 size anywhere in this Province, other than in connection with the power at 

 Grand Falls, on the. St. John River. 



The reason for this is very simple and easily understood by every per- 

 son at all familiar with the paper business. To make "newspaper," which 

 is the great commercial product of wood pulp, enormous power is re- 

 quired for making 85 per cent, of the material used. The wood is con- 

 verted into pulp by what is known as the grinding process, which is done by 

 means of large, rapidly revolving grindstones. The wood is held against the 



