i 3 o SCIENCE PROGRESS 



F. W. Oliver. Large quantities of raw material are essential if the schemes are 

 to be of practical value, and amongst others attempts have been made to utilise 

 the large areas of vegetation on the sea-coasts. Cord-grass (Sparfina sp.) is one 

 of the most promising plants, and with judicious cutting two tons of dry grass per 

 acre can be obtained, which can be worked up into a satisfactory paper, care 

 being needed to avoid disfigurement with specks of mud. Maram-grass {Psamma 

 arenarid) is also being investigated for this purpose. The common reed {Arundo 

 phragmites) yields a good typewriting paper, which bleaches well. Couch-grass 

 (Agropyrum repens) rhizomes can also be worked up into paper, and, although the 

 quality is not very good, it is useful for rough work. As experience is gained and 

 improved methods of treatment are developed it is hoped that a larger measure 

 of success will be obtained. 



4. Fuel. — Gorse is a very old-fashioned type of country fuel, and is still used 

 for heating the large brick bread-ovens, as it throws out a great heat. It is also 

 customary for country people to collect the gorse from commons after it has been 

 charred by fires which are sometimes accidental and sometimes started purposely 

 to clear areas for regeneration. In districts where pines and firs grow freely the 

 cones are useful for fuel, and latterly they have been used for firing on the Swedish 

 railways, where it is found that two tons of cones give out as much heat as one ton 

 of the German coal usually used. 



Large quantities of weed-seeds are obtained when cereals are screened in 

 bulk, and as these often contain an abundance of charlock (an oily seed) and fat- 

 hen, it has been proposed to mix them with small coal for burning purposes. 1 



In Denmark seaweed has been used a source of gas, and as one ton of 

 seaweed produces more than half the amount of gas obtained from one ton of coal, 

 it is a profitable undertaking where great accumulations of seaweed occur. 



Oil for heating and lighting purposes can be obtained from the seeds of gold- 

 of-pleasure (Camelina sativd). This oil was famous in the days of the old 

 herbalists, as Gerarde tells us that the rich people of his day burnt it in their 

 lamps, while the poorer people used it for culinary purposes at festivals. The oil 

 has hardly any smell, and is supposed to give a brighter flame and less smoke 

 than oil of rape or mustard, but it is probably more useful to soapmakers than 

 as fuel. 8 



5. Manures. — The residue, after gas has been abstracted from seaweed, 

 contains considerable quantities of potash salts, thus making it a valuable manure. 

 Factories have also been set up in Sweden to extract the potash from seaweed for 

 agricultural purposes. This, of course, is only a revival and modification of the 

 old use of kelp as manure. Where cartage is cheap it has long been the custom 

 to manure fields near the coast of our own country with seaweed, but with increased 

 labour costs it is now less frequently possible. Various attempts have been made, 

 with more or less success, to set up factories to burn the kelp on the spot in order 

 to obtain the potash and other valuable ingredients in a more portable form. 

 Waste hedge-trimmings supply a fair amount of potash, but to obtain the best 

 results the material should be burned as soon as possible after cutting, and the 

 ashes either spread on the ground at once or stored in a dry place to avoid loss 

 of soluble salts by leaching. A similar use can be made of bracken, the most 

 profitable time to cut it for this purpose being July. 3 



1 Dymond, J. R., Archibald, E. S., Eldorf, F. C, "Grain Screenings and 

 Results of Feeding Experiments in Canada," Dominion of Canada, Dept. of 

 Agric. p. 44, 1915. a Wilson, ibid. 



3 Journ. Board Agric, vol. xxv. No. 1, pp. 1-11. 



