Lessened Durability of Printed Records One serious result of the stringency in the paper market has been that the quality of the paper used for newspaper and book work has manifestly deteriorated in many instances. This was particu larly noticeable with the New York newspapers. In former years, a man could buy a newspaper down-town when he left his office at the close of business, read it on the way home, and hand it to his family in a whole and readable condition, but at one period in 1916, it was the exception, rather than the rule, that a man could buy an unbroken paper from the newsboy, and if he were fortunate enough to get one that was not broken at the folds or frayed on the margins, it was usually in a badly damaged condition after half an hour's reading. If this condition continues, the year 1916 will be remembered as the turning point from whole newspapers to ragged, friable newspapers. The durability of newspapers as historical records has been diminishing of late years proportionately with the substitution of wood-pulp for rag fibre in the stock from which it has been made; but we venture to predict that those printed in 1916 will be even less permanent than their predecessors as repositories of current history. Where this condition will end cannot be foreseen. Its effect on the publication of both newspapers and books of the better class is greatly to be deplored from the historical standpoint. Number of Trees Used in Newspaper Manufacture If the increased price resulted in any diminution in the destruction of trees, there might be in such reduced drain on the forests some measure of compensation for the ill-effects before noted, but if correctly informed by the representative of the large paper manufacturing company before quoted, there is no diminution in the demand for news paper. Probably very few people realize when they read a newspaper or notice a pile of newspapers on a news-stand, or see a truck-load of rolls of news paper unloading in Printing House Square, New York, that most of the material from which newspapers are made was once a part of the evergreen forests, or realize how many trees are cut down in the course of a year to enable the newspapers to carry on their indis pensable function of disseminating information of current events. To illustrate this branch of the subject, we may cite the amount of paper consumed by one of the leading metropolitan dailies, The New York Times. In the published statistics of this paper it is stated that during the year 1916, for its net paid circulation of 124,593,327 copies, it consumed 67,914,000 pounds of paper. With a view to ascertaining how many trees this represented, we wrote to the United States Department of Agriculture asking how many spruce trees, eight inches in diameter three feet from the ground, would be required in the manufacture of that amount of paper. The inquiry was referred to the Forest Products Laboratory of the Forest Service of that Department, from which we received the following interesting reply: UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOREST SERVICE FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY Madison, Wisconsin, February 10, 1917. Mr. E. H. Hall, Secretary, American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, Dear Sir: New York city. Your letter of February 5, addressed to the Washington office, has been referred to this laboratory. It is considerable of an estimate to attempt to say how much news paper could be produced from a spruce tree of a given diameter. In order to arrive at any figure that would be even close, one should know something about the shape of the tree, height, density of wood and method of barking, as well as the furnish that would be used in manufacturing the sulphite and groundwood pulp into news print paper. Assuming that a tree is eight inches in diameter, about 50 feet high, that no wood under three inches in diameter is utilized for pulp, that barking is done in modern barking drums, and that the spruce is all sound and of rather slow growth, that 15 per cent sulphite and 85 per cent ground wood pulp are used for the news print paper, one could secure from each tree approximately 160 pounds of news paper. On that basis, the consumption of 67,914,000 pounds of news paper would represent the utilization of some 424,000 spruce trees described above. Occasionally, wood of smaller diameter than three inches top is used but this is not at all general and has not been considered in this estimate. Very truly yours, G. C. MCNAUGHTON, Acting in Charge, Section of Pulp and Paper. Presenting the same problem to the New York State Conservation Commission with a view to ascertaining the acreage of average virgin spruce represented by the manufacture of 67,914,000 pounds of paper, we have received the following reply: Answer to your letter of February 17th has been delayed on account of my absence from this office. Taking the figures in your letter that the New York Times annually consumes 67,914,000 pounds of newspaper, and figuring that the average