INDUSTRIAL AND ECONOMIC GRASSES. 65 



large reservoir or vat, having on each side of it a drying- 

 stove, consisting of two sloping sides touching at the top. 

 The workman dips his mould into the vat, and then 

 raises it out again, the water passing off through the 

 perforations in the bottom, and the pulpy paper-stuff re- 

 maining on the surface. The frame of the mould is 

 then removed, and the bottom is pressed against the sides 

 of one of the stoves so as to make the sheet of paper ad- 

 here to its surface, and allow the sieve to be withdrawn. 

 The moisture, of course, speedily evaporates by the 

 warmth of the stove, but before the paper is quite dry it 

 is brushed over on its outer surface with a size made of 

 rice, which soon dries, and the paper is then stripped off 

 in a finished state, having one surface exquisitely smooth, 

 it being seldom the practice of the Chinese to write or 

 print on both sides of the paper." 



In our own country the fear of a failure in the supply 

 of rags for the manufacture of paper has prompted every 

 effort of human ingenuity to seek for other material for 

 an article of such extensive utility. Fibre from the 

 roots of trees, from their bark, from their wood, the bines 

 of hops, the tendrils of vines, the cottony down from the 

 catkins of the poplar, the stems of nettles and hollyhocks, 

 cabbage-stalks, thistles, sugar-cane, hay, and straw have 

 all been tried in their turn. Straw is now extensively 

 used, alone, or in connection with rags ; it makes good 

 common paper. Like the bamboos of China, the straw 

 has to be chopped into minute pieces and steeped in 

 water mixed with alkali to destroy the silica; if this 

 process be negligently performed and part of the silica 

 allowed to remain, the paper becomes so brittle as to be 

 hardly of any use. Then the straw has to be boiled in 

 a caldron, for a greater or less number of hours, accord- 



