March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



625 



"YUOOA DKACONIS" ^VS A PAPER MATKKIAL. 



An American paper says : — For a loug time past 

 the Loudon Tehyniplt lias, like a number of American 

 daily newspapers, manufactured its owu paper as a 

 matter of economy. ITuIike our own d:iily journala wilh 

 paper mills of their own, it has secured a cheaper 

 material than ony of its American contemporaries, and, 

 what is most surprising, the Englishmen came to 

 America for their stock. After satisfactory experi- 

 ments, the proprietors of the Tt:hijraph bought a large 

 tract of land in the Mojarc Desert, of Oaliforuia, thickly 

 overgrown with the yucca plant or " Spanish bayonets." 

 The yucca is to be cut down, transported to a point 

 on the Colorado River, and there ground into pulp, 

 which is to be taken by rail to New Orleans, thence 

 by dea to Liverpool. This certaiidy seems a very rouml- 

 about, expensive way for a London daily newspaper to 

 obtain stock for its paper mill, yet it is in reality the 

 cheapest method that could be deviseil. The yucca 

 plant, though neglected on the Pacific S'ope and 

 throughout the West, is a vegetable growth admirably 

 adapted to the reiiuirements of the paper maker's wants 

 for raw material, and is so useful that it pays to 

 transport it from the desert wilds of Oalifornia to Lon- 

 don. The supply of yucca is practically inexhaustible, 

 and the extensivw experiment about being made by the 

 great English daily is deserving of being closely observed 

 by the owners of the largely circulated American 

 newspapers, who consume enormous quantities of white 

 paper, which must be procured at the cheapest possible 

 rates. The yucca is a hairy plant found in Arizona, 

 New Mexico, and I.,ower California ; it is readily 

 bleached and as a fibre, almost as strong as hemp. It 

 can be manufactured at about the same cost as paper 

 made from mixed cotton and linen rags. It may interest 

 some readers to leatu the particulars of au invention 

 just introduced in America for the treatment of pap' r 

 stock, of Yucca draroni.t or Yucca pi'.hcrida^ or Yucca 

 hrtirfolia, or sotal tree, so as to produce a pulp or 

 paper stock of a finer quality than heretofore, aud the. 

 agents employed being native products drawn from the 

 immediate locality (California), where the fibre is 

 grown, with increased economy. The yucca wood or 

 plant having been unbarked, shredded or torn up so as 

 to be in the condition resembling tow, by suitable 

 machinery is brought into tanks provided with per- 

 forated double bottoms; water containing common salt 

 or waste solutions, resulting from a subsequent part 

 of the process, is run in so as to cover the mass, wliicb 

 is then weighted down and allowed to remain in con- 

 tact with the solution for several days; but if the 

 temperature is raised to about 100 P'ahr. by means of 

 steam, this part of the process will be accelerated. 

 To facilitate the next operation, the longer portions 

 of fibre may be passeil through a strawchopper before 

 the material is treated iu these tanks, so that the main 

 portion of the fibre under treatment should uot exceed 

 one inch in length. The material is next removed 

 form the tanks and brought under a system of tritur- 

 ation, or further opening up of the fibre by means of a 

 grinding or triturating contrivance. This may consist 

 of a fibre opener (diptTmr) or a pan mill, consisting of 

 broad grooved or ribbed granite runners working ui)on 

 a grooved or ribbed bedplate of granite or horizontal 

 stone working under a flow of water, with a discharge 

 trough or spout provided with a sieve for preventing 

 fibres of a coarser nature from passing through than 

 desired ; or the ma,ss as it passes from under the stones 

 may be run on to a " sorting m.T,chire," such as is 

 used in wood-pulp mills, or a "knotter," which will 

 separate the coarse from the fine fibre. The coarsi' 

 part is, of course, put back into the mill or apparatus 

 to be reworked. This method of opening up and dis- 

 incrusting the fibre renders tho subsequent chemical 

 treatment more simple and effectual. 



The fibre brought into this state is now subjected to 

 a species of digestion with a strong solution of borax, 

 prepared from the native borax mineral of earth occur- 

 ring in the locality where the yucca is indigenous. Tbis 

 may be done simply in vats or tanks, provided with 

 stirrers or agitators and steam coils with condensing 

 contrivance, as is well known. The mass of fibre is 



steamed iu contact with the solution of borax, which 

 should be about 12° Banme, for two or three hours. 

