2 
BULLETIN 309, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
try. In this country scarcely a month passes during which some 
new wild plant or crop waste is not proposed as a certain and perma- 
nent relief to the paper manufacturer from the stress resulting from 
the rising cost of raw materials. 
The past 10 years have witnessed an enormous growth in the pulp 
and paper industry and a keener realization of the fact that the present 
wood supply of the United States can not indefinitely withstand the 
demands placed upon it. About 80 per cent of the paper stock used 
in this country is derived from wood. In 1900 about 2,000,000 cords 
of wood were used for pulp manufacture, and the present use is ap- 
proximately 4,500,000 cords a year. Pulp-wood imports in this 
country increased from 650,000 cords at $4.20 per cord in 1907 to 
1,036,000 cords at $6.60 in 1913. In 1903, 131,000 tons of wood pulp 
were imported, as against 563,000 tons in 1913. 
In a report of the United States Forest Service in 1914 the annual 
growth of wood in the United States is placed at 12 cubic feet per 
acre per year, while there are being removed 36 cubic feet per acre 
per year; in other words, as a nation, wood is being used three times 
as fast as it grows. Without doubt imported wood will play an 
important role in the paper industry of this country for many years 
to come. 
New woods are in common use to-day which would not have been 
considered a few years ago, and reforesting is being given very serious 
attention, all of which goes to show a desire on the part of the pulp 
manufacturer to husband his present source of supply or to secure 
new sources. 
Since the demand for paper stock is gaining so rapidly upon the 
supply it is very clear that the price of raw material will continue to 
increase and in so doing will bring other raw materials into competi- 
tion. It is for this reason that investigations of the adaptability of 
fibrous plants and crop wastes should be carried on with some of the 
more promising materials. 
The Office of Paper-Plant Investigations of the Bureau of Plant 
Industry has numerous materials under examination and proposes 
from time to time, as the data obtained may warrant, to publish 
the information which has been secured. The publication of these 
data will not mean that the work with the material has been com- 
pleted or that the conclusions reached are final. There is always a 
possibility that further information and the devising of new and 
better methods may result in taking a raw material from the class of 
unpromising materials and placing it in the class of promising 
materials. 
The work with zacaton (Epicampes macroura Benth.) has pro- 
gressed to a point where at least a preliminary publication of results 
is desirable. 
