558 



PAPER-MAKING FROM COCO-NUT 

 HUSKS. 



ALTHOUGH opinions, so far, are against the 

 possibility of utilizing coco-nut fibre as a raw 

 material for paper-making, it is, as Mr. George 

 F. Richmond claims, 1 worth considering from 

 the standpoint of its adaptability for making- 

 some classes of paper or paper-pulp ; for be it 

 remembered the driest husk represents 50 per 

 cent, of the total weight of the nut, so that, 

 since the Philippines alone, a relatively small 

 area, probably produce between 250,000 and 

 300,000 tons of husks every year, the fibre 

 may some day prove the nucleus of vast card- 

 board or coarse paper-making works of con- 

 siderable value. When this does happen, such 

 supplies would go a long way to help relieve 

 the demands now being made on wood-pulp 

 for paper suitable for printing, and to make up 

 the deficiencies with which we seem likely to 

 be faced owing to the shrinkage of the forests 

 elsewhere, now being rapidly eaten up to 

 satisfy the enormous demands of the modern 

 newspaper proprietors and others who issue 

 tons of printed matter every year. Thinking 



1 The Philippine Journal of Science, July, 1910, vol. v, 

 No. 4. 



