GRASS 419 
It will be noted that from 24 to 30 per cent of bleaching powder was 
required to produce at best a poor white, that is, 12 to 15 kilos of bleach- 
ing powder of the standard strength (35 per cent available chlorine) are 
required for 50 kilos of unbleached pulp. This consumption is excessive, 
and it forms the greatest objection to placing bamboo pulp prepared in 
this way on the market... 
Aside from the poor bleaching properties of bamboo sulphite fiber 
prepared under the above conditions, there are other factors, both local 
and general, which tend to preclude the use of the sulphite process of 
treating bamboo at the present time. 
1. Bamboo fiber appears better suited for book printing and lithographic 
papers than for wrapping or news printing paper. This being the case, 
bulk, softness, and opacity, which are the chief features of soda fiber, 
are what is desired... 
2. It is undoubtedly true that the sulphite process costs less than the 
other for chemicals. Sulphur, at present quotations, can be converted 
into sulphite liquor and thrown away after use at less expense than the 
cost of soda actually consumed plus the cost of its recovery. However, 
the local supplies of limestone are better adapted for making soda than 
sulphite liquor. . . 
The other chemicals, sulphur on the one hand and soda on the other, 
used in the two processes, are not produced locally, hence would have to 
be imported from the most favorable foreign source. 
Richmond also investigated Bambusa spinosa as a source of 
paper pulp, and found that this species gave a smaller yield of 
cellulose than Schizostachyum lumampao and required an exces- 
sive amount of bleach (20 to 25 per cent) to produce at best a 
poor white. 
GRASS FOR PAPER 
Indications are that approximately the whole Archipelago was 
originally covered with forest. However, a shifting system of 
cultivation has reduced large parts of forested areas to waste 
grassland until at the present time about 40 per cent of the total 
land surface of the Archipelago is covered by grass, particularly 
the two species, kogon (Jmperata exaltata) and talahib (Sac- 
charum spontaneum). These grasslands originated in the 
following manner. When a forest is clear cut and cultivated 
by primitive metnods, grass and weeds invade the area. In 
order to remove these, it is a common practice to cut all plants 
and burn. This effectually kills the tree seedlings and shrubs, 
but does not harm the grass, which grows from strong under- 
ground stems. The result of several such fires is that the land 
is left in the possession of the grass, which is hard to eradicate 
by primitive methods of cultivation. Grass areas once estab- 
lished are usually burned over every dry season and so remain 
almost indefinitely in grass. If these grasses were cut for paper- 
pulp manufacture the cutting would have much the same effect 
