Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1898-03-30
HARVEST OF PULPWOOD.
Where the Big Paper Mills of Fox
River Valley Get Their
Material.

Appleton, Wis, March 25.-[SpeciaIl- l.
The pulpwood harvesting season in Wis
consin and Upper Michigan has practical
ly closed, and by the end Of this week
the last of the camps will have broken
up and come out of the woods. The cut
this season has been about the same as
last, and the season, upon the whole, has
been favorable. The greater part of all
the wood cut will be used by the pulp
mills of the Fox River valley, and nearly
all so used will be handled by the Pulp
wood Supply company of Appleton. This
company will this season handle about
10000 cords of spruce and hemlOck wood,
about $4,000 cords will have been re-
ceived by rail from northern points and
stored in the mill yards of the valley by
April 10. About 10000 cords will be
shipped from Bay de Noquet and up the
Fox river, on scows during the naviga
ton season. Of the receipts by rail all
but small fraction is now in hand. No
Canadian wood will be handled this sea-
son by the Pulpwood Supply company
and the towing of big RATS of from 1000
to 10000 cords of wood from the Geor-
gian bay region through the great lakes
to the Long Tail Point docks of the com
pany, near Green Bay, will be discon-
tinued. These docks, where the wood
was taken from the water by elevators
and loaded onto cars for railway ship
ment to this valley, will be abandoned
TOR the present, except that small
amount of wood cut at bay shore points
on private contracts with one or two
mills will be handled there.
The total amount of wood used for the
manufacture Of pulp by the mills of the
Fox River valley this season will be
about 100000 cords. Of this amount
$4,000 cords will be handled through the
Pulpwood Supply company and $4,000
by private contracts with few mills,
one of which will handle $4,000 of the
$4,000 cords. All but about Il, 900 cords
of this wood will be freighted by rail.
When the pulp-making industry started
in this valley about a score of years ago
poplar wood was used instead of spruce
and only a few thousand cords were
ground up annually. The bulk of this
and much of it was hauled in on seghs
in the winter by farmers. As mills in
creased in number it became necessary
to go as far north as OcOnto for the wood
supply, and it was brought up the river
on scows in loads not large enough TO
keep one grinder in big mill of the pres
ent time busy for day. Then the sup
ply of poplar gave out and experiments
proved that spruce, previously considered
of no value for any purpose, was even
better for paper fiber than poplar, and
the forests of the far north were at
lacked w men the pup ana paper IN
dustry began to attain something like its
present proportions, the provision of a
sufficient wood supply was found to be Il
matter of so much Importance that the
mill owners united in organizing the
Pulpwood Supply company with its gen
aral Offices and manager at Appleton and
its 'wood-cruisers," contractors, agents,
etc, scattered throughout the spruce tim
Der country of Northern Wisconsin,
Michigan and the Canadian shores of the
lakes, and upon this company the mills
mainly depend for their supply, although
some Of them in addition deal to some
extent with private contractors, mostly
in the way of letting contracts to put in
the timber on their own lands, of which
some of the companies have large hold
ings.
The supply of spruce in sight in Wis
consin and Michigan is sufficient for
many years at the present rate of con-
sumption. After that comes into the gen
eral market the practically ineXhaustible
spruce forests of Canada, which up to the
present have only been nibbled at, and
that only when an exceptionally favor
able contract made it more profitable
than to cut American wood.