2 CIRCULAR 791, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



INTRODUCTION 



Black spruce (Picea mariana) wood, like that of other spruces, has 

 several inherent characteristics, especially its long fibers, light color, 

 and relative freedom from resins, that make it unusually well suited 

 to the manufacture of paper and other wood pulp products. The pulp 

 and paper industry of Minnesota was, in fact, at first almost wholly 

 dependent upon black spruce and the less abundant white spruce 

 {Picea glauca) for basic raw material. New and improved methods 

 now make it possible to use a great variety of other woods in the 

 manufacture of wood pulp products, so that in recent years spruce 

 made up only slightly over half of the pulpwood used by Minnesota 

 mills. However, it is still the premium wood and standard of excel- 

 lence (fig. 1). For this reason ways have been sought of managing 

 and harvesting black spruce that will assure continuous future supplies. 



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Figure 1. — Spruce pulpwood stacked in the storage grounds of a pulp and paper 



mill in Minnesota. 



Perhaps the best evidence of the high esteem in which spruce is 

 held by the wood-pulp industry is the price paid for it in comparison 

 with other kinds of pulpwood. The Office of Price Administration in 

 November 19-12 established the following maximum prices 4 per cord 5 

 for peeled pulpwood in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan : Spruce 

 $17, balsam fir (Abies balsamea) $14, jack pine (Pinus hanksiana) $12, 

 and poplar (chiefly quaking aspen Populus tremidoides) $9. Some- 

 what lower prices, but in the same general relationship, were set for 

 "rough" or unpeeled wood. Subsequent upward revisions of the 



4 Price at rail shipping point or at mill if delivered by truck for 128 to 133 cubic 

 feet of stacked 100- inch bolts. 



5 A standard cord is 128 cubic feet of properly stacked bolts. Throughout this 

 report the term "cord" applies to that quantity of unpeeled wood, except that (1) 

 mill consumption data for roughly the past 15 to 20 years includes partly 100-inch 

 or 50-inch bolts scaled in cords of 133 cubic feet, and (2) approximately half of 

 the mill consumption data are for peeled pulpwood which contains about 10 to 

 15 percent more solid wood than unpeeled pulpwood. Hence, an allowance of 

 about 8 percent should be made in comparing consumption data with timber 

 volume and growth figures. 



