50 THE WORK OF THE FOREST DEPARTMENT IN INDIA. 



stuff and to shipping difficulties. In spite of this fact the out- 

 turn of paper from Indian mills increased in 1914-15 by at least 

 5,000 tons of paper, a fact strongly indicating the possibilities 

 of expanding the output in this country even when the diffi- 

 culties of obtaining chemicals are abnormal. 



The most important raw material used in India at the pre- 

 sent day for the production of half-stuff is sabai, bhabar or 

 baib grass, Ischcemum angustifolium, which is obtained from the 

 forests of Bengal, Chota Nagpur, Orissa, Nepal and the United 

 Provinces. The other materials used in India for the manufac- 

 ture of paper are rags of poor quality, hemp, jute, gunny bags, 

 waste paper and old ropes. Since the war began, limited 

 quantities of munj grass, Saccharum Munja, have been used, 

 though the yield of pulp from this grass is not high, while in 

 many parts of the country its value is considerable owing to the 

 demand for other purposes. 



The two most important substances from which pulp is pre- 

 pared all over the world are wood and grasses, of which wood 

 claims 90 per cent, of the outturn. In India owing to the large 

 number of species and the generally mixed character of the 

 forests, only one or two timbers are available which fulfil the 

 necessary conditions, namely concentrated large supplies and 

 suitability for the manufacture of pulp. The chief of these are 

 the Himalayan spruce and silver fir. 



Under the natural order Graminece we have bamboos and 

 grasses, both of which are available in large quantities in cer- 

 tain localities of British India, and some of which have, from 

 experiments, given very favourable results. Up to date the 

 best results have been obtained with Bambusa polymorpha 

 (kyathaungwa), a species which occurs in great abundance in 

 Burma. C 'ephalostachyum pergracile (tinwa) and Dendro- 

 calamus str ictus (the common male bamboo) have given almost 

 equally good results, while Bambusa arundinacea (the thorny 

 bamboo) and Melocanna bambusoides (the single-stemmed 

 bamboo) have given results little inferior to the best as yet 

 obtained. All these species are available in very large quan- 

 tities and can be extracted at relatively cheap rates. A com- 

 plete note has been published by the Forest Research Institute 



