ON MAIZE TAPER. 359 



The humblest labourer can adopt it when once instructed, and is enabled 

 to produce the above-named article in the field itself without the slightest 

 expanse. Where wood is scarce, the lower part of the stalk will supply 

 him with fuel ; owners of large farms or manufacturers can produce 

 hundreds of cwts. per day in steam boilers. The material may be 

 bought for cash from the smallest farmer or the largest planter, and 

 brought into the markets of the world. 



Austria will endeavour first to acquire enough to supply its own con • 

 sumption, and then realise a large foreign export. The other countries 

 where maize is grown will follow in the train of this useful application, 

 and the whole world will derive millions of profit by this new branch of 

 industry. 



I may close with the following summary : 160 pounds of rags, valued 

 here at about 16 florins, are required for the production of lOOlbs. of 

 foolscap, which paper sells for about 33 florins. Four florins have been 

 paid up to this time at Schlogelmuhle, for one hundred weight of the 

 maize paper material. From 3 to 3 \ cwts. of lischen (head leaves), yield 

 lOOlbs. of paper. 



According to official accounts there are in the Austrian dominions 

 more than 2,800,000 yokes (\\ English acres = 1 yoke) of ground planted 

 with maize. The produce of lischen or head leaves (grain sheath) 

 may therefore be estimated at 2Jr cwt. of lischen at the lowest compu- 

 tation. We may thus take it for granted that 1,200,000 cwt. of rags 

 can be substituted by maize leaves. 



One cwt. of head leaves yields, on an average, one-third substance for 

 spinning, one-third for paper, and one-third for food, there is, therefore, 

 scarcely an atom of waste. 



If the whole of the fibrous substances were worked up into paper 

 there would be produced about 1,500,000 cwts, of paper from the lischen 

 collected in the Austrian monarchy. There is no doubt whatever that 

 paper made from pure maize substance far surpasse.3 the best rag paper 

 in strength, toughness, durability, and power of bearing. Experiments 

 made in my own room and before my own eyes, showed that one 

 sheet of bleached maize paper chosen from the portfolio, sustained a 

 weight of 460 Vienna pounds. 



If the substance is ground short, on which the transparency depends, 

 maize paper can probably be used as an excellent substitute for glass, 

 owing partly to its natural transparency. It may further be remarked 

 that factories for the extraction of fibre and substance for bread, require 

 no expensive machinery, and but little additional material. 



Thus far, our German contributor. The cpiality of the mixed maize 

 and rag paper we have seen resembles that of fine Indian wove, which is 

 made for taking impressions of steel engravings. There is no country in 

 the world where the raw material for maize paper can be obtained in such 

 abundance and perfection as in the United States, where 830 million 



