in the 1930's and 1940's, one way for pulp and paper firms to acquire supplies of pulpwood from the forests of northwestern ontario was through pulpwood dealers or middlemen. an analysis of one of these timber dealers, oscar styffe, and his pulpwood supply firm, oscar styffe limited, reveals a great deal about the role that the middleman ofnorthern ontario played in the pulpwood industry. research seems to indicate that operators such as styffe were quite diverse and to a certain extent flexible within the industry. this would suggest that they were not totally without control over their own destinies.