38 BULLETIN 1241, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
pulp-wood import problem and 69 per cent of the aspen problem, on the basis 
of 1920 data, centers in two Middle Atlantic States alone, the first and most 
critical problem is to determine what provision, if any, can be made in these 
States to offset these imports. What is to be done for the permanent support 
of pulp and paper manufacture promises to be almost equally important. The 
graphic representation of the distribution of the spruce imports in Figure 25, 
and of the aspen imports in Figure 26 emphasizes still more strikingly the 
concentration of the problem in the Middle Atlantic States. 
NEW YORK. 
New York leads all other States in the production of paper. It ranks second 
in the production of wood pulp and third in the consumption of pulp wood. 
It produces a very large amount of mechanical and sulphite pulps, and a corre- 
spondingly large amount of newsprint paper. Soda-pulp production is much 
smaller. 
The outstanding fact in the present New York situation as to the timber sup- 
plies and pulp-wood requirements is the very large and rapidly growing spruce-fir 
pulp-wood imports from Canada. As recently as 1906 New York imported less 
than 40 per cent of the spruce utilized in its mills, while in 1920 spruce imports 
had risen to 59 per cent of consumption. The very large part of the total pulp> 
wood imports taken by New York has already been stated. 
The present stand of spruce and fir in New York, as shown by Table 50, is rela- 
tively small, reaching altogether only about 14 million cords. Of this approxi- 
mately 7 million is on the State preserve, on which cutting is prohibited by the 
State constitution. Some of the spruce and fir lands are held by lumber com- 
panies and as private estates for recreation. The holdings of the pulp and paper 
companies aggregate about one-seventh of the total spruce-fir stand in the Adi- 
rondack region. It is reported that but three or four companies have holdings 
sufficiently large to carry them 10 years without purchases of additional supplies, 
and that only one company has a supply for 20 years. 
A rather detailed study of the New York situation along the lines of the pre- 
ceding paragraph indicates that probably less than half of the total spruce-fir stand 
is now available for pulp and paper manufacture, a total of approximately 6$ 
million cords. This stand, according to 1920 figures, is being cut at the rate of 
about 400,000 cords a year for pulp wood, and would prove even more inadequate 
should it be compelled to supply any or all of the 545,000 cords (1920) additional 
now imported from Canada. The cut for lumber in 1920 reached an equivalent 
of 57,500 cords. No data are available to show the cut for other purposes, or 
the losses by fungous diseases, insects, and fire. The total drain on this forest, 
which is therefore unknown, is being offset by growth in the spruce-fir type of the 
Middle Atlantic States, which is confined to New York, of about 300,000 cords 
per year (Table 49); but because of State and other holdings only about one-half 
may be available for pulp wood. 
Such incomplete and unsatisfactory data as exist are sufficient to show ooif- 
clasfvely that the situation is growing rapidly worse rather than better: The 
many New York mills which are without timber holdings of their own are most 
directly concerned; Practically all the rest, however, find it n .pple- 
ment their own inadequate, holdings by purchase^ of pulp wood. Any increase 
in the cut to offset pulp-wood imports would merely draw more heavily upon the 
ahcady depleted stands of the State. It would intensify still further the com- 
petition between the pulp mills and other forms of use. Imports mighl be offset 
in part through increased purchases from Vermont, which, SB shown later, might 
be able to supply its own mills if timber is not diverted outside of the State. 
