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Pe he ay ate ek Se aT. ke 
255 
a “< supposed, but from Andropogon involutus, This grass, I find from 
“inquiry locally made, abounds in the hill parts of Behar and Chota 
“ Nagpore, where it is known as Sab ai. From these regions it can be 
“ obtained in quite considerable enough quantity to make its utilisation 
“asa paper material a feasible project, and the people who actually 
“ collect it sell it at a reasonable enough rate. But in order to get it 
“ for shipment to Europe, middlemen have to be employed, whose ideas 
“of profit are pitched so high that, until they become modified, the 
“ utilisation n bhabur must remain in abeyance. This is only in ac cord 
“ with the common experience in the Mofussil, that competition in 
i kee ch effect i i 
aa but that, on the contrary, traders still form guilds banded 
“ together to enhance prices, even at the risk of choking off demand.” 
eae hag: 1, 1883, the late ae apeze Pasian sg pi was 
always ready to assist us, by maki exper w paper 
oe eR privately reported, as ke. final result of nis trials ‘of Bhabur 
S: 
ate | a yews it will make a fair sheet of paper, much the same as fine 
“ esparto ; in fact, in many respects, as a natural product, it closely 
co ch glutinous 
“ resembles esparto, but does not contain so much glutir and 
‘< amylaceous matters, nor so much silica, The sample sent, you wi ill 
remark, was cut, and not pulled from the roots as esparto is. Like 
« esparto; in situ it is worth very little, and is used for similar purposes, 
“ roping, matting, baskets, &c. The cost of esparto consists in 
“ collection, carriage to port of shipment, and, latterly, baling charges, 
c ‘ freight to En ngland, &c. Whether from India, with long and 
a Summe int costly inland carriage, with heavy freight added; it can 
poe into competition with a is doubtful, and I do not think it 
that this is teady Side 
“ (1.) The Sabai or Babui grass yields two crops in the year, one in 
5 Sapiember. and the other = the of October or early in November, 
“without any irrigation, the rainy season is then prevalent. It 
i „ might yeka third satini if trigsíad. but I cannot say anything on 
this head, never having made the experiment, nor have I seen it 
g attempted by others 
I believe it will grow anywhere, as we re transplanted it 
“ from here to all our other out-stations in the San ‘arganas, and it 
“ thrives in them all. The Santhal Christians are spre taken some of 
«it to our Christian Colony in Guma Duar, Assam, where it also 
SW 
“@.) I have never attempted to propogate it by seed, but wye. by 
‘< roots. When a clump or tuft is dug out, it may be ‘divided in 
“ many pau: divisions of roots as one pleases, and these are put om 
