BULLETIN OF THE 



No. 72 



Contribution from the Forest Service, Henry S. Graves, Forester, 

 May 29, 1914. 



SUITABILITY OF LONGLEAF PINE FOR PAPER PULP. 



By Henry E. Surface, Chemical Engineer in Forest Products, and Robert E. Cooper, 



Chemist in Forest Products. 



SOUTHERN PINES FOR KRAFT PULP. 



The southern pines have not, until within the last few years, been 

 considered suitable for paper pulp. Their resinous nature is the 

 chief drawback in most processes of paper making. The recent 

 development in Europe, especially in Sweden and Norway, of the 

 sulphate process, however, and the superior quality of the product 

 made from resinous woods has turned attention to longleaf and 

 other southern pines as a possible source of pulp in this country. 

 These pines have long, thick-waUed fibers, and also high specific 

 gravities, implying large yields per cord, and therefore seem particu- 

 larly adapted for the manufacture, at low cost, of strong wrapping 

 papers. The waste wood from the lumber industry in the South sug- 

 gests a source of cheap raw material. 



While the sulphate process can be used in the manufacture of 

 bleaching pulps, its principal product is an undercooked, nonbleach- 

 ing, brown pulp known as ''kraft" pulp, the term, a German one, 

 signifying strength. True to its name, this pulp produces a remark- 

 ably strong paper, very resistant to wear. 



Kraft papers, which may be made by the soda as well as by the 

 sulphate process, are especially adapted for wrapping purposes. 

 Wrapping papers stand third among the paper products of the United 

 States, being exceeded in amount and value only by news and book 

 papers. In 1909 the production of wrapping papers of all kinds 

 aggregated 764,000 short tons, with a value of $42,296,000.^ The 

 value of wrapping papers imported in 1912 was $846,500.^ Complete 



1 Tariff Board Report, Pulp and News Print Paper Industry, 1911, p. 21. Senate Doc. 31, 62d Cong., 

 1st sess. 



2 Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance for Decem- 

 ber, 1912, p. 744. 



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