366 GENERAL SCIENCE 



twines are made of flax, hemp, and jute. The parts 

 unfit for clothing are made into twines. A large quantity 

 of small rope, the size of wash lines, is made of cotton. 

 Binder twine and large, heavy ropes are made of hard 

 fiber like that obtained from manila hemp and sisal. 

 Large ropes are made by twisting together several smaller 

 ropes or twines. 



250. Plants for Paper. -- The earliest records were cut 

 on stones; these were very hard to handle and also easily 

 broken. Later, records were made on prepared skins of 

 animals; this method is still used - examples are college 

 diplomas. Still later, the fiber of the papyrus plant which 

 grows in Egypt was split into sheets and records made 

 on it. 



After printing was invented it became necessary to 

 have paper in large amounts. Parchment made of skins 

 of animals was expensive and not sufficient in quantity, so 

 paper was made of rags (not of woolen rags) and of straw. 

 But as the great printing presses came into use these 

 sources of paper supply were not sufficient. Now forest 

 trees are cut, ground into small chips, and acted on by 

 hot chemicals; the wood fiber, cellulose, is then thoroughly 

 washed and rolled into large sheets of paper. The paper 

 of this book is made of wood. Only soft wood, like the 

 poplar and spruce, is used for paper making. 



The best paper is made of linen or flax fiber. Cotton 

 and wood make a paper of medium quality. Straw makes 

 very poor paper. All kinds of rags, other than woolen, 

 and waste paper are gathered, baled, and sent to paper 

 mills to be worked over and made into new paper. 



251. The following table will give some idea of the 

 quantity of plants produced in the United States during 

 the year 1913. 



