Timbers. 



92 



FFeb. 1907. 



visiting the most up-to-date mills where all classes of wood pulp are made, and so 

 have had-exceLlett.t opportunities i'or studying and comparing the various processes 

 now in use. ' Sweden and Norway are countries from which we have for years 

 deriveti bur 'praic'Kwst supply of wood fibre for paper making. Years of practical 

 experience 'hav e taught the Scandinavians to produce the best wood pulp in both 

 mechanical and chemical varieties ; but although both Sweden and Norway claim to 

 have enormous forests of pulp wood, yet in spite of the law in Sweden which 

 compels the replanting of six saplings for every tree cut down, it seems to me that 

 at the rate at which the forests are being denuded of their timber for other purposes 

 besides the conversion into wood pulp, in less than twenty five years from now the 

 maintenance of the timber supply will become a grave question. While in South 

 Germany timber fit for pulping can be grown in fourteen or fifteen years, in 

 Scandinavia it takes about forty years. 



During the past dozen years our great Dependency in the Western Hemis- 

 phere, viz., the Dominion of Canada— of which our distinguished Chairman, Lord 

 Strathcona and Mount Royal, is the representative in this country— has come forward 

 as a pulp-producing country, much to the relief and satifaction of British paper- 

 makers ; for, with the growth of Canadian competition, it has become an important 

 factor in keeping the prices of pulp from Sweden and Norway from being advanced 

 higher than was justified in normal times. So that the advent of Canada into the 

 wood pulp business is likely to have a steadying influence in the matter of prices. I 

 am pleased to say that Canada is making great progress in the industry by the 

 construction of new mills, and the extension and improvement of existing mills. 

 Our Chairman (Lord Strathcona) takes a keen interest in the wood pulp industry of 

 Canada, and has been largely instrumental in its develompent. As a frequent 

 visitor to Canada, I trust that the Canadian Government will not be long before 

 it adopts the replanting system of Sweden and Germany. At present there is but 

 little attempt to protect the colossal and magnificent forests of the great Dominion 

 of Canada, which are the envy of the whole world. What with the enormous wast- 

 age that goes on, and the serious inroads made by forest fires and indiscriminate 

 cutting, Canada will have to take speedy steps to take care of the magnificent and 

 great wealth which Nature has endowed her with in her forests, or otherwise she 

 will, long before the present century closes, be bereft of that grand birthright. 



In an essay published by Reaumur in the eighteenth century there is a 

 suggestion that it might be possible to make paper from wood, and in 1750 paper was 

 made from the bark, leaves, and wood of various trees in Prance. The class of wood 

 generally used for the manufacture of chemical pulp is known as soft wood, and 

 belongs to the order Coniferae or cone-bearing trees. The common spruce and 

 the silver fir are the chief species that supply the chemical pulp of Europe, 

 while the white spruce, black spruce, Canadian Hemlock, white American pine, and 

 the silver fir furnish the bulk of wood pulp in America. For mechanical wood pulp 

 poplar, aspen, spruce, and fir are mostly used. Although almost every class of wood 

 can be converted into pulp, only the soft coniferous trees are economically, suitable! 

 Trees having a diameter of from 6 inches to 20 inches at the base, and of about 

 twenty years growth are considered best. Smaller are not so economically worked, 

 and larger timber is usually cut for lumber. Within the last few years a great 

 number of pulp mills have been started in the Southern and Western States of 

 America, and other parts of the world, which, in order to utilise the particular class 

 of wood growing in those districts have adopted somewhat special methods, and we 

 now find wood pulp being produced from a great variety of woods. The great 

 majority of pulp mills obtain their supply of wood in the form of round logs about 

 to 10 feet long, while many in the lumber cutting districts use edgings and other 

 waste wood from saw mills. 



