ZACATON AS A PAPER-MAKING MATERIAL. 27 



CONCLUSION. 



Zacaton grass may prove to be a valuable paper stock, although at 

 present it is a waste product and flourishes in a region remote from 

 the paper-manufacturing sections. 



The grass can be chemically reduced to paper stock by the soda 

 process under less drastic and less expensive conditions than those 

 employed for the reduction of poplar wood. 



The well-known process, methods, and machinery employed for the 

 manufacture of pulp from poplar wood are entirely suitable for the 

 treatment of this material. In place of the wood-sawing, chipping, 

 and screening machinery, a grass cutter, and possibly a duster, is 

 required. 



A production of 43 per cent of air-dry fiber from the air-dry grass is 

 regarded as a very good yield, the fiber yield from poplar wood being 

 from 46 to 48 per cent, and from esparto 43 per cent. 



For bleaching the stock it has been found necessary to use more 

 bleaching powder than in the case of poplar stock. 



Paper manufactured from this stock has shown physical tests equal 

 to those of a first-grade machine-finish printing paper. 



The paper has a very satisfactory appearance and feeling. It is 

 realized that in these two semicommercial tests the maximum possi- 

 bilities of this material in all probability have not been attained, and 

 better results may reasonably be expected. Moreover, an expe- 

 rienced mill organization after a few months of operation would learn 

 the qualities of the stock and be in a position greatly to improve the 

 product. 



It would not be advisable, nor even possible, from the work here 

 described, to make any estimate of the cost of manufacture or the 

 value of the product. Such data can be secured only by extensive 

 experimentation on a semicommercial scale or by actual mill opera- 

 tions. 



