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butts and waste. Rags, which the world over are considered to be the 
finest material for paper making, do not command a much greater price. 
In the same census year (1900) 234,000 tons of rags valued at $6,600,000, 
equal to about $28 per ton, were used. Statistics also show an annual 
output of 90,000 tons of Manila wrapping paper valued at $66 per ton 
and 204,000 tons of “bogus” Manila paper made from wood, rated at 
$9,150,000, or $45 per ton. <A large proportion of the so-called Manila 
wrappers, paper, and envelopes contain mechanical or ground wood, 
which causes such articles to deteriorate and to turn brown with age. 
G. KE. Marshall, of Turners Falls, Massachusetts, has patented a process 
for giving the characteristic color of Manila stock to wood-pulp and 
such attempts at imitation and adulteration show very conclusively the 
repute in which real abaca stock is held. 
Abaca waste.—It has been observed for a long time that much fiber is 
lost in the ordinary hand processes for isolating the cordage fiber from 
this plant, and, in 1887, some of this waste from abaca was sent to Messrs. 
Gonzales Sons, of Barcelona, Spain, who reported as follows: 
Observations made in the course of fabrication permit us to affirm roundly 
that abacé waste as raw material for the manufacture of paper is not only util- 
izable but surpasses esparto and hemp, and, in its treatment for conversion into 
paper, excels rags and other material known in the industry. 
In 1888, Sr. D. José Jordana published a small pamphlet entitled 
“Kl Abaca,” containing a specimen sheet of paper made from abaca 
waste and also a section devoted to the application of this material for 
the manufacture of paper, from which the following brief extract is 
taken: 
As with all vegetable filaments, excellent paper can be made with abacé, even 
though this use is not made of it on account of its greater value as a textile. 
The waste which remains after removing the pulpy envelope could also be used 
for this manufacture. This envelope is left in the fields in its entirety, where it 
serves only as fertilizer for the plants; and on account of the imperfections of 
the method of extraction the quantity of this is so great that it exceeds 75 per 
cent of the total of the solid part harvested. In any case, industry and commerce 
should give attention to this matter. The abundance, cheapness, and excellence 
of a raw material are guaranties of all industrial enterprises, and this condition 
is found to-day in abacé waste. 
In 1904, a quantity of this waste material was sent to the Everett Pulp 
and Paper Company, of Everett, Washington, U. S. A., for further 
opinion as to its adaptability for paper manufacture. Through the 
courtesy of the Bureau of Agriculture of the Philippine Islands we give 
the chemist’s report : 
The waste as received was very dirty, and could not be used in the way we 
now treat our wood, but would have to be passed through a duster or “Devil,” 
such as is used for very dirty rags, oakum, rope, ete. It may be possible in col- 
lecting this material to avoid a large part of this dirt. 
