6 
BULLETIN 1241, l\ S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Consumption of nonforest materials, though important for specialized products, 
is relatively small. We used in paper manufactured in the United States in 1919 
slightly more than 275,000 tons of rags, 115,000 tons of manila stock, 350,000 
tons of straw, and 105,000 tons of all other nonforest materials. How insigni- 
ficant in volume all these materials are in comparison with wood in present-day 
paper manufacture is shown graphically in Figure 1. 
The importance of continued supplies of raw material for paper must be 
measured not by the drain of the paper industry upon the forests as compared 
with that for lumber, fuel wood, and other timber products, but by the part that 
paper plays in our national life. Newsprint paper has for many years been made 
exclusively of wood pulp. Our 1922 consumption of more than 2,450,000 tons 
of newsprint (Table 3) constituted 31 per cent of our total paper requirements. 
Book paper derives more than 75 per cent of its raw material from the forest, 
and in 1922 comprised more than 12 per cent of our total paper consumption. 
WOOD 
PULP(I) 
STRAW 
WASTE. 
PAPER 
(!) 
RAGS 
MANILA 
STOCK 
ALL 
OTHER 
MILLION TONS (2,000 lbs) 
12 3 4 
(I) &b°/o Of waste paper is wood pulp, 
15/0 is other materials. 
WOOD AND OTHER RAW MATERIALS USED 
IN THE PAPER MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES 
IN 1919 
•Wood supplied over 90 per cent of the raw material Tor the paper made in the United States In 
Wood pulp, which leads all other materials, is supplemented lo an important extent by 
paper, 86 per cent of which is derived from wood. 
While the bulk of paper consumption is for purposes distinct from its outstanding 
function as material for the printing press, it is on abundant and cheap supplies 
of print paper that the interest of the public is now overwhelmingly centered. 
Cheap aewsprint has made it possible for the press to attain its present command- 
sec in our national life a < y for the diffusion of information and the 
creati ghtened public opinion on important questions. Book paper, 
ii does the medium for most d 3 as well as books, plays 
a pari in puhli □ the importance of which is obvious and fui 
l)ii I book papers make other contributions to current life. 
si rid oonduci of modern business in all of its Infinite rain 
ii no small * m the facilities afforded by paper and print* 
materia]. The fine option in excess of o50,000 tons, very 
largely writing papers, maj also be classed with newsprint k in theii 
economic and public ben< 