virgin spruce forest in the Adirondacks would cut 15 cords per acre (this, of course, is an average for the whole Adirondacks, many acres or tracts would not cut 15 cords and many would cut considerably more, perhaps 20), and that one cord of spruce pulp wood will make 1,800 pounds of paper, then the yield from one acre of virgin forest would be 27,000 pounds of paper and the area necessary to be cut over to supply the New York Times with one year's newspaper would be approximately 2,500 acres. These figures, of course, are very rough. Very truly yours, ARTHUR S. HOPKINS, GUY PARK HOUSE IN AMSTERDAM On February 14, 1917, the Hon. Erastus Corning Davis of Fonda, N. Y., introduced in the Assembly the following bill: AN ACT authorizing the repair, improvement and preservation of the building known as Guy Park house, and the grounds adjacent thereto, in the city of Amsterdam, county of Montgomery, making an appropriation therefor, and transferring the custody thereof to the American Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: Section 1. The Superintendent of Public Works is hereby authorized to make such repairs and improvements to the building situated in the city of Amsterdam, county of Montgomery, and known as the Guy Park house, as will restore so far as may be possible such building to its original appearance and as may be necessary to preserve the same, and to improve the grounds immediately adjacent thereto; the said property having been appropriated by the State for canal purposes from the owner or owners thereof on or about February fourteenth, nineteen hundred and seven, pursuant to the provisions of chapter one hundred and forty-seven of the laws of nineteen hundred and three. 2. Upon the completion of the repairs and improvements authorized by this act, the Superintendent of Public Works is hereby authorized to transfer to the Amsterdam Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution the custody and maintenance of such building and such portion of the grounds immediately adjacent thereto as may be necessary for the proper use and preservation of such building, upon the execution and filing in the office of the Superintendent of Public Works of a proper instrument by said Daughters of the American Revolution, agreeing to preserve, protect and maintain such building in a suitable and proper manner without cost to the State, and releasing the State from any damage or claim for damage which may accrue to any person or persons by reason of the use of such building or any part thereof. Nothing in this act contained shall be deemed as divesting the State of title to such property, and the right of custody and maintenance hereby authorized to be conveyed by the Superintendent of Public Works to said Daughters of the American Revolution shall not be transferred or assigned by them without the previous consent in writing of the Superintendent of Public Works. § 3. The Amsterdam Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution may designate a caretaker to such premises, and adopt rules and regulations for the admission of visitors; but no. charge or fee shall be exacted for such admission. § 4. The sum of five thousand dollars ($5,000), or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated out of any moneys in the treasury, not otherwise appropriated, for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this act, to be paid by the treasurer on the warrant of the Comptroller on the order of the Superintendent of Public Works. § 5. This act shall take effect immediately.* The place called Guy Park in the foregoing act was the home of Sir Guy Johnson, nephew of Sir William Johnson of Revolutionary fame. Concerning this interesting landmark Assemblyman Davis furnishes us with the following information: An examination of the records at the Montgomery County Clerk's office at Fonda, in order to ascertain what disposition was made of the lands of Sir John Johnson, Colonel Guy Johnson and Daniel Claus reveals the following facts: First, that the Guy Park mile square was formerly the Hoofe Patent, granted to Henry Hoofe December 12, 1727, and the Daniel Claus property and the Fort Johnson mile square were parts of the Wilson and Abeel Patent, granted to Ebenezer Wilson and John Abeel, the father of the celebrated half-breed Cornplanter who was on General Washington's staff during the Revolution. This patent was granted February 22, 1706, but it is thought that the patentees did not settle on it. The records show that it was subsequently included in the Kingsland or Royal Grant to Sir William John son. Guy Park was conveyed by the commissioners to John Taylor and James Caldwell, who conveyed to Daniel Miles, July 6, 1790; Miles conveyed to Sarah and James McGorck in 1800: McGorck to John V. Henry in 1805; John V. Henry to Henry Bayard; Bayard to James Stewart in 1845 or 1846. After the flight of the Johnsons and previous to the act of attainder and confiscation in 1779, the Fort Johnson mansion was The bill was passed and became chapter 316 of the laws of 1917. |