438 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



The measures are Austrian, tlie pound being 1.2352 English pounds. There- 

 fore a deduction of nearly twenty per cent, from the price per pound would be 

 necessary in calculating the price by the English pound. 



The extreme cheapness of the drawing papers is due to the great amount of 

 gluten contained in the material. It has a natural preparation for such uses. 



The process of manufacture is claimed to be simple ; the humblest laborer 

 can readily understand it Avith little instruction, and practice it with success. 



The cost of the husks (and it seems that leaves are, to some extent, included) 

 is from 32 to 56 cents per 125 English pounds, (per centner,) or S9 per ton at 

 the higher price, which represents more the labor of gathering than the value 

 of the material. This is, of course, in the locality of their production. 



The cost of extracting the fibre from 100,000 centners (6,250 tons) is esti- 

 mated: for coal and other material, 815,705; labor, 86,400; interest and loss, 

 S4,Jrf)6; raAV material, including local freight, 880,000 ; total, $106,401. To 

 this add for laborers and repairs to swell the total to 8109,490. 



The product is 10 per cent, of spinning fibre, 19 per cent, of paper stuff, and 

 1 1 per cent, of feed stutF, or 40 per cent, in all, leaving a loss of 60 per cent. 

 The spinning stuff is worth 864,000 ; paper material, 872,200 ; feed stuff, 

 815,400 ; total, 8151,600. Deducting the expenses of manufacturing, a profit 

 of 842, 104 is shown. 



The interest included in the expenses is five per cent, upon capital invested, 

 which includes 86,400 for land, 812,000 for the building, and the remainder for 

 steam boilers, washing and bleaching vats, steam-engine, pumps, pipe, &c. 



This is a brief record of a persevering and highly successful series of experi- 

 ments in perfecting corn-paper manufacture. The process has been patented 

 in this country, as well as in Austria and other European states ; and an ample 

 rcAvard will doubtless be realized to its ingenious originators. 



But it should not be understood, in this acknowledgment of the labors and 

 inventive genius of Austrians, that this country, the native habitat of " Indian 

 corn," has utterly ignored the value of this abundant fibre. On the contrary, 

 maize-paper ■was made in this country a full half century before the date of its 

 manufacture in Austria. If the discovery was not advanced to ultimate per- 

 fection, it was because other paper material was cheap and abundant, and other 

 enterprises of too urgent and immediate importance to warrant sufficient present 

 remuneration. An American enterprise must pay to-day, as well as in the 

 futm'e. 



In 1802 a patent was issued by the United States to Burgess Allison and 

 John Harkins, of New Jersey, for making paper of corn husks. Another 

 patent was issued in 1838, for preparing corn husks for making paper, to Homer 

 Holland, of Westfield, Massachusetts. Others have since been issued — one in 

 1860 for making paper pulp of corncobs alone, or cobs and husks together. 



Whatever is hereafter accomplished, in maize-cloth or maize-paper, this coun- 

 try must have a large interest in it. Not only do we grow some six hundred 

 millions of bushels of corn, but it is believed, from the inspection of samples 

 received from Austria, that our husks are of finer texture, and better adapted 

 to the manufacture of superior goods, cither of cloth or paper. 



