252 RICHMOND. 



connected therewith, supplemented by careful field surveys, and due 

 regard for the local conditions bearing upon the subject. 



PHILIPPINE PAPER-MAKING MATERIALS. 



A revival of interest has recently been shown in cogon grass, as a 

 source for paper stock, by a request from a leading paper manufacturer 

 in the United States for 2 or 3 tons of the baled material for a thorough 

 trial on a commercial scale. Cogon grass, it will be remembered, was 

 studied and reported upon in This Journal for June, 1906. 13 



At the time when several large estates in the Malay Peninsula were 

 cleared for the planting of rubber trees, attention was directed to the 

 possible use of a grass called JaJang, indigenous to that locality. Doctor 

 Foxworthy, botanist of the Bureau of Science, who recently has returned 

 from an extended trip throughout the Malayan regions, makes the fol- 

 lowing statement regarding it : "One of the few things of which we are 

 absolutely certain is that lalang and Philippine cogon are botanic-ally 

 identical." 



Clayton Beadle, a British pulp and paper expert, published in the 

 World's Paper Trade Keview for July,- 1907, the following report on 

 the use of lalang grass for paper, based upon an investigation made by 

 him in 1891 : 



Experiments on 50 pounds of material showed that the grass could be cooked 

 to a pulp in five hours at 50 pounds pressure with 15 per cent of its weight 

 of caustic soda. It bleached white, consuming 10 per cent of- its weight of 

 bleaching powder. The fiber is longer and thinner than esparto grass fiber, 

 bulks equally well and gives a tougher sheet. Unbleached, sized, and mixed 

 papers of lalang grass pulp have not deteriorated since they were made, about 

 fifteen years ago. The paper takes a good surface under the calendar, and will 

 carry the usual amount of loading. The fiber yields 46 per cent cellulose as 

 compared with 48 per cent from esparto, and the cost -of treatment is about 

 the same." 



This report on the suitability of lalang grass for paper making was 

 further confirmed by Eemington, in 1908, whose investigation is given in 

 full : 



Lalang (Imperata arundinacen Cyrill.) as a Paper-makinc Material. 



One of our correspondents sent a sample of lalang grass recently to England, 

 and has received the following report, also samples of paper made from lalang 

 grass entirely and one-half lalang and one-half cotton: 



CERTIFICATE OF ANALYSIS. 



SAMPLE OF LALANG GRASS MARKED "EXCHANGE, SINGAPORE, STRAITS SETTLEMENT," 



ON 23D JULY, 1908. 



This is to certify that the above sample has been carefully examined with 

 the following results : 



This grass was forwarded to "The Aynsome Technical Laboratories" for in- 



13 This Journal (1906), 1, 457. 



