;oo 



PAPER IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



practically uniform weight and size. Approximately seven bales go 

 to the ton, the bales being thus about 3 cwts. each. There is no 

 particular season for importing it here. It comes in about the same 

 quantities all the year round. 



Of the wood pulp used, besides that from Norway and Sweden, 

 a small quantity comes from Germany. None ordinarily comes from 

 the United States, although for a few months last year a good deal 

 of American wood pulp was used, owing to the temporary rise in 

 freight rates from Scandinavian ports. Almost all of the wood pulp 

 brought here (the greater part of it is the mechanical kind, though 

 a fair proportion of chemical pulp is also imported) is used in the 

 manufacture of ordinary papers; but there is also a special variety 

 of mechanical pulp which is known as "wood-pulp boards" and is 

 in the form of sheets, generally about 3 feet square, but sizes vary 

 imported for use in the manufacture of millboard and gray board. 

 Except that it is almost invariably brought in bales (occasionally the 

 chemical kind comes in rolls), there is no uniformity in the pack- 

 ages in which the wood pulp arrives, the different makers varying 

 considerably in the size, weight, and style of their packages; but 

 both chemical and common mechanical are in bales of roughly 2, 

 2^, and 4 cwts. each. The few rolls which come range in weight 

 about six or seven to the ton. The "wood-pulp boards " are brought 

 in bales of from 4 to 5 cwts. each. 



No strawboard is made in Scotland. The reason for this lies in 

 the general high price of straw. Strawboard is made to some ex- 

 tent in England, but the great bulk of that used in the Edinburgh 

 district comes from Germany and Holland. 



LABOR AND WAGES. 



Not a few of the promiaent mill owners claim with a good deal 

 of pride that the long-established mills in Scotland "have been the 

 training schools for the paper industry throughout Europe and 

 America." They say that many of the best practical paper makers 

 in the world were bred in Midlothian and began their careers 

 humbly as workmen in mills on the Esk and elsewhere. And they 

 do not quarrel with the suggestion that some of the graduates may 

 have got ahead of their teachers. 



The present number of employees is given below, approximately : 



