fibers as cotton, hemp, jute, flax, and abacé are eminently suited for the 
manufacture of paper, but their primary value for textiles and cordage 
excluded their use in the raw state for paper and therefore, the paper 
makers obtained their material largely from the refuse of these industries. 
Good cotton and linen rags have become a luxury in the paper-making 
world, ‘They are only indulged in now for making the best class of sta- 
tionery, and by fortunate coincidence, this is about the only use to which 
they can be put. At first glance, wood might be considered too valuable 
for other purposes, but fortunately, those varieties which find most favor 
for the making of paper pulp are considered rather worthless for the many 
other uses for which wood is usually employed ; furthermore, the demands 
of the spinner and cordage maker need not be considered. Twenty or 
twenty-five years ago statements “that there is not the slightest ground 
for believing the supply of this raw material would ever fail” were com- 
mon in regard to wood as a material for paper making. The marvelous 
growth in the paper industry of the last two decades was not then fore- 
seen nor were the many other uses for wood-pulp, which modern. ad- 
vances in the industrial world have brought about, taken into account. 
P. H. Clutterbuck, referring to the numberless uses of wood-pulp, 
writes 33 
Printing paper alone eats an enormous hole in our natural forests yearly and 
the future requirements can only be conjectured. The huge procession of railway 
cars all over the country run, to some extent, on paper wheels; carpenters are 
beginning to use boards of paper, handsomely veined, requiring no planing, twice 
as durable as the wooden variety and costing only half the money. The builder 
is introducing paper bricks, showily enameled, which will not burn and possess 
many advantages over those of clay. The shipbuilder introduces masts and spars 
of the same substance, which is likewise used for telegraph and telephone poles 
and flagstaffs, These are not fanciful experiments but serious business procedures, 
justified by superior durability of the articles so produced. This same quality 
is claimed for the paper horseshoe recently invented and so extensively used, 
Already, paper manufacturers in the United States are looking for 
new sources of supply for raw material. A recent report of the United 
States Department of Agriculture‘ recommends that investigations be 
made on the suitability of new raw materials for paper and paper pulp. 
“Our well-known pulp woods are being used up faster than they are 
growing, and as a consequence the demand for new material has led to 
efforts to utilize many waste products among which bagasse or sugar-cane 
refuse, cornstalks, southern pine waste, rice straw, and hemp. stalks 
present exceeding promising fields.” 
The United States Government recently has established a laboratory 
at. Washington for investigations along these lines, and this fact em- 
phasizes the importance which the question is assuming. 
*P. H. Cutterbuck: Indian Forester (1899), 25, 231. 
“U.S. Department Agrl.: The report of the Chemist (1904). 
