12 BULLETIN 55, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
But where the demand for pulp wood is greater than the available 
supply of spruce, balsam is the accepted substitute. Out of about 
2,220,000 cords of domestic coniferous wood used in the United 
States by the pulp industry in 1910, 6 per cent, or 132,362 cords 
(about 66,000,000 board feet), was balsam fir. 
The Forest Service, in 1903, sent a circular letter inclosing a series 
of questions to the pulp and paper manufacturers, lumbermen, town 
supervisors, and surveyors in States in which balsam fir occurs. 
Nearly 100 answers were received from pulp and paper mills, which 
throw much light upon the place of balsam fir in the economy of 
paper making. About 70 per cent of all the mills that reported use 
balsam fir in quantities varying from 2 to over 30 per cent of all the 
pulp wood consumed. The reasons given by those who do not use 
it are either that they can not get it, or that they do not like to use it 
"if they can detect it," or that they use some other species exclu- 
sively. The amount of balsam fir used by each mill varies from year 
to year, nor can it always be accurately ascertained at the mill. 
Spruce and balsam are invariably kept together, and the latter, after 
it has been barked and kept in water for any length of time, can not 
be readily distinguished. In general, it can be said that a greater 
percentage of balsam fir is used by the mills of New York (48,513 
cords) than by those of Maine (32,861 cords). This is due partly 
to the ranking position occupied by the State of New York in the 
pulp industry and its relatively large number of sulphite mills 
capable of using an unlimited amount of balsam fir and partly also 
to the comparatively large supplies of spruce in Maine. 
OBJECTIONS TO THE USE OF BALSAM-FIR FIBER. 
The principal objection to the use of large amounts of balsam fir in 
the ground-pulp process is said to be on account of the pitch that 
covers the felts and cylinder faces. It is admitted by nearly all pulp 
and paper men that from 10 to 25 per cent of balsam can be used in 
ground pulp without lowering the grade of the paper produced. A 
few go even so far as to claim that a larger admixture of balsam fir — 
from 20 to 25 per cent — is of advantage, in that it makes the pulp 
"free" ; that is, separates the spruce fibers during the manufacturing 
process and in this way allows the water to be easily drawn from 
the sheet. Still others claim that a satisfactory ground wood pulp 
can be made almost entirely of balsam. In chemical pulp, because 
of the acids dissolving the pitch, any amount of balsam can be used, 
though some claim that paper made of pulp containing a large 
admixture of balsam lacks strength, snap, and character. The pitch 
gives most trouble in freshly cut balsam, while in wood soaked in 
water over a season the amount is so small that it need not be taken 
into account. Some of the larger mills claim that after balsam fir 
has remained in the pond for one year any amount of it can be used. 
