86 NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 



mechanical action of a wooden hammer or maul. After suitable washings 

 and bleachings, the cleansed fibre is gathered by a series of dippings, into a 

 hand tray of the dimensions of the sheet required. The tray is rocked 

 gently, and as the water finds its way through the meshes of the bamboo 

 sieve at the bottom, the fibre is deposited in an evenly-felted layer, which 

 dries into a sheet of paper without special pressure. 



f 



FIBRE OF JAPANESE PAPER 



A microscopic analysis of such paper shows it to be composed of fibres, 

 the original 'length of which is preserved, and in the interlacing of such 

 enormously long filaments, we obtain the explanation of the peculiar tough- 

 EL3SS for which these papers are remarkable. 



Among Europeans, numerous miterials are employed in the manufacture 

 of paper with a corresponding diversity in the character and quality of the 

 product, which may be taken to represent adaptations to particular require- 

 ments of cost and the purposes to be served. It is stated that more than 

 400 different kinds of material are employed in the manufacture of paper, 

 and the final product finds its way into an almost infinite variety of indust- 

 ries, from the manufacture of lumber and car wheels, to the production of 

 bank notes and its employment by the skilful artist as a suitable base for the 

 highly-finished products of his brush. One of the most modern phases in the 

 development of the paper industrj^ is to be found in the extensive utilization 

 of the fibres of wood, as exhibited in the pulp industry of today. 



The application of the fibres of wood to the manufacture of paper is 

 commonly attributed to Reauiner in 1719, who observed wasps constructing 

 their nests of fibres gathered from wood, which they wove into a paper, and 

 inasmuch as man has found it profitable to follow the general methods 

 adopted by these humble forms of life, we may well digress for a few 

 moments to study their ways. 



The most familiar paper making wasp is the common black- 

 and - white wasp ( Vespa maculata ), ordinarily known as " hornet. " 

 Any day in summer, when the insect is at work, one may observe it gather- 

 ing material from the weathered surfaces of posts and fence rails. Alighting 

 upon a cedar - post with its head upward, the insect immediately commences 

 to gather up the partially-separated fibres in its jaws, all the time working- 

 downward. In the space of about one minute it will have worked over a 



