A416 PAPER PULP 
during the past year. The growing of sisal and maguey is in- 
creasing rapidly and these sources should soon offer consider- 
able material for paper. Richmond has also shown that banana 
fiber makes an excellent paper. He calculated that 33,913 hect- 
ares in the Philippines were used for raising bananas. When 
a banana stalk once bears fruit, the stalk is then cut down and 
usually allowed to decay so that this possible source of paper 
pulp is now entirely wasted, except when used as food for stock. 
Besides the cultivated bananas there are large tracts of wild 
bananas in the Philippines. 
Among the forest products which offer immediate prospects 
for paper pulp are three plants: one a bamboo (Schizostachyum 
lumampao), and two grasses, kogon (Imperata exaltata) and ta- 
lahib (Saccharum spontaneum). The other sources will be 
mentioned later. 
BAMBOO FOR PAPER 
Perhaps the most promising source of paper material is 
offered by the moderate-sized, thin-walled bamboo, Schizosta- 
chyum lumampao. For a description of this plant and its pro- 
duction, see the section on bamboos. 
As is well known, bamboo has long been used for making paper 
in China. In fact, it is the chief material in use for this purpose 
in that country. Various species of bamboo in other countries 
have also been made into good paper as will be seen by referring 
to Richmond’s articles. 
The following excerpt communicated by Consul Henry D. 
Baker, of Trinidad, British West Indies, in the United States 
Commerce Reports No. 57 of March 9, 1918, shows how favor- 
ably bamboo is considered as a paper material. 
The publishing house of Thomas Nelson & Sons, of Edinburgh, Scotland, 
has an important project under way for manufacturing paper from bamboo 
in Trinidad. About 1,000 acres of land near St. Joseph (7 miles from the 
capital at Port of Spain) have been planted in bamboo, and a concession 
has been obtained giving the firm the right to cut bamboo from the Govern- 
ment forests. 
It appears that Thomas Nelson & Sons, foreseeing a paper famine 
throughout the world within the next few years, have been giving very 
serious consideration to the problem of providing adequate paper reserves 
for themselves for the future; and although realizing that paper can be 
manufactured from any vegetable material containing cellulose, neverthe- 
less, it seemed to them that bamboo was most suitable for the purpose. 
They selected Trinidad for their bamboo-paper project, as the bamboo 
grows here very quickly, having sufficient development within three or 
four years for making paper. Moreover, Trinidad is within a reasonably 
short distance by sea from Edinburgh, being, of course, much nearer to 
their headquarters than are the bamboo forests of Asia. 
