The San Francisco call., 1909-06-13
WOOD PULP TRADE
SHOWS INCREASE
Two Hundred and Fifty=One
Mills Consume 3,346,l06
Cords OF Wood in 1908
Rapid Development of Industry
Illustrated by Quantity of
Forest Product Used

WASHINGTON, June 1.-TWO hun
dred and ffty-one pulp mills in the
United States used 3,346,106 cords of
wood, and made 2.11S,947 tons of pulp
last year. Spruce has always been
the leading pulp wood and it fur
nished ga per cent of the total quantity
used. The rapid development of the
wood pulp industry in the last 10
years has rendered the domestic sup
ply of spruce insufficient to meet the
demands upon it, and consequently
importations from Canada have been
heavy. In 1908 our pulp mills con-
sumed nearly one and one-half million
cords of domestic spruce. and more
than $4,000 cords of imported spruce,
making the imports of spruce As per
cent of the domestic supply.
Next to spruce. the most important
pulp wood is hemlock; $50 .173 cords Of
it were converted into pulp last year.
All the hemlock used was of domestic
origin, and most of it was produced
in the lake states and Pennsylvania.
Although now used in less quantity
than spruce and hemlock, poplar has
long been a standard pulpa wood. A
small quantity of poplar is imported,
but by far the larger portion OF the
more than 100000 cords used last year
was cut from domestic timber. Spruce.
hemlOck and poplar made up 80 per
cent of the total quantity of pulp
wood used. The remainder was sup
piled by many species, the most i'm
portant of which were pine, cotton
wood and balsam.
WOOD FOR PULP COSTLY
The wood used by the pulp mills last
year cost them a little more than
s2S, 100000. or an average of $S.3S per
cord, against an average of 1921 in
1907. The most costly wood used was
imported spruce with an average value
of S10.60 per cord. The average for
domestic spruce was sS.76 per cord,
and for poplar sS.04 per cord. The
cheapest wood which was used in large
quantity was hemlock, the cost being
$500 per cord. Owing to the uncer-
tain business conditions, the total con-
sumption of pulp wood in 1908 was
nearly 16 per cent less than in 1907.
but this did not prevent a considerable
increase in the price of wood The
high price of wood is making the man
ufacturers be constantly on the look
out for cheaper raw material, and one
of the most encouraging developments
has been the increased use of slab
wood and other sawmill waste. This
drift in the industry is clearly indi-
Gated by the fact that 1913 ,234 cords of
mill waste were reported as consumed
in pulp manufacture during 1907. while
252,S96 cords, an increase of so per
cent. were used in 1908.
PRELIMINARY REPORT ISSUED
These statements are based upon a
preliminary report of the consumption
of pulp wood in the United States in
1908 just issued by the bureau of the
census. The bureau of the census
and the forest service cooperate in
the collection of annual statistics of
forest products. and this preliminary
report will soon be followed by a bull
letin, which will give detailed infor-
nation upon the use of pulp wood
last year in the various states. the
cost per cord, the amount reduced by
the mechanical. sulphite and soda pro-
cesses. and other facts of interest to
the industry.