only 237 active pulp mills in the country in 1944, 
all but 25 integrated with paper mills. The mills 
are located chiefly near the Atlantic and Gulf sea- 
board, in the Lake States, and in the Douglas-fir 
subregion. 
Unlike the lumber industry, the paper and pulp © 
industry is running at full capacity. During 1946, 
production reached 110 percent of rated plant ca- 
pacity, yet the demand for many paper products 
was not met. Newsprint paper, much of which is 
imported, was especially short. 
The pulp and paper industry is perhaps the most 
stable of the timber industries. Before the war an 
integrated sulfite pulp and paper mill of economic 
size called for an investment of 3.5 to 4.0 million 
dollars. For kraft pulp and paper minimum in- 
vestment was 7 to 8 million dollars. Since such 
mills require a long amortization period, an assured 
wood supply becomes doubly important. 
The industry owned about 15 million acres of 
forest land in 1944. This acreage is increasing, but 
few companies own enough to supply all their 
needs. Many pulp manufacturers have Canadian 
affiliates and own timber in that country, some of 
it acquired expressly for supplying plants in the 
United States. 
Pulp and paper companies have been in the 
forefront of private owners in adopting forestry 
practices. More than two-thirds of the industry’s 
lands is under management. In 1945, 33 percent 
of the cutting on pulp-company lands was “good” 
or “high-order”; another 49 percent was rated 
“fair.” Only 18 percent was poor or destructive.?* 
Although the pulp and paper industry has 
adopted aggressive policies in forest-land acquisi- 
tion, made a good beginning in forest management, 
and kept alert to improvements in technical pro- 
cesses of manufacture, its wood-supply problems 
are by no means solved. 
Wood supply is a critical problem for many of 
the mills in New England and New York. Spruce 
and fir are in especial demand. Much of the supply 
comes from Canada. In New York some operators 
go into the woods for as little as 3 cords per acre. 
Premature clear-cutting of pulpwood timber is a 
common practice and this works against a shift to 
partial cutting methods which would give greater 
stability in the long run by maintaining productive 
growing stock. 
In the Lake States, depletion of the preferred 
pulpwood species is even more advanced. Most of 
See fig. 15, p. 48. 
the spruce and fir comes from Canada, and high- 
level production is being maintained by the in- 
creased use of jack pine, aspen, eastern hemlock, 
and hardwoods. Some spruce is now being ob- 
tained from Colorado, and lodgepole pine is shipped 
in from Montana. 
The South now produces almost one-half of the 
Nation’s total pulp output. The industry has ex- 
panded phenomenally there during the past 15 
years. In some localities where new mills are 
planned, it is questionable whether the larger needs 
for wood can be met. Although most of the south- 
ern pulp and paper companies are managing their 
own timberlands well, nearly one-half of the in- 
dustry’s wood supply comes from other lands, where 
growing stock is being depleted by heavy cutting of 
small second growth. 
In the Pacific Northwest, the dominant sulfite 
- mills have already expanded close to the limits of 
the supply of the favored species—western hemlock 
and Sitka spruce. There are, however, large vol- 
umes of balsam firs, Engelmann spruce, and moun- 
tain hemlock farther up in the mountains which 
have been little used. With more hemlock going 
into lumber and plywood, sulfite pulp manufac- 
turers have been actively expanding their timber- 
land holdings. Further growth of the industry 
will doubtless be chiefly in the use of Douglas-fir 
for sulfate pulp. A large volume of low-quality 
logs and logging waste is available for such use. 
Part of the deficiency in our domestic pulpwood 
supply may eventually be met by building pulp and 
paper plants in Alaska. The coastal forests, pre- 
dominantly western hemlock and Sitka spruce, are 
well suited for paper making and could supply 1.5 
million cords of pulpwood annually. This would 
be about 7 percent of our potential requirements. 
Methods of procuring pulpwood vary. Much is 
purchased from farmers or independent loggers, 
often through brokers working in assigned districts. 
In such buying, the pulp and paper industry -is 
generally able to outbid the lumber industry. Some 
of the wood is obtained from other timber indus- 
tries. Imports from Canada are substantial in 
both the North and the Pacific Northwest. 
Dependence upon contract buyers, who have little 
interest in either the permanence of the manufac- 
turing plant or the continued productivity of the 
forest, is a disturbing element in the South and 
North. Possibilities exist for the creation, at 
strategic locations, of open pulpwood markets or 
timber-products exchanges where producers and 
56 Miscellaneous Publication 668, U. S. Department of Agriculture 
