s usually are inferior. This defect in the hemlock reduces
its market value to about one-half that of the spruce for paper
making. Some of the paper mills in British Columbia are now using
these species of pulpwood and report that they make high-grade
paper.

The pulp logs are floated down to the paper mill. In the mill the
bark is removed from the logs. Special knives remove all the
knots and cut the logs into pieces twelve inches long and six
inches thick. These sticks then pass into a powerful grinding
machine which tears them into small chips. The chips are cooked
in special steamers until they are soft. The softened chips are
beaten to pieces in large vats until they form a pasty pulp. The
pulp is spread over an endless belt of woven wire cloth of small
mesh. The water runs off and leaves a sheet of wet pulp which
then is run between a large number of heated and polished steel
cylinders which press and dry the pulp into sheets of paper.
Finally, it is wound into large rolls ready for commercial use.

If a pulp and paper industry is built up in Alaska, it will be of
great benefit to that northern country. It will increase the
population by creating a demand for more labor. It will aid the
farming operations by making a home market for their products. It
will improve transportation and develop all kinds of business.

Altogether 420,000,000 feet of lumber have been cut and sold from
the national forests of Alaska in the past ten years. This
material has been made into such products as piling, saw logs and
shingle bolts. All this lumber has been used in Alaska and none
of it has been exported. Much of the timber was cut so that it
would fall almost into tide-water. Then the logs were fastened
together in rafts and towed to the sawmills. One typical raft of
logs contained more than 1,500,000 feet of lumber. It is not
unusual for spruce trees in Alaska to attain a diameter of from
six to nine feet and to contain 10,000 or 15,000 feet of lumber.

Southeastern Alaska has many deep-water harbors which are open
the year round. Practically all the timber in that section is
controlled by the Government and is within the Tongass National
Forest. This means that this important crop will be handled
properly. No waste of material will occur. Cutting will be
permitted only where the good of the forest justifies such work.

CHAPTER XI

PROGRESS IN STATE FORESTRY

The rapid depletion and threatened exhaustion of the