WOOD PULP AND PAPER 



19 



Vast improvements have been made and are still being made, not only 

 in the processes themselves but in the use of raw material, and in refine- 

 ments in labor-saving machinery. Large amounts of capital are required 

 for participation in the industry, due largely to the expensive forms of 

 machinery required. 



According to the U. S. Bureau of Census for 1909 the industry 

 employed a capital of over $409,000,000 and the manufactured products 

 had an annual value of $267,000,000, giving employment to 81,000 

 persons. The amount of increase in capital in the decade prior to 

 1909 was 144 per cent and 110.2 per cent in the value of products. 



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F/iotograph tv A. M. Richards. 



Fig. I. — About 10,000 cords of pulpwood bolts, 90 per cent of which are peeled. The 

 wood consists of mixed spruce, balsam fir and hemlock. Hinckley Fibre Co., Hinck- 

 ley, N. Y. 



However, the increase in number of persons engaged in the industry was 

 only 53 per cept, which is an indication of increase both in size of machin- 

 ery used and in the number of labor-saving devices. 



Wood has been demonstrated to be the best available raw material. 

 From time to time sporadic attempts are made to introduce other mate- 

 rials, but they are too expensive to assemble and transport, are unavail- 

 able in sufficient quantities, or do not make the desirable kinds of paper. 

 Before wood was widely introduced about 1850, paper was entirely made 

 from cotton and linen rags, esparto grass, hemp, straw and a number of 

 other vegetable fibers. 



It is estimated that the annual value of our paper products is ©780,- 



