MARCH.] THE NURSERY. 277 



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

 success, by the laudable exertions of Mr. WILLIAM YOUNG, pro- 

 prietor of the Brandy wine paper-mills, in the state of Delaware. 

 It is extracted from MARTYN'S edition of Miller's Gardener's Dic- 

 tionary, and quoted by him from K&mfer. I am not certain what 

 kind of mulberry Mr. Young had used for that purpose, nor whe- 

 ther 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 pa- 

 per, 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 tc 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, pro- 

 perly 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 sufficiently softened, the cuticle, which is of a dark co- 

 lour, 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 inferior 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 lie 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 lie 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 lon, it will be whiter, bul 

 of a tat consistance, 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 woCd, 

 into a pulp ; which being put in water, separates like grains of 

 meal. Thus prepared, it is put into a narrow vat ; an infusion of 

 rice, and a mucous water of the infusion of the root of Manihot be T 

 ing added to it. These three are to be stirred, with a clean slender 

 reed, till reduced into a homogenous liquor of a clue consistence. 

 The prepared liquor is now put into a larger vat ; from whence the 

 sheets are poured out, one by one, and placed in heaps upon a table, 

 covered with a double mat ; a small thread of reed being placed 



