The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1908-01-02
WOOD FOR PAPER COSTS
TWENTI-SIX MILLIONS.
The Publisher fays Tors for His
Stock Than He Did Last Year.

Stock Than He Did Last Year.
Today there is general complaint
among publishers that printing
paper is constantly growing dear
er. In the Middle West many
local papers are raising their sub
scription price so per cent in order
to pay for the paper. From the
time when Gutenberg first used
movable type, made of wood, to
the present day of metropolitan
papers, some OF which consume the
| product of acres OF spruce in a
single edition, printing has in very
large degree depended upon the
! forest.
In the face of threatened short
! age of timber, the amount Of wood
consumed each year for pulp has
increased since 1899 from : million
to 81 million cords. The year
1906 marked an increase Of o3 900
cords in the import of pulpwood,
the highest average value per cord
for all kinds, and a consumption
greater by 469,o53 cords than that
of any previous year.
Spruce, the wood from which in
1899 three fourths of the pulp was
manufactured, is still tie leading
wood, but it now produces a little
less than 70 per cent of the total.
How we'll spruce is suited to the
manufacture of pulp is shown by
the fact that during period in
which the total quantity of wood
used has been doubled and many
new woods have been introduced,
the proportion Of spruce pulpwood
has remained nearly constant in
spite Of the brains upon the spruce
forests for other purposes. During
this time three different woods,
from widely separated regions,
have in turn held the rank Of lead
er in the lumber supply.
Since 1899, poplar, which for
years was used in connection with
spruce to the exclusion of all other
paper woods, have increased in
total quantity less than 100, 900
cords, and is now outranked by
hemlock Pine balsam and cot
tonwood are used in much smaller
amounts
New York alone consumes each
year over a million and a quarter
cords Of wood in the manufacture
OF pulp, or more than twice as
much as Maine, which ranks next.
Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Penn
sylvania, and Michigan follow in
in the order given Sixty per
cent of the wood used in New York
was imported from elsewhere, and
even so the supply appears to be
waning, since the total consump-
ton for the State shows a small
decrease since 1905, whereas the
other States named have all in
creased their consumption. Other
States important in the production
of P ulp are: Massachusetts,. Min
nesota, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont,
! Virginia and West Virginia
The average cost of pulp deliver
ed at the mill was S7.2I. The
total value Of the wood consumed
in 1906 was $50, 400, 900. The
chief item determining the price
OF paper is the cost of pulp. An
example of the increase price of
paper is found in the case of a pub
Usher of a daily in the Middle
West, who recently paid 81, 200
for carload of paper The same
quantity and grade of paper cost a
year ago but $500.
The chemical process of paper
making, which better preserve the
wood fiber, are gaining over the
mechanical process. In 1899, 65
per cent of the wood was reduced
by the mechanical process; in 1906,
less than so per cent.
All importations of wood for
pulp from Canada, and comprised,
in 1905, 739, 900 cords, nearly all
of which was spruce. -Four and a
half million dollars worth Of pulp