PULPWOOD CONSUMPTION AND WOOD-PULP PRODUCTION. 3 
decrease was 3 per cent, New Hampshire 1 per cent, Pennsylvania 2 
per cent, Minnesota less than 1 per cent, and West Virginia 6 per 
cent. On the other hand, increased consumption over the pre- 
ceding year reached 9 per cent in Maine, 8 per cent in Wisconsin, less 
than 1 per cent in Michigan, 105 per cent in North Carolina, 7 per 
cent in Virginia, 25 per cent in Vermont, 102 per cent in Massachu- 
setts, 1 per cent in California, Oregon, and Washington, and 20 per 
cent in all other States. (See Table 1, Appendix.) 
ANNUAL WOOD CONSUMPTION AND COST. 
Table 2 contains figures on the consumption of pulpwood for 1899 
and for the years from 1905 to 1917 for which statistics are available. 
Total cost figures for 1910 and 1911 were not compiled. The con- 
sumption data reveal an almost unbroken annual increase, while the 
total cost figures emphasize the growing yearly expenditures made 
by the manufacturers. (See Table 2, Appendix.) 
CONSUMPTION OF WOOD BY SPECIES AND STATES. 
Pulpwood consumption by kinds of wood by the mills in the several 
States is detailed in Table 3. The importance and value of spruce 
for pulp is indicated by the fact that a greater quantity is used than 
of any other one wood, and that its use is reported in nearly all of 
the States. Spruce formed 56 per cent, hemlock 14 per cent, and 
poplar 7 per cent of all the pulpwood consumed. The use of certain 
woods, such as yellow pine, tamarack, white fir, Douglas fir, bass- 
wood, and white pine, is confined to the regions to which these species 
are indigenous. 
As during the previous year, considerable spruce in log form that 
ordinarily would have gone to the sawmills was diverted to the pulp 
mills because of the higher prices paid by the latter. 
Continued rise in wood prices will accelerate the tendency among 
the mills to utilize all the species available and will serve further to 
stimulate improvements in production to permit the use of woods of 
comparatively small pulp value. The 233,982 cords of slabs and 
other mill waste used in 1917 was 33,138 cords, or 16 per cent, in 
excess of the quantity reported in 1916. (See Table 3, Appendix.) 
CONSUMPTION OF WOOD BY PROCESSES OF MANUFACTURE, 
Table 4 shows the consumption of wood by kinds and by processes 
of manufacture. Of the 5,480,075 cords converted, 28 per cent went 
into the production of ground wood pulp, 53 per cent into sulphite, 
15 per cent into soda, and 4 per cent into sulphate. The spruce, as 
shown by the tabulation, is about evenly reduced as between the 
mechanical and sulphite processes, while 89 per cent of the hemlock 
is reduced by the sulphite process, and 93 per cent of the poplar by 
the soda process. (See Table 4, Appendix.) 
