286 TI1E NURSERY. [March. 



the bark of the roots or branches lie 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 likly 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, 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 inci- 

 sion, the bark is stripped oft* and dried, the wood being rejected. 

 When this bark is to be purified, it is put three or lour hours in 

 water, when being sufficiently softened, the cuticle, which is of a 

 dark colour, together with the greenish surface of the inner bark, 

 is pared oft". 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 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 finder 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 bein«; 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 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 pre- 

 pared 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 

 between the sheets at the edge, and projecting a little, so that they 

 maybe taken up singly when wanted; the heaps are covered with 

 a plank of wood the size of the paper, upon which stones are put, 

 at first of a light weight, but afterwards heavier, that all the wet 

 may be pressed out by degrees. The following day, the weights 



