ISCHyEMUM 



ANGUSTIFOLIUM 



Baboi 



THE BABOI PAPER-GRASS 



DJS.P., 

 iv., 526-32 : 

 vi., pt. i., 

 108. 



Mats. 



Identification. 



Paper Material. 



Supply. 



Cultivation. 



Yield. 



Cost. 

 Bengal. 



BALUCHISTAN : Chrome-Iron, in Kept. Qeol. Surv. 2nd., 1902-3, xciv., 67 ; Fawcett, 

 Monog. Dyes and Dyeing, 23, 32, 36. MADRAS : Heyne, Tracts on Ind., 1814, 

 189-97, 218-26, 358-64 ; Holland, Iron in S. Dist. Madras, Imp.Inst. Handbook, 

 1892, No. 8 ; also Iron Ores and Iron Indust. of the Dist. of Salem, in Rec. Geol. 

 Surv. Ind., 1892, xxv., 135-59 ; Foote, Mem. Geol. Surv. Ind., 1895, xxv., 191 ; 

 Jeremiah Head, Rept. Salem Ores and the Practicability of Conducting an Iron 

 Indust. in that Dist., 1896 ; Dunstan, Imp. Inst. Tech. Repts., 1903, 12-22. 

 BURMA: Bose, Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind., 1893, xxvi., 161-3; Stirling, in Gaz. Burma. 

 UPPER BURMA : Gaz., 1900, ii., 299-300.] 



ISCHUEMUM ANGUSTIFOLIUM, Hack. ; Fl. Br. Ind., vii., 

 129 ; Kew Bull, 1888, 157-60 and t. ; GRAMINE^. The baboi, bhabar, 

 bhubt, bhaib, babni, sabai, baggar, ban-kush, bankas, som, moya, bachkron, etc. 

 A perennial grass plentiful in drier tracts of India, from Chota Nagpur 

 and Rajmahal to Nepal and Garhwal, also throughout the plains north- 

 ward, viz. in the Central Provinces, Central India and Rajputana to the 

 Panjab, Kashmir and Afghanistan, ascending to altitudes of 7,000 feet. 

 The grass, from the most ancient times, has, in the localities where it 

 abounds, been extensively used for making ropes, string and mats (see 

 p. 776), and utilised in the construction of rope bridges, and to some extent 

 takes the place of jute in agricultural sacking. 



Bhabar is often associated with the sedge Eriophoi'tim. cotnomini (D.E.P., 

 iii., 266), and the two doubtless are sometimes used mixed together, but for 

 many years it was incorrectly supposed that bhabar was Erioitiioi-nm. Sir D. 

 Brandis was the first to recognise that Royle, Wallich and others were in error 

 in overlooking the grass isehmtnutu as the most important, if not the true 

 bhabar. Stewart (Journ. Agri.-Hort. Soc. Ind., 1863, xiii., 293), while acknow- 

 ledging his indebtedness for this correction, expressed the opinion that the 

 grass should, in the future, play an important part as a paper material he was 

 thus apparently the first to suggest that use for the grass. Duthie led to a true 

 identification botanically, and Sir George King pioneered the trade as a paper 

 material (see pp. 865-8). In the Annual Report for the Botanic Gardens of 

 Calcutta for 1893-4, he tells us that he had sent home, in 1873, samples of the 

 grass to a paper-maker in Scotland, who reported favourably on it, and again 

 in 1877 had furnished the late Mr. Routledge, through the India Office, with 

 a consignment for experiment in Sunderland. Investigations were also made 

 in India from 1882, the first by Mr. Deveria, and finally by the Bally Mills Com- 

 pany, Ltd., and others, until the grass became firmly established as a paper 

 material. 



The Kew Bulletin and the Indian Forester have devoted much attention to 

 this subject for some years past, and the Annual Administration Reports of 

 the Forest Department have recorded the measures taken to foster and extend 

 production. [Cf. Gamble, Ind. For., 1893, app., xix. ; Fischer, Ind. For., Nov. 

 1903, xxix., 516.] The grass has thus been systematically placed before the 

 public. It has, in consequence, become an assured paper material, restricted 

 alone by the insufficiency of the supply. The attempt has accordingly been 

 made to cultivate the plant in localities more accessible to the paper-mills, 

 thereby lowering the ruinously heavy freight charges. More or less successful 

 experiments of this kind have been conducted in Poona, Mysore, Hyderabad 

 Deccan and in Hyderabad Sind. Systematic cultivation has also been under- 

 taken in Manbhum, Birbhum and Murshidabad. In Poona it has been an- 

 nounced that the yield is 24 cwt. of dry grass per acre. It was, however, ascer- 

 tained that when grown on soils of a better class than in its wild habitat or under 

 warmer and moister conditions, it tends to flower too profusely, and this lowers 

 its value as a paper material. A consignment sent in 1 898 from Poona to London, 

 by Woodrow, was accompanied with the statement that it could be delivered 

 on board ship at Bombay at Rs. 40 per ton. 



As marking the progress made, the following jottings, taken from official 

 and other publications, may be here given. In the Bengal Forest Department 

 Report for 1895-6, we read that the grass had been fairly extensively planted 

 in Sahibganj, and that the produce sold readily at 12 to 14 annas a maund, 

 and fetched at the mills Rs. 1-4 to Rs. 1-7, the railway freight being not over 



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