Vol. XVIII. No. US. 



THE AQRICULTUKAL NEWS. 



205 



MEGAS3 FOR PAPER MAKING. 



An article by Dr. Walter Baunard, published in Sugar, 

 March 1919, en ' making money from bagasse', gives some 

 suggestions as to the possibilities of utilizing megass more 

 profitably than as a fuel. 



In the first place it is pointed out that new discoveries 

 ■or sources of fuel oil will, in all probability, caase a 

 considerable drop in its price. In the second place, new 

 •processes connected with the burning of soft coal and lignites 

 may probably enable factories to operate more economically 

 with such fuels than in the past. 



Attention is also drawn to a report from the Philippines 

 that it has been found, after a series of experiments, that 

 the fibre of banana stems when mixed with either bamboo 

 or megasi fibre furnishes an excellent material for a very 

 high quality of white paper, which can be profitably 

 manufactured in tropical countries, not only for local 

 consumption, but for export. 



The connexion of the possible reduction in cost of fuel 

 and the value of megass fibre for paper making is of the 

 utmost importance to sugar factories in the West Indies, 

 -suggesting whether a better use cannot be made of megass 

 tian burning it as fuel in their furnaces. 



The actual value of megass when used as fuel in the 

 furnaces of sugar mills depends entirely on the locality. It 

 Las been estimated that in some cases megass may be con- 

 sidered worth for this purpose ••J.3 per tou. On the other 

 hand, it is also estimated that in certain other localities 

 megass cannot be worth more than •?! per ton. It is therefore 

 very difficult to determine the average value of megass iu 

 sugar-cane countries. Each mill will have to make its own 

 investigation, and determine from the data obtained wheiher 

 it would not be economical for that particular mill to purchase 

 other fuel, and to utilize megass more profitably in other 

 directions. 



As regards the use of megass fibre for paper making, it 

 is stated that Government investigators in the Philippines, in 

 India, Java, and .Japan have been makiug expermients with 

 various vegetable fibres which might be found useful in the 

 manufacture of a high diss paper. The enormous increase 

 in the c nsumption of pap^r has made it possible for manu- 

 facturing into paper vegetable fibres which a few years ago 

 could not have been thus profitably employed. 



It is suggested in the article referred to above that a 

 paper mill might be added to, and made an integral part 

 of the sugar factory itself. It may be remembered that 

 attention was drawn to the erection of a paper mill 

 in connexion with the Olaa sugar factory, Hawaii, in a 

 previous issue of the Agricultural Nnvs. This mill h iw- 

 «ver is for the purpose of producing from megass the special 

 paper required as a mulch for cane fields. 



With regard to the general question of adding a paper 

 mill to a sugar factory, the following considerations are 

 worth attention. In the first place, paper can be manufac- 

 tured all the year round, thereby eniblijjg the factory to 

 give work to its employees all the time, and thus pay them 

 better silaries. Instead of conveying the meg.-vss directly 

 to the furnaces it might be sent into the big diges'ers in 

 which it is later on to be dis.solved, or it may be stacked in 

 piles until the grinding season is over, and the manufacture 

 of paper begun as a new and separate operation. Whichever 

 of these plans is adopted it will be fuind that the grindint! 

 ■of the cane in the mill and the shredding of the stalks is 

 the very best possible preparation of the fibre f:r paper 



making. 



Whenever vegetable materials are used for the manufac- 



ture of paper the fibre must first be broken up ; wood, for 

 instance, when used for paper making must be ground fine, 

 an operation evolving an immense amount of power. This 

 great e.xpenditure of power is saved in making paper from 

 megass, because the cane is shredded as finely as necessary 

 by the crushers and shredders in the course of sugar making. 



When the megass comes from the last roller of the 

 mill it still contains a certain amiunt of sucrose, and it also 

 contains a large amount of pith and other soluble solids, 

 which must be eliminated from it before it can be turned 

 into paper. This operation is accomplished in a digester, 

 in which the megass is boiled with water under a steam 

 pressure of about .50 to 60 lb. The liquid obtained 

 contains all the soluble solids of the cane, and when 

 concentrated and mixed with fodder is said to form an 

 excellent cattle food, while unconceqtrated it may be 

 poured out on the land as a gootl liquid manure. 



The fibre remaining in thw digester after the liquid 

 has been drawn otf is then boiled with a strong solution of 

 caustic soda. By this process all the resins and pith, which 

 are so troublesome in the manufacture of paper from 

 resinous wood, have been eliminated, and there remains 

 practically nothing but cellulose, which is then bleached 

 by sulphitation. 



There does not seem any reason why some of 

 the bis; sugar mills should not operate for five or 

 six months in grinding caue for sugar, and for the remaininc 

 six or seven months of the year in making paper from the 

 megass. There is a ready market for all the white paper 

 which the sugar factories of the West Indian islands could 

 furnish, and seeing that the present, price of paper is as high 

 as §7-5 per ton for m»diuni grade, it might prove an excellent 

 investment to take megass worth anything from .$r.50 t© .'JS 

 per ton, and turn it into paper worth .S7-o per ton, even 

 having to buy soft coal or fuel oil to take the place of 

 megass. Perhaps, howeier, a still better plan would be to 

 establish a very big paper mill in a cane district to take all 

 the megass that can be collected, and to mix it with all the 

 banana stalks which could also be gathered in the same 

 district, and produce the high grade white paper, samples of 

 which were exhibited at the Panama Pacific International 

 Exposition 



PAPAWS. 



The selection of types of papaws suitable for cultivation 

 in Montserrat as a source of papain, referred to in last 

 year's report, has been followed up, and seven selected types 

 now occupy the breeding plot. The seeds of some of these 

 have been available for distribution to persons interested ia 

 the cultivation. 



To decide satisfactordy on the relative value of the 

 various types for the purpose named, would require a muck 

 larger area of land than can at present be set apart for this 

 work in the Experiment Station, and especi*! ditficultiea 

 attach to the problem of testing one variety against another 

 where quantitative results for milk yield would be necessary 

 with further details on the question of the amount of pipain 

 obtainable from a given (piantity of 'wet' milk. 



One of the objects aitued at in the selection work was to 

 decide if the progeny of a particular parent resembled the 

 mother plant in e.ssentiil characters, and the results of the work 

 so far show that generally speaking, this is the case. 



Another important point in C'nnexion with pap iw selection 

 is a variety that throws a large proportion ol females in its 

 piogeny, but this would require hree.lina experiments on a 

 much larger sc-ile than can be at present attempted. (Report oi^ 

 the Botanic Station, A/oiit.^-rrat, 1 9 1 7- 1 ■•<. ) 



