20 MISC. PUBLICATIOX 162, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



than 14i/> million tons, or 225 pounds for every man, woman, and 

 child in the country. This amonnt of paper was equivalent to more 

 than 15 million cords of pulpwood. 



The paper industry is distributed in 37 States. It was first estab- 

 lished in the Northeast, where today a large part of our paper 

 producís is mannfactured. From there, however, the industry has 

 spread to the Lake States, the Central States, the Pacific coast, and 

 in recent years throughout the South, from Virginia to Texas. 



There are several reasons for this expansión of the pulp and paper 

 industry in the Southern States. For one thing the supply of 

 Northern pulping woods is steadily diminishing. There has also 

 been an increased need for that rough and fibrous product known 

 as kraft paper, for which Southern pine pulp is extensively used. 

 Southern pines can be cheaply pulped, and the South has an avail- 

 able supply of cheap wood, plenty of water, abundant labor, and 

 an all-year working climate, all of which are favorable to the ex- 

 tensive development of the industry. 



Another product of wood pulp is rayón, that soft silky material 

 which within the last few years has come into extensive use as a 

 substitute for silk. It is made from some form of plant cellulose, 

 preferably cotton or wood, but at present more than 60 percent of 

 the rayón produced is said to come from wood cellulose. In the 

 manufacture of rayón the cellulose is modified by various chemicals, 

 which differ with the process employed, and the thick sirupy solu- 

 tion resulting is forced through minute apertures corresponding 

 to the spinnerets of the silk worm. The fine threads, or filaments, 

 coming through these openings are coagulated either in a fixing bath 

 or by a process of evaporation, and several of them formed sim- 

 ultaneously are twisted into the strand for spinning. The animal 

 production of rayón now amounts to about 320 million pounds. 



From wood pulp also comes much of that widely used transparent 

 wrapping known as cellophane. Like paper and rayón it is a cellu- 

 lost product, and its manufacture is similar to that of rayón, except 

 that the viscous solution is forced through a narrow slot. 



Various other producís are made by combining certain chemicals 

 with sawdust or wood flour. These are known as plastics and are 

 gaining in use daily. Fountain pens, telephone parts, radio and 

 automobile trimmings, combs, and a thousand other articles are 

 being made of plastics. 



After wood, the most important forest produets are perhaps tur- 

 pentine and rosin. They are obtained by the distillation of the 

 gum that exudes from the longleaf and slash pines of the South. 

 The gum is drained from the trees and carried to a still, where it 

 is cooked in closed iron retorts. The turpentine is given off in the 

 form of volatile oils, which are collected and condensed in a con- 

 densing worm. The rosin is the part of the gum left after the 

 turpentine has been distilled off. The ñame "naval stores" was given 

 these produets because for many years they were used chiefly in 

 shipbuilding. Naval stores now serve numerous other purposes 

 and yield raw materials worth from 40 to 50 million dollars a year. 



Not so valuable commercially, but with a domestic importance 

 all their own, are the sugar ancl sirup made from the sap of the 

 sugar maple and its cióse relative, the black maple. The trees are 