 The borax li.juor is then drained off from the fibre, 

 aud sulphurous-acid gas or vapour is introduced by 

 means of perforated inlet pipes or coils, the tanks or 

 vessels being covered during this part of the process, 

 and remaining covered for an hour (more or less), while 

 the sulpliuruus i;..s is being thus introdiiceil. The fumes 

 from five pi.its (more or less) of sulphur to one 

 hundred part,-, of dry fibre, by weight, will be sufficient. 

 Water is now run in sufficient to float the fibre, and 

 the stirrers are set in motion so as to wash out the 

 combinations formed and left secreted in the fibre. 

 This may be done iu about half an hour. The waste 

 liquor thus obtriiiied is by preference used as a steep- 

 liquor for the fiist part of the process, viz , the digestion 

 iu the tanks The borax lipuor run ctff is then treated 

 for borax, the liquor being first filtered thmuijn a bed 

 of animal charcoal to remove thf odoriug matter, and 

 afterwards biuled down aU'' crystalised in the ordt ,ary 

 way. By this means a cheap and valuaiile ngent in 

 the treatment of the fitire is said to be secured as the 

 proces refines the cruue borax of the country at tho 

 same time the tibi e is treated. In the production of 

 sulphurous acid, the crude sulphur of the country i.s 

 used either in the form of native sulphur or pyrites, 

 iu the ordinary maimer, with the precaution of passing 

 the gas or fumes through a washer containing water 

 to which sulphite of soda has been added, or milk of 

 lime, so as to neutralise or eliminate anv sulphuric 

 acid which may form. The sulphurous acid 'may also be 

 made by fusing together the crude sulphur mentioned 

 and sulphate nf iron in a retort, ivhen sulphide of iron 

 will be foimtd and sulphurous acid given olf. The 

 sulphide of irt'U is used over again for the fresh 

 formation of sulphate of iron, and so on continuously. 

 Sulphurous acid is also formed by passing the fumes 

 of buniiug su phur or pyrites througb a tower filled 

 with vegetable charcoal, sawdust, pith from the yucca, 

 or such like material arranged on the principle of the 

 scrubber of gas works. The .sidpbur.ius acid thus 

 absorbed in the before mentioned material may be easily 

 driven oif for use from a retort, and may be employed 

 without washing, if re(iuirei.l. Fur common'^r descrip- 

 tions of paper the borax solution m ly b'- lisp. ; «e '. with, 

 and a simple dige.stiou with sulphurous acid may he 

 effected by allowing the moist fibre to absorb a larger 

 quantity of the acid gas than previously stated, or 

 about equal to the gas to be evolved from ten parts 

 (more or less) of sulphur to one hundred parts, dry 

 weight, of fibre under treatment, and steamed in the 

 same for about four hours in a closed or covered 

 vessel. The liquor formed is run oflt and used as a 

 steeping .solution. The fibre is then washed in a warm 

 weak solution of carbonate of soda, to i>rep.'ire it for 

 bleaching and for softening the filire. This liquor may 

 also be used in the steeping operition. In either case 

 the material is now really for Ideaching, which may be 

 etfectfd in the ordinary manner or by any known or 

 conveutent means; but for high-class paper it is pie- 

 ferred to bleach with hypncblorite of magnesia, instead 

 of hypochlorite of lime, the former being less injurious 

 to the fibre, and imparting a brightnr color. — Indinn 

 jlf/ricultitrist. 



OX POTTING PLANTS. 

 Anion;' the firsL-learnt operations iu plant cultivation 

 crocking p"tji and potting plants are to a young 

 beginner two of the most important. As ganieii 

 boys we were first taught hew a pot intended to 

 contain a jiiant should be draineil, and in due time 

 we were allowed to take our place at the potting 

 bench, when in our own opinion we were fully tledged 

 gardeners. To i man whose apprenticcshiji was spent 

 under a good and careful master, by whom all that 

 it was important for the beginner to know with 

 regard to potting and such elementary work was 

 carefully explained at the outset, a chapter on such 

 a subject will be of little value, and he may justly 

 remark on seeing this that he and all properly trained 

 gardeners have learned long ago all there is to know 

 bout potting. But, unfortunately, there are uot a 



