Notes and Comment. 301 



A curious instance of the inappropriateness of a popular name may 

 be noticed. In the United States the European Carduus arvensis 

 bears the misleading name of Canada Thistle; but according to 

 this report in New Zealand it is called California Thistle, which 

 is even more undeserved, since California is one of the few 

 states of the Union in which this weed has not yet made its ap- 

 pearance. — S. B. Parish. 



NOTES AND COMMENT 



The investigations of the Agricultural Department into the 

 feasibility of utilising various crop wastes in the manufacture 

 of paper have been recently summed up b}- Charles J. Brand in 

 a Circular of the Bureau of Plant Industry (No. 82), which is 

 not onlv interesting as respects reading matter but is an effective 

 demonstration of the products that have resulted from this 

 experimental work. The five sheets of paper ^^ hich form the 

 circular are made respectively from cornstalks and cotton hulls, 

 broom corn stalks, rice straw and spruce wood, broom corn 

 stalks and popular wood and from cornstalks. The quality of 

 all these papers is very good, for, as Brand says, it has been 

 possible to produce good paper from crop wastes, but it has 

 not been possible to produce it at a c< st lower than the present cost 

 of other paper making materials. Cornstalks are- one of the 

 largest agricultural wastes and are one of the poorest paper- 

 making materials tried. Broom corn produces a longer fibre 

 than Indian corn, but is not grown in verv large quantities. 

 Rice straw and the bagasse from sugar cane both make good 

 grades of paper, and they h:ive the practical advantage that 

 they are by-products of centralised agricultural industries. In 

 all these cases it is possible to extract the soluble constituents 

 from the waste, which are rich in protein and sugar, and will 

 serse to lessen the cost of the ])a])er made from them. The 

 author states that the cro'p waste pajH-rs will l)c suitable for 

 books, writing paper, etc , pointing out the features in which 

 wood pulp paper is superior to any other lor newspaper stock. 

 The well-known rapid e:.haustii)n of the supplies of spruce and 

 other woods suitable for pulp making will, however, soon give an 



