Existing comment:
Paper Moves South:
Paper had long been manufactured in the Northeastern and Midwestern states from cloth, linen and rags, but in the late 1800s demand began to overwhelm supply. Increasing literacy and the growth of business and government created a greater demand for newspapers, books, and paper records. Manufacturers increasingly turned to wood as a source of fiber for paper and packaging.
In 1930, about 70 percent of the pulpwood consumed in U.S. paper mills was imported from Canada and other countries, whereas the capacity of Southern forests was estimated at ten times that amount. Once a process for producing fine paper and newsprint from resinous Southern pine had been developed, the mills began moving to the Southeast.
The paper industry took up where the CCC left off, becoming a major promoter of research and scientific forest management in the post-World War II South. |