DEVELOPMENT OF PULPWOOD RESOURCES. 9 



QUALITY OF TIMBER. 



The spruce in the commercial sizes is generally sound and of 

 good quality. The hemlock, however, is apt to be defective, the 

 damage consisting of partial decay at the butt, " black knots," or 

 fluted trunks. The latter defect is pronounced only in the butt 

 logs of the smaller trees, the bark in the very worst cases being 

 recessed almost to the center in three or four places around the 

 circumference. The smaller and inferior trees of both species are 

 apt to have numerous limbs extending near the ground. In general, 

 hemlock is not the equal of the spruce for pulp making and for 

 lumber, as well as for many other purposes, and its present stump- 

 age price is therefore commonly about half that of spruce. 



All estimates in this report are based on stands from which wood 

 " merchantable for pulp " may be taken. For either hemlock or 

 spruce, decay in butt logs of " merchantable pulpwood " seldom ex- 

 ceeds 15 to 20 per cent, and the decayed portion may be eliminated 

 when the wood is prepared for pulp making ; that is, when it is being 

 split or " broken up " with saws. Even when timber is badly affected 

 with " black knots," the knots may be completely removed at an 

 additional cost for " preparing," over the ordinary cost, of about 

 $1 per thousand for handwork; that is, chopping with an ax, as 

 evidenced in actual practice. By using proper mechanical means 

 this extra cost of preparing the wood can be reduced one-third to 

 one-half. 



Fluted trunks may be used, since in preparing the wood for the 

 " barkers," pulpwood bolts over 12 inches in diameter must be "sized" 

 or split anyhow. Therefore, in splitting, the pieces may as well be 

 separated on the "flutings" as elsewhere. The standard rossing 

 machines then can easily remove all of the bark without excessive 

 waste of good wood. That " limbiness " is not a serious objection is 

 evidenced by the fact that many eastern mills now use wood from 

 the tops of trees to as small a top diameter as 3 inches. 



Cottonwood may be included in some of the Alaskan sales as a 

 pulpwood, and it is locally considered to be suitable for no other 

 use. The Alaskan cottonwood is of about the same character as 

 cottonwood grown elsewhere. 



All spruce and hemlock now considered merchantable for saw 

 timber would make a high grade of pulpwood so far as defects are 

 concerned. The proportions of timber merchantable for saw tim- 

 ber and of that merchantable for pulpwood but not for saw timber 

 would, of course, vary in different stands, and this feature would be 

 carefully studied in developing specific projects. 

 29729°— 21 2 



