68 BULLETIN 1241, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
cords of pulp species, now lost annually by fire and disease, which it is possible to 
save under better protection. To both could be added also 2 million cords 
annually from Alaska. Out of this total could be met the 10^ million cord 
difference between the present cut from our forests and an ultimate cut of 15 
million cords of pulp wood, and leave a substantial difference for increased use 
of other wood products. The chief difficulty would arise out of a continued 
concentration of requirements on the spruces, firs, and hemlocks. 
In some regions all of the growth on the types now supporting pulp species 
would be required to maintain an industry of the size of that already in existence. 
In others there would be a large leeway between pulp requirements and the total 
possible growth, so that intensive forestry on smaller areas would meet pulp- 
wood demands. 
THE SOLUTION OF THE IMMEDIATE SPRUCE-FIR-HEMLOCK PROBLEM. 
Unfortunately the timber supplies of New York and Pennsylvania are now so 
greatly reduced, in relation to demands, and provisions for their replacement by 
growing new supplies are still so far short of ultimate possibilities, that a curtail- 
ment of pulp production seems to be the only outlook if present pulping processes 
are continued. How rapid the curtailment will be, and how far it will go, depends 
primarily upon how soon forest management is applied, with what degree of 
intensity, and on what part of the area of the entire spruce-fir type. Increased 
cutting of pulp timber in the immediate future would merely hasten and aggravate 
later curtailment. While taking full advantage of the supplementary measures 
already outlined, the main effort in the solution of the problem in the Middle 
Atlantic States must therefore be to increase timber growth. 
The outlook of the immediate future in New England is similar, but less critical 
because of the larger timber supplies in relation to plant requirements and the 
smaller pulp-wood imports. New Hampshire, of the three spruce States, is in 
the worst situation, and Vermont in the best. Vermont might succeed in supply- 
ing its own mills, but will probably be called upon increasingly to assist New 
Hampshire and New York. Drastic curtailment is the only outlook for New 
Hampshire so far as its own supplies are concerned, and reliance upon Maine and 
Vermont serves only to aggravate the difficulties of these States. Full advantage 
must be taken of supplementary measures; but the main solution in New England, 
as in the Middle Atlantic States, lies in the promptness, extent, and intensity of 
forest management on the entire spruce-fir type. 
Michigan's spruce and hemlock supplies are chiefly available for Wisconsin. 
Wisconsin, with only limited resources of its own, draws its pulp wood largely 
from Michigan and Minnesota. Minnesota, with anything but a favorable 
spruce outlook, is trying to eliminate the competition of Wisconsin mills. Elimi- 
nating new processes, the only way in which the pulp industry tan hold its own 
in the near future is through increased use of hemlock in competition with the 
sawmills, and through the possibility, already beginning in fact, of using jack. 
pine. Both of these species are more suitable for sulphite than for mechanical 
pulp. Both, without intensive forest management, and possibly hemlock in 
any case, will be purely temporary expedients. Immediate enlargement oi the 
pulp-wood cut or of the manufacturing industry is out of the question without 
corresponding curtailmenl later. 
Under present pulping processes, therefore, new regions alone, with ample 
stocks of virgin timber, offer the only hope of making up in the near future either 
our 870,000 cords of spruce-pulp wood import^ or the sum total of our dependence 
for spruce, fir, and hemlock pulp wood, equivalent to 3,916,000 cords. Half of 
the latter can be wiped out by a new industry in Alaska; three-fourth.- can be 
'd from the forests of Washington, Oregon, and California; one-fourth can 
