Making Paper and Cord from Marsh Grasses 



Thousands of acres of hitherto worthless marshy land can be made 

 to yield millions of dollars' worth of fiber and pulp for various uses 



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One million acres of this marshy land, overgrown with sedges and grasses, lie south of 

 Savannah, Georgia. It will readily yield from one to two tons of fine dry pulp per acre 



WHEN Pharaoh's daughter came 

 across the baby Moses hidden 

 among the bulrushes of the River 

 Nile some three thousand years ago, he 

 was tucked comfortably in a miniature 

 ship made of sedges. In those days the 

 common sedges growing in Egyptian 

 marshes were used for cordage, mattings, 

 sails and curtains, and the ancient 

 vessels of bulrushes were made by binding 

 and sewing them with the filaments of 

 corded sedge. 



To-day several large industries are 

 facing a serious shortage in paper pulp, 

 oakum, yarns, twine and kindred prod- 

 ucts. A decreasing supply of jute from 

 India, sisal from Mexico, and Manila from 

 the Philippines has sent prices skyward, 

 and many manufacturers and publishers 

 have been unable to stand the pinch and 

 have failed. Were the paper and cordage 



producers as wise as Pharaoh's daughter 

 and would they but go to the marshes 

 for their future supply of raw material, 

 they would find a sufficient quantity of 

 fibers to meet the country's needs. We 

 have been so busy since Pharaoh's time 

 that we have forgotten all about our 

 marsh sedges. 



There are thousands — perhaps hun- 

 dreds of thousands — of acres of marshy 

 land which, from the standpoint of useful- 

 ness, might form one of the country's 

 vast natural resources. Consider New 

 Jersey and her marshes, the Virginia and 

 North Carolina swamps and tidal dis- 

 tricts, and the innumerable lakes with 

 their fringes of rushes and sedges ! If the 

 ancient Egyptians made use of this raw 

 material, why should not we of this age? 



Thanks to the thirteen years of study 

 and experimentation made by Col. R. A. 



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