Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1908-06-06
PULP WOOD CONSUMPTION
GREATER AMOUNT OF WOOD
USED LAST YEAR THAN EVER
Consumption of Pulp Wood Is On In
crease and Supply Is Less Than
the Demand.

Washington, June IL preliminary
report Of the consumption of pulp
wood and the amount Of pulp manu-
featured last year has just been issued
by the bureau of census. The advance
statement is made from statistics col
lected by the census bureau in 20
operation with the United States For.
est service.
Many OF the figures bring out in
lteresting facts which show the rapid
growth OF the paper making and allied
industries during the last decade
Nearly four million cords of wood, in
exact numbers 3,962,660 cords, were
used in the United States in the man
ufacture of paper pulp last year, just
twice as much as was used in 1899,
the first year for which detailed
figures were available.
More than two and one-half million
tons OF pulp were produced. The pulp
mills used 1000 more cords of wood
in 1907 than in the previous year.
The amount of spruce used was 6S
per cent. of the total consumption of
pulp-wood, or 100000 cords. The in
creased price of spruce has turned the
attention of paper manufacturers to
number of other woods, hemlock
ranking next, with $4,000 cords, or
IA per cent of the total consumption.
More than 8 per cent. was poplar,
and the remainder consisted of rela-
lively small amounts of pine, cotton
wood, balsam and other woods.
There was marke increase last
year in the importation of spruce,
which has always been a most popu
lar wood for pulp. For number If
years pulp manufacturers of this
country have been heavily importing
spruce from Canada, since the avail
able supply of this wood in the north
central and New England states,
where most of the pulp mills are To-
Gated, is not equal to the demand.
Figures show that the amount of this
valuable pulp-wood brought into this
country was more than two and one
half times as great in 1907 as in
1899. In 1907 the importations were
larger than ever before, being % per
cent. greater than in 1906. The spruce
imports last year amounted to more
than one-third of the consumption of
spruce pulp-wood. Only slightly
greater amounHof domestic spruce
was used than In 1905. 1880
Large quantities OF hemlock were
used by the Wisconsin pulp mills, and
the report shows that the Beaver
State now ranks third in pulp roduc-
ton. New York and Maine ranking
first and second, respectively. Poplar
has been used for long time in the
manufa cture of high grade paper, but
the supply of this wood is limited and
the consumption of it has not increas-
ed rapidly.
Wood pulp is usually made by
either one of two general processes,
mechanical or chemical. In the me-
chancal process the wood after being
cut into suitable sizes and barked, is
held against revolving grindstones in
a stream of water and thus reduced
to pulp. In the chemical process the
barked wood is reduced to chips and
cooked in large digesters with chem
icals which destroy the cementing ma
terial Of the fibers and leave practical
ly pure cel'ulose. This is then washed
and screened to render it suitable for
paper making. The chemicals ordi-
narily used are either bi-sulphite of
lime of caustic soda. A little over half
of the pulp manufactured last year
was made by the sulphite process, and
about one-third by the mechanical pro
| cess. Much of the mechanical pulp,
or ground wood as it is commonly
called, is used in the making of news
| aper. 1t is never used alone but al
ways mixed with some sulphite fiber
to give the paper strength. A cord II
wood ordinarily yields about one ton
OF mechanical pulp or about one-half
ton of chemical pulp.
|