28 Miscellaneous Circular 39, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture 
sirable only so far as it is profitable. the hardwood went to a stave factory, 
The sawmill man of old, so far as and the hardwood tops and broken 
the knowledge and market of his day pieces to wood alcohol factories; and 
would permit him, used his timber that was nearly all the woods refuse 
just as fully as it is used in the most there was. 
modern operation, and the sawdust A former Chief Forester of the 
pile he left was a monument not to United States, who has not always 
his inefficiency and heedlessness, but seen eye to eye with the lumbermen, 
to his courage and enterprise in pene- wrote of this Norwich operation a year 
trating the wilderness and making its ago: “The utilization at Norwich was 
resources available for the great probably more complete than that of 
growth which this country has seen. any other large lumbering operation 
Inevitably with the progress of time in America.” And yet, with this de- 
and the development of new uses for gree of utilization, the only effect on 
forest products, the unprofitable has the permanency of the forest industry 
become profitable, and just at the at this particular place was to in- 
moment when our timber resources crease the chances of reforestation by 
have been depleted to a point ap- reason of the smaller amount of in- 
proaching the minimum necessary for fAammable material left in the woods. 
our requirements, complete’ utilization We did not practice reforestation. 
is rapidly becoming generally possible, Under the tax laws of the State of 
and under favorable conditions has, in Pennsylvania, it was not possible to 
my opinion, become an accomplished do so profitably, and in our lumbering 
fact. operations it is not our intention to 
Forty or fifty years ago, in the hills do anything that is not profitable. 
of northern Pennsylvania, lumbering Complete utilization alone does not 
operations were on a large scale. The have any appreciable effect upon the 
pines and the hemlocks and the hard- permanency of forest industry. 
woods were being cut down and About 1902 the owners of this 
brought to the mills for manufacture. Pennsylvania operation became the 
The logging operations left a tangle founders of the Great Southern Lum- 
of tops and broken pieces on the ber Co. They acquired several hun- 
ground which waited only for the fires dred thousand acres of yellow-pine 
which were nearly inevitable. At the timberland and promptly proceeded 
mills the refuse burner was the hard- with plans for the operation of their 
est-working part of the plant. Here property. They believed in cutting 
and there stood a struggling wood down trees. They built the best saw- 
alcohol plant that used the inferior mill that could be built at that time, 
hardwoods, and at several places and erected the largest refuse burner 
kindling wood factories worked up the that could be bought. They had not 
softwood mill refuse that would other- forgotten Pennsylvania, but yellow 
wise have burned. But still there was pine refuse was full of rosin and rosin 
a large amount of material left in the made a very hot fire. Furthermore, 
woods and the fires in the burners this sawmill was the largest sawmill 
were hot. The waste could not be in the world, and its refuse was as 
used profitably. yet unprofitable. 
In 1890 there was built at Austin, We knew from experience that some 
Pa., a pulp and paper mill which, so day the refuse would be profitable, so 
far as I know, was the first mill in we employed the best forest chemists 
this country to use woods and saw- available to make a careful study of 
mill refuse as its raw material. From the possibilities of the utilization of 
the beginning of the operation of this waste. Their report was a volume 
plant, the burner of the Austin saw- consisting of 811 pages, and proved 
mill went on a starvation ration. too large for immediate digestion. Tt 
Twenty years later, when a flood was a good report though, and we 
wiped out the town and a new saw- made a mistake in not following it 
mill was built some miles away, we more closely and more immediately 
did what no lumber operators in this than we did. Its major recommenda- 
country had done before, we built a tion was that we should construct a 
mill without a burner and we kept mill for the manufacture of kraft pulp 
it without a sawdust pile. The mill and paper. In 1917 we built a kraft 
refuse was used in three ways, for pulp mill and a container or liner 
making kindling wood, for making board mill. To this has been added 
pulp, and for fuel, and that was all during the past year a kraft paper 
the mill refuse there was. In the mill Since the pulp mill began oper- 
forests the softwood refuse was gath- ations in January, 1918, it has oper- 
ered up and shipped to the pulp mill, ated entirely on sawmill and woods’