DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 



2G7 



Picea mariana. 



Syn. Picea nigra. 



Common names. — Black spruce, double spruce, blue spruce, yew pine, and many 

 otbers; Epinette jaitve, Quebec. 



Ranges from Newfoundland and Labrador to Hudson Bay, northwest to north of 

 Mackenzie River, eastern slope of Rocky Mountains, south through northern States 

 to Pennsylvania, central Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and along the Alleghany 

 Mountains to high peaks of North Carolina. 



A soft wood, used for timber, fences, posts, and other purposes; largely employed 

 as a material for wood pulp in paper manufacture. 



Woody Fiber. — The product of forest trees, known as wood pulp, is included in 

 the second group of the classification of fiber substances. About 50 per cent of the 

 substance of wood consists of cellulose, the percentage of cellulose in a paper product 

 fixing the economic value of the plant as a source of paper material. A larger per- 

 centage of cellulose occurs in soft woods than in hard woods, and hence the soft 

 woods are the more useful for the manufacture of Avood pulp. The following table 

 from " Cellulose," by Cross and Bevan, will serve to illustrate this point: 



Wood. 



Birch 



Beech 



Box 



Ebony 



Oak 



Alder 



Lignum vitsb 



Lime 



Chestnut 



Fir 



Mahogany... 



Poplar 



Pine 



Teak 



Willow 



Water. 



12.48 

 12.57 

 12.90 

 9.40 

 13.12 

 10.70 

 10.88 

 10.10 

 12.03 

 12.87 

 12.39 

 12.10 

 13. 87 

 11.05 

 11.66 



Cellulose, 



55. 52 

 45.47 

 48.14 

 29. 99 

 39.47 

 54.62 

 32.22 

 53.09 

 52.64 

 53.27 

 49.07 

 62.77 

 56.99 

 43.12 

 55.72 



Aq. ex- 

 tract. 



2.65 

 2.41 

 2.63 

 9.99 

 12.20 

 2.48 

 6.06 

 3.56 

 5.41 

 4.05 

 9.91 

 2.88 

 1.26 

 3.93 

 2.65 



Pesin. 



1.14 

 0.41 

 0.63 

 2.54 

 0.91 

 0.87 

 15.63 

 3.93 

 1.10 

 1.63 

 1.02 

 1.37 

 0.97 

 3.74 

 1.23 



Noncellu- 

 lose. 



28.21 

 39.14 

 35.70 

 48.08 

 34.30 

 31. 33 

 35.21 

 29.33 

 28.82 

 28.18 

 27.61 

 20.88 

 26.91 

 38.16 

 28.74 



Cellulose is the preponderating constituent of all vegetable tissues. In addition 

 to the cellulose there are present in the wood nitrogenous substances, resins, gums, 

 and (mineral) ash, which are to be removed, more or less, in order to produce the 

 fiber or pulp. To do this economically and in such a manner that the fiber may 

 remain long, pure, and white, and the mass preserve its "felting" qualities as much 

 as possible, is the aim of the various processes. 



Economic considerations. — While many species of trees are used in the manu- 

 facture of wood pulp, the larger amount is prepared from spruce, a frequent practice 

 being to add some poplar or aspen pulp to whiten the spruce pulp. Among other 

 woods that are employed are cottonwood, bass wood, birch, buckeye, gum, balsam 

 fir, hemlock, jack pine, cedar, etc., while in the South, pine, cypress, and other woods 

 are used. 



The kinds of wood employed in this industry depend upon three things: (1) The 

 resulting product as to quality and yield; (2) the cheapness and convenience of the 

 necessary plant and chemicals; (3) the application to various woods. 



Coming to the practical matter of the preparation of wood pulp, or wood fiber, Dr. 

 Samuel P. Sadtler states that two varieties of pulp for paper making may be obtained 

 from wood, viz, mechanically and chemically prepared pulp. Of these, the mechan- 

 ical wood pulp obtained by shredding the wood serves for the inferior grades of 

 paper only, as its fibers are too short and do not "felt" or interlace sufficiently. It 

 can, therefore, be used only as a filling material. Moreover, the resin present resists 

 strongly the action of bleaching agents, and the paper becomes yellowish after a 

 time. On the other hand, what is termed chemical wood pulp has met with great 



