1077 
“Bamboo,” he says, “could not be transported to Europe at a profit but would 
have to be pulped where it grows. Every species of bamboo is not equally suited 
for pulp making. The pulp is generally difficult to bleach and requires a large 
proportion of bleaching powder. Some species can be bleached a good white 
with 15 per cent of bleach while others treated in the same way give a poor color 
with even 25 per cent of bleach. Only full-grown culms can be _ treated 
economically.” 
Still more recently R. W. Sindall,° a paper and pulp expert of London, 
was sent by the British Government-to India to investigate the possibility 
of developing the paper industry in that country. He writes as follows: 
(4) “In my opinion the bamboo of India may sometime supplant spruce wood 
in the manufacture of pulp for paper making. I have made lengthy experiments 
and have found that the bamboo is practical in the manufacture of pulp.” 
As is well known, bamboo has long been ,used to made paper in 
China—in fact, it is the chief material in use for this purpose in that 
country. The Chinese employ the native bamboo, which they split into 
lengths of from 1 to 1.3 meters each and then place in a vat or tank with 
alternate layers of lime; water is then run in to cover the stems and the 
whole left for three to four months; when the bamboo has become 
sufficiently rotted it is pounded in a mortar, mixed with water, and 
molded into square sheets of paper. 
It was the firm belief of Mr. Routledge that only young shoots, 
collected before the plant had arrived at maturity and become hardened 
by a deposit of silicious matter, would be serviceable for paper making, 
and it was upon this supposition that the main objections and practical 
difficulties to the use of bamboo for paper stock were based. It was also 
found at the time that the removal of young and tender stems from 
the growing plants was disastrous to the parent stock to such an 
extent that entire bamboo forests would be endangered, and that the 
cost of transportation of the young, succulent shoots from the jungles to 
the mill site would prohibit their economic use. Kurz? reports that 
repeated cutting of too many bamboo shoots considerably weakens the 
stock, while the cutting of full grown culms does not injure the growth 
more than mowing does grass. 
As the only practical attempt at the manufacture of paper from bamboo, 
namely, that from elephant grass in British Burmah, resulted in the 
report that this particular species is very resistant to chemical treat- 
-ment, it was thought advisable to experiment with at least two different 
varieties of Philippine bamboo in order to determine their value as 
compared with other graminaceous fiber plants to which they are closely 
related and also with pulp woods, which, because of their dense, woody 
nature, they so much resemble and with which they should perhaps more 
properly be compared. 
*The Paper World and Wood Pulp News (1906), 29, No. 17. 
™Indian For. (1876), 1, 257. 
