18 ON THE PAPER MANUFACTURE. 



From the foregoing it will be seen that out of 100 sorts of paper 

 shown by the same number of exhibitors, 85 per cent, was made from 

 rags, 7 per cent from straw, and only 4 per cent from raw fibres ; such 

 a statement as this is conclusive evidence as to the almost universal use 

 of rags all the world over. 



The paper manufacture of Great Britain and Ireland requires of raw 

 material about ] 50,000 tons every year ; and of this large quantity, the 

 greater proportion is rags ; about 8 per cent, of the gross weight having 

 to be imported, we stand in the peculiar position of requiring a larger 

 supply of paper than we can furnish raw material for. The continent of 

 Europe has at present a surplus of this raw material, whilst America is 

 very much in the same position as ourselves. The following extracted 

 statement, although we do not vouch for its" accuracy in detail, will give 

 a sufficiently fair view of the relation existing between rags and paper 

 both in this country and on the Continent : " The Continent consumes 

 only 4 lbs. of- paper per head of its population, requiring 6 lbs. of paper 

 material for its production ; England consumes 8 lbs. of paper per head, 

 requiring 12 lbs. of paper material ; and America consumes 10 lbs. of 

 paper per head, requiring 15 lbs. of paper material for its production : 

 these simple figures 4, 8, and 10, represent with sufficient accuracy the 

 relative position of England both towards the Continent and towards 

 America as regards paper production and rag supply. It requiras l£ 

 lbs. of paper material, to make 1 lb. of paper. The paper material 

 therefore, consumed on the Continent is 6 lbs. per head of its population. 

 In England it is 12 lbs. per head, and in America it is 15 lbs. per head ; 

 now the Continent, using 6 lbs. per head, does not consume all the paper 

 material it produces, it has a surplus for export. England, consiuning 

 12 lbs. per head, consumes a great deal more than it produces. The 

 average, therefore, of paper material (or rags) that is made per head of 

 these populations is somewhere between 6 lbs. and 12 lbs. It would be 

 a long affair to show how the figures are reckoned out, and it is rather 

 an uncertain calculation, with all the care that can be taken, but it is 

 not far from true to compute that the Continent makes 8 lbs. per head 

 of raw material (or rags,) and England 10 lbs. This would show that 

 the former, requiring for its own use but 6 lbs., has 2 lbs. per head to 

 spare for export ; and that England, requiring for its use 12 lbs., needs 

 2 lbs. per head to be imported to keep its mills going. The Continent, 

 would therefore (from the population of 80,000,000) have about 36,000 

 tons of rags to spare for the wants of England and America, the only 

 two countries that have to import rags because their home supply is 

 deficient, and England would require in ordinary years about 13,000* or 

 14,000 tons to make up her quantity. In 1862, owing to the dearth of 

 cotton waste, she imported more than this quantity by 6,000 or 7,000 

 tons. The account corrected by deducting the English export of rags 

 gives between 19,000 and 20,000 tons as the actual foreign supply of rags 

 for that year." 



The importance of a good supply of rag's to the paper-making interest 



