The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1926-08-13
FIBER FIRST IN
FOREST OUTPUT
New Lumber Industry Uses
Everything from SaWlogs
Down To SliverS.

While the old lumber industry was
moving down timber, new forest
products industry was already taking
its place. Look at the census re-
ports of 1900 and you see 4O4 saw
mills in Minnesota and "a tie camps.
Look in the 1920 census and you find
a special report ON paper mills.
There were six mills reporting In
Minnesota in 1920, using 100000 cords
of wood valued at close to $2,500,000.
Four years later it was reported the
output had increased fifty per cent.
Minnesota was shipping 100000 cords
of pulpwood outside the state and
using 325,O00 cords in its own mills,
to make 100000 tons of paper.
In the last two or three years the
value Of the paper mill product in
Minnesota has run above the value Of
the sawmill product In fact, they
use nearly as much wood-325, 600
cords would be 100000 thousand feet,
where 1923 lumber cut was 276,000
thousand feet.
When paper was first made from
pulpwood, spruce was all that could
be used. And the way the mills ate
into the spruce forests. it would be
gone into limbo with the pine by this
time, if they had not found they
could use percentage of balsam and
poplar and later that they could abb
sorb a proportion of jackpine. More
recently it is discovered that almost
any wood that comes to the mill will
make paper.
They have gone further, by extern
sive research and by experiments that
have cost millions 1t has been discov-
cred that wood shredded into fiber
| will make sheathing, and insulation
and fleecy jackets to keep out cold.
| Boards made from sawdust have fewer
imperfections than the original log
there Is neither knothole nor vain nor
shake in whole heap of sawdust.
One more step is to be taken in the
new industry. There are still the
| sawmills turning out boards and
beams. And the sash and door fac
tories and cabinet working shops.
And woodenware manufactures for
butter firkins and lard pals. And
box factories using edgings and culls.
And novelty factories for clothes pins
and potato Washers of the Jiggs
type, and all the way down to tooth
picks. And the mills making paper
with which other fiber manufactures
I no CHI &c ff
group them together in one center
so that everything that comes to the
mill can be used.
The difference between the old in
dustry that is going and the new in
dustry that is coming in is a differ
ence of economy.
Old fashioned numbering left hal
the tree in the woods and the saw!
made waste of half the remainder
The new industry uses everything
, from the sawlogs down to the slivers-
tops and branches and even the saw
dust and bark.
, There is difference in econon.
of method. The old industry, reapin
a harvest, couldn't help being waste
full. The new industry, conducting
steady business, has got to be care
, full.
, It goes into economy of structure
! the way the industry is put together
. The old lumber business finished it
, cut, pulled up its stakes and move
, on. The new forest products indu:
> try has too heavy an investment t
: skip from place to place and mus
have a continuous supply of raw ma
: terial.
, The new industry-which is a
a ready here-presuppose a perpetus
! crop of trees coming on year afte
i year On that basis it will run int
8 larger assets than the original lun
/ Der harvest.