The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-06-06
Making total Of. ..7e5, ooo, 900

If to this be added the amount cut for
pulp wood, railroad sleepers, telegraph
poles, fence posts, spool wood and for
the manufacture of shingles, slaves. last
blocks, tooth-picks, etc., at local mills,
the grand total of Names timber cut in
an average year. must reach, if it ldoes
not exceed, the immense amount of one
thousand million feet.
The area of the State of Maine is about
twenty million acres. Dividing this into
the two general classes of woodland and
cleared land it is estimated by careful
observers that nearly three-fourths of
the entire area of the State, or about fif-
teen million acres, are still covered with
forest growth of some kind.
THE MANUFACTURE OF WOOD
PULP-PAPER MILLS.
This industry which has made SO
marked an advance in the last ten years
was hardly known before 1880.
Previous to that time paper manufact-
uring had been carried on in Maine to a
greater OF less extent for nearly if not
quite half century.
With the'discovery of the process Of
making from wood a pulp suitable for
the manufacture of paper great impet-
us was given to the latter industry and
the pulp mills themselves added much
to the industrial wealth of Maine They
also made valuable many tracts of land
that had formerly been considered of
little worth for timber producing and
thus added to the volume of the lumber
industry of Maine.
In 1880, there were in Maine seven
pulp mills, with an Invested capital of
$44O,0 600 and an annual output of
$500, 600.
There were at that time twelve paper
mills with capital of 100000 and an
annual output considerably exceeding
that amount.
In 1892, there were nine pulp mills in
which the wood was ground, with a
daily output of 14S tons; six pulp mills,
known as chemical Mills, producing III
tons daily, and seven, known as sulphite
mills, with daily product of 11S tons.
At all those mills wood was the material
from which the pulp was made, the only
difference being in the process of manu-
facture. The pulp and paper mills, in
1892. represented a capital of about
100000. Since then rapid strides have
been made in this comparatively new
industry. Many new and costly plants
have been constructed in different por-
tons of the State, until today the capt.
tai invested in pulp and paper mills is
fully $13, 900, 600 and the daily output is
about !, 200 tons.
These mills give employment directly
to upwards Of 5000 men and in the cut
ting and hauling of the wood from which
the pulp is made, to large number more.
The mill Of S. d. Warren & Co., at
Westbrook, which turns out fifty tons Of
the finest grade of paper per day, is the
largest paper mill in the world. Some of
the largest pulp mills are those at Madi-
son, Rumford Falls, Winslow, Rowland,
Orono, etc.
As the wood best adapted to the man
ufacture of pulp is the spruce, and as the
natural home Of the spruce is in Maine,
we may look for still greater extension
of this industry, and, as the paper mills
will naturally seek a location near where
paper stock is produced, we may look
also for a large increase in the number
and value of paper mills in this State in
the near future.
Although there may be limit to the
demand for paper, yet, as the uses to
which wood pulp is put are so various
and SO constantly increasing, it may be
said that the future demand for that ar
ticle will be practically limitless and
hence there is most encouraging out
look for this great industry in the State
of Maine.
TANNERIES.
The history of the tannery industry in