The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1908-01-09
PRICES SOARING
Publisher Pays Much More For
Paper Than Formerly
WOOD GETTING SCARCE
Bulletin Sent Out By Forestry Ser.
vice Gives Statistics of Value
On the Subject

The Fore stly Service at Washington
has just issued the following bulletin
relative to the scarcity of wood and
the rapidly advancing price of pa
per:
Today there is general complaint
among publishers that printing paper
is constantly growing dearer. In
the middle west many local papers
are raising their subscription price
so per cent in order to pay for the
paper. From the time when Guten-
berg first used movable type, made of
wood, to the present day of metropOli-
tan papers, some of which consume
the product of acres of spruce in a
single edition, printing has in very
large degree depended upon the for
est.
In the face of a threatened shortage
of timber, the amount of wood con-
sumed each year for pulp has increas-
ed since 1899 from 2 million to 3k
million cords. The year 1906 marked
an increase OF $4,000 cords in the i'm
ports of pulpwood, the highest aver
age value per cord for all kinds, and
a consumption greater by 469,053
cords than that of any previous year.
Spruce, the wood from which i'll
1899 three-forths of the pulp was
manufactured, is still the leading
wood, but it now produces little less
than 10 per cent of the total. How
well spruce is suited to the mnufact-
ure of pulp is shown by the fact that
during a period in which the total
quantity of wood used has doubled
and many new woods have been intro
duced, the proportion of spruce pulp
wood has remained nearly constant
in spite of the drains upon the spruce
forests for other purposes. During
this time three different woods, from
widely separated regions, have in turn
held the rank of leader in the lum-
Der supply.
Since 1899 poplar, which for years
was used in connection with spruce
to the exclusion of all other paper
woods. has increased in total quaint
ity less than 100000 cords, and is
now outranked by hemlock. Pine,
balsam, and cottonwood are used IN
much smaller amounts.
New York alone consumes each
year over million and quarter
cords of wood III the manufacture OF
pulp, or more than twice as much as
Maine, which ranks next Wlscon-
sin, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania,
and Michigan follow in the order CIV
en- Sixty per cent of the wood used
IN New York was imported from else
where, and even so the upply APP
pears to be waning, since the total
consumption for the State shows
small decrease since 1905, whereas the
other States named have all increas-
ed their consumption Other States
important in the production of pulp
are: Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio
Oregon, Vermont, Virginia and West
Virginia.
The average cost of pulp delivered
a; the mill was 1921. The total value
of the wood consumed in 1906 was.
SOC. 400. 900. The chief item determin-
ing the price of paper is the cost OF
pulp. An example of the increased
price of paper is found in the case
of a publisher of daily in the mid
die west, who recently paid $1,000 for
carload of paper. The same quaint
ity and grade of paper cost year
ago $500.
The chemical processes 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
are from Canada, and comprised, in
1906, 739, 900 cords, nearly all of which
was spruce. Four and a half mil
lion dollars worth Of pulp was i'm
ported in 1906, slight falling off
from 1905.