68 ON THE APPLICATION OF ALFA OR ESPARTO 



a merchant, although he made the undertaking with his own money, 

 and managed all himself. 



M. Cruzel, who remained in Algiers after the completion of my re- 

 searches, in which he participated, supported and assisted with the 

 greatest activity by the civil and military administrations, for furthering 

 our common work, has made and continues to make under his own inspec- 

 tion, and without intermediate agents, the first shipments intended to 

 encourage the French paper-makers to adopt the use of alfa. The 

 various estimates of management have been verified by each department. 

 And not to tempt the trade with the show of illusory profits, the 

 price of 140 frs. must be taken as the extreme limit in a regular and 

 economical undertaking : moreover the freight of 45 frs. per 1000 

 kilog. must be retained. In conclusion, it is established that Algeria 

 can supply to the French paper-trade a raw material which the inter- 

 national customs modifications, necessitated by progress, has made 

 necessary. It is a fact that the use of alfa enables the paper-trade 

 to keep pace with the progressive decline in the price of any object of 

 urgent necessity, without compromising the economy of its constitution. 



Moreover the organised collection of alfa in Algeria offers employ- 

 ment to a large number of natives. 



The alfa-trade can, on the one hand, be made such that the welfare 

 of the districts and of the inhabitants of the alfa provinces can be pro- 

 moted, and on the other hand, the wants of a trade which fears for its 

 supplies met, while lastly, commercial operations in the Algerian ports, 

 will ere long be largly benefitted. 



[We append to the foregoing article some extracts from a paper on 

 " Esparto Grass," which we contributed to the " Paper Trade Eeview," 

 for July, which furnish some additional practical information.] — Editor. 

 Mr. T. Routledge has been manufacturing paper from esparto exclu- 

 sively, at his mills near Oxford, for upwards of five years. On the 28th 

 November, 1856, a number of the weekly Journal of the " Society of 

 Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce " of London, which contained a lec- 

 ture by Dr. Forbes Royle " on Indian Fibres fit for Paper-making, &c." 

 was printed on esparto paper made by Mr. Routledge at Eynsham. That 

 gentleman has now other mills at Ford, near Sunderland, where he is 

 making newspapers and also half stuff, both from esparto, for sale to the 

 trade. 



In the Jury Report on Paper, &c, shown at the last Exhibition, we 

 find the following remarks on esparto paper : — 



" Mr. Routledge represents that the cost of production, either in the 

 condition of half stuff or paper, is below that of rags to produce a simi- 

 lar quality of paper, and the power required for reduction much less. 

 Jixdgiug from the specimens of paper exhibited by Mr. Routledge, manu- 

 factured by him at his mills at Eynsham in Oxford, exclusively from 

 esparto as well as from the other specimens of paper manufactured at 

 various other mills employing his process, in which esparto is used aB a 



