298 THE NURSERY. [MARCH 



Paper making having a connection in this instance with objects of 

 my attention, and the probable use it may be of to the community, 

 induces me to give additional publicity to the following method of 

 manufacturing it from the bark of the paper mulberry-tree; the more 

 especially as such has been attempted last year, and with good success, 

 by the laudable exertions of Mr. William Young, proprietor of the 

 Brandywine paper-mills, in the State of Delaware. It is extracted 

 from Martyn's edition of Miller's Gardener's Dictionary, and quoted 

 by him from Keemfer. I am not certain what kind of mulberry Mr. 

 Young had used for that purpose, nor whether it was the bark of the 

 roots or branches he manufactured, but some of the paper I had seen 

 printed on, and it promised well. It is very probable that either 

 species might be manufactured into paper, but I am induced to think 

 that the paper mulberry, from the vigorous growth of its young shoots, 

 is more likely to answer the end than any other. 



"The young shoots being cut down in autumn after the leaves are 

 fallen and divided into rods of three feet in length, or shorter, are 

 gathered into bundles to be boiled. If the shoots are dry, they must 

 be softened in water twenty-four hours. The bundles are bound very 

 close together, and placed erect in a large copper, properly closed : 

 the boiling is continued till the separation of the bark displays the 

 naked wood. Then the stalks are loosed out of the bundles and 

 allowed to cool; after which, by a longitudinal incision, the bark is 

 stripped off and dried, the wood being rejected. When this bark is 

 to be purified, it is put three or four hours in water, when being suffi- 

 ciently softened, the cuticle, which is of a dark color, together with 

 the greenish surface of the inner bark, is pared off. At the same 

 time the stronger bark is separated from the more tender, the former 

 making the whitest and best paper; the latter a dark, weak and in- 

 ferior kind. If any bark appears that is old, it is set aside for a 

 thicker paper of worse quality. Into this last class they throw the 

 knotty parts of the bark, and those which have any fault or blemish. 



"The bark is now boiled in a lye that is clear and strained ; care 

 being taken to stir the substance as soon as it begins to boil with a 

 strong reed, and to pour in of the lye gradually as much as is ne- 

 cessary for stopping the evaporation and restoring the liquor that 

 is lost. 



" The boiling is to cease when the materials can be split by a slight 

 touch of the finger into fibres and down. 



"Next it is to be washed, which is a thing of some moment; for 

 if washed too short a time, the paper will be strong indeed, but too 

 rough, and of an inferior quality; if too long, it will be whiter, but 

 of a fat consistence, and less fit for writing. Being sufficiently washed, 

 the materials are put upon a thick, smooth, wooden table, and stoutly 

 beat by two or three men, with battons of hard wood, into a pulp, 

 which being put in water, separates like grains of meal. Thus pre- 

 pared, it is put into a narrow vat; an infusion of rice,. and a mucous 

 water of the infusion of the root of Manihot being added to it. 

 These three are to be stirred with a clean slender reed, till reduced 

 into a homogeneous liquor of a due consistence. The prepared liquor 

 is now put into a larger vat, from whence the sheets are poured out 



