CROP PLANTS FOR PAPER MAKING. O 



Crop plants to be profitably available for paper pulp must comply 

 with somewhat rigorous requirements: (1) They must exist in large 

 quantities; (2) they nnist be available throughout the year; (;^) they 

 nuist yield a relatively high percentage of cellulose; (4) the fiber 

 cells or cellulose must be of a highly resistant character and 

 must have length, strength, and good felting qualities; and (5) 

 the plant nmst be of such a nature that the cost of obtaining 

 the fiber Avill not be prohibitive. No one crop plant now known 

 satisfies these conditions completely, though it ha's not thus far 

 been ])racticable in the experimental work of the Department of 

 Agriculture to investigate all of them. Certain plants of repre- 

 sentative character have been selected in order that the results with 

 these might be applied as far as possible to other plants in the eligible 

 list. The work has been confined largely to the stalks of corn and 

 broom corn, rice and flax straw, and cotton-hull fiber used inci- 

 dentally with certain of the other materials. In connection with the 

 search for new materials, at least two present sources deserve much 

 fuller development, namely, old papers and rags. Only a very small 

 proportion of the available supply of these wastes is collected at 

 present. 



PAST ATTEMPTS TO UTILIZE CROP MATERIALS. 



The present efforts to devise means for profitably utilizing some 

 of the crop Avastes in paper making do not by any means represent 

 the first attempts in this direction. As long ago as the seventeenth 

 century a small paper mill at Eimini, in Italy, produced paper from 

 the husks of corn. Again, in the eighteenth century, there was 

 ereatlv renewed interest in cornstalks and some other materials, and 

 Schaelfer, in Germany, produced paper from the husks, leaves, and 

 stalks separately, and from the combined materials of the whole stalk. 

 He published a paper giving the results of his experiments and 

 showing sample pages of the papers he produced. Cobbett, in Eng- 

 land, early in the nineteenth century, had similar experiments made, 

 and printed the title page of his Treatise on Corn upon paper pro- 

 duced from this material. Since the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century a large number of experiments have been made wnth a view 

 to utilizing most of the crop wastes, and many patents have been 

 granted to experimenters covering processes and machines employed 

 in the various phases of the work. It should be added that with 

 the exception of straw, the use of which, in this country, is confined 

 almost wholly to the manufacture of straw and box board, w^rapping 

 paper, and certain sj^ecialties, the attempts to utilize crop materials 

 have I'esulted in failui'(>. 



i< The iiaiicr upon icliich this page is printed icas niudr from riee straw and 

 spruce wood. See page 3. 



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