YOUR NEWSPAPER

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 972, 12 November 1910, Page 3

YOUR NEWSPAPER

WHERE IT COMES FROM AND HOW. • "TONGUES IN TREES." . . Shakespeare was such a. wonderfully gifted writer and philosopher, so happy in the possession of the rare faculty of prescience that one might be excused for thinking that one vaguely wonders when he wroto the lines—"Tongues in, trees, books in the running brooks," in "As You Like It," he had a vision of the paper supply of tud world which almost everyone is aware comes from the trees, in 'which process nothing is more necessary than the aforementioned "running brooks." On this point we have the testimony of Mr. Louis Armstrong, assistant treasurer to the Laurentide Paper Co., Ltd., which operates in the lonely Laurentian hills, forty miles back from the mighty St. Lawrence, and about half-way between Montreal and Quebec. If the precise address is needed, it is Grand-Mere. (Quebec), a little town which harbours only the employees of the company and their wives and families. Grand-Mere (grandmother), because the face of the rock that juts out in the centre of the falls on the river St. Morice, just above the town, is a good counterpart in granite of the face of an old woman. This little out-of-the-world place is served by the M'Kenzie-Mann railroad, which is destined to be one of the three great transcontinental railroads of Canada.

The Laurentide, Company's holding consists of, roughly, about 1$ million acres of spruce-bearing country—a country beloved by Dr. Drummond, the renowned Canadian poet—and there the trees are felled which supply the bulk of tie New Zealand newspapers with their paper. Mr. Armstrong gave an interesting sketch of this great, industry to a Dominion reporter yesterday. The visitor states that his company's holding is in patches, spread over a great territory, on which the spruce grows in varying thicknesses, according to the soil and location. The diameter of matured spruce trunks ranges from 10 to 28 inches, but none are cut for pulp less than 11 inches in diameter. .They grow, says Mr. Armstrong, much,, as humanity grows, according to. the light and air accorded them. Where the trees are thick and the forest light is only half light; they grow in an attenuated form to a great height, reaching up for light and air. Where the growth is thin the spruce has a sturdy trunk, and its branches spread out in the full enjoyment of its liberty. The forestry department of the company-dictate the areas to be cut over, and the" cutting is let out to contractors,^'who undertake to supply so many milling logs in a certain time.

~The Ring of the Axe. Then away they go into the stillness of the back ranges, where little is heard through the drear sno.v season but the ring of the axes and the, chansons of the French-Canadian Jbushmen. All the cutting is done in the .winter, when the show is deep under foot, as logging is easier over a 'snow road 'than in the summer, when the tracks aro rocky and stump-strewn. .The logs are hauled down to -the river bank—the whole country being a network of rivers and lakes —and-when the ice forms they receive another'push''forward on their journey, to- the mills. On tho melting of the ice the logs begin to move downstream, across lakes, into the rivers, until they are swept into the St. Morice, which, with, the aid of the poles of the "drivers," impels them to the very jaws of the great mills, where 1000 hands their coming. ' The distance is-so great in some cases from the place where the logs are out to. the mill that the logs take two years on the journey down stream. Endless chains, surmounted' with iron spikes, draws the logs—all about 14ft. m length—to the saws, which chop them, into blocks about 2ft. in length. The mills deal with as many of the incoming logs as they can during' the summer, and tho rest are drawn by "conveyers" to a huge pile, where they are stored for winter use. At the present time there are no fewer than 2,000,000 14ft. logs in the pile. ' To resume the process— the 2ft. blocks are next submitted to a series of revolving discs for barking, when they are ready for milling.

Two Prooasses, There are two processes, of milling the blocks—the ground wood process, and the sulphite. The, former is the more economical, but the latter produces a longer and stronger fibre, and in the manufacture of newspaper about 75 per cent, of the pulp used is "ground wood" and 25 per' cent, sulphite. In the first-named process the blocks are jammed against great grindstones by hydraulic pressure, until they are literally ground into a sort of paste. This is then screened, after which, nothing is left but the fibre, which by being submitted to pressure loses the water it has taken in during the grinding, and comes out in slabs of pulp fibre. "Under the sulphite process the blocks are cut into chips, which - are placed in huge digesters, and there cooked for seven hours by steam, and at the same time treated with sulphuric acid, which effects a complete disintegration of all save the pure wood fibre. When the two kinds of pulp are amalgamated, an admixture of alum, clay, resin, and glue, anl colour is 'thrown into the "porridge," which then passes through a "beater" engine, which thoroughly mixes the mass, from there into the "jordan," which cleanses and refines, and the result is pure pulp stock. Endless wires convey, the slabs to a series of steam-heated rollers/- which thin out and dry the sheets into streams. of paper, which is. submitted to a finishing process, rolled on reels, and trucked away by rail to various seaports. At present the mills produce twice as much paper as is required for the whole of Canada —hence -the - necessity for- oversea markets. '

.A Unique Community. "Grand-Mere" approaches the unique in townships—industrially and socially. It contains about 5000 inhabitants, all of whom are- dependent, on ■ the mills, and the Laurentide Co. ;is tho. Church and State - and everything else to the little community. Tho' town is owned by the coriipany, so is the hotel, and the church - and the workmen's club, but their views on land.ownership 'are, not narrow. Any skilled workman is allowed to buy a freehold 011 the easiest terms, and.. frequently _ a house is built and furnished, and its owner is allowed to pay the; cost of tho same by weekly deductions from his wages. Healthy athlstic sports and recreations are fostered by the company, there is. ro drunkenness; and much content all round—truly, ah ideal community. The company is.not a co-operativ.e one, but it has almost/_been made one by the number of shares the employees have purchased in the open market. The result of this, is that the best work is secured, and- there is a minimum of labour trouble.