336 USEFUL FIBER PLANTS OF THE WORLD. 



the large proportion of platen it contains, is worthy of mention. Placed with com- 

 mon paper in water, and left to soak until the latter will fall to pieces by its own 

 weight, the maize paper on trial seems nearly or quite as tenacious as ever. The 

 process of manufacture is claimed to he simple; the humblest laborer can readily 

 understand it with little instruction and practice it with success. The cost of the 

 husks (and it seems that leaves are to some extent included) is from 32 to 56 cents 

 per 125 English pounds (per centner), or $9 per ton at the higher price, which repre- 

 sents more the labor of gathering than the value of the material. This is, of course, 

 in the locality of their production. The cost of extracting the fiber from 100,000 

 centners (6,250 tons) is estimated : For coal and other material, $15,705 ; labor, $6,400 ; 

 interest and loss, $4,296; raw material, including local freight, $80,000; total, 

 $106,401. To this add for laborers and repairs to swell the total to $109,496. The 

 product is 10 per cent of spinning fiber, 19 per cent of paper staff, and 11 per cent 

 of feed stuff, or 40 per cent in all, leaving a loss of 60 per cent. The spinning stuff is 

 worth $64,000; paper material, $72,200; feed stuff, $15,400; total, $151,600. Deduct- 

 ing the expenses of manufacturing, a profit of $42,104 is shown. (J. R. Dodge.) 



The use of maize husks in the United States is largely as upholstery material in 

 the manufacture of mattresses, and for similar uses. Horse collars are made of the 

 husks or "shucks" in the South; door mats are also made in some of the Northern 

 States, these being very serviceable. The husks split into strips are also employed 

 in Florida in the manufacture of " chip-hats" which, when properly trimmed, are 

 both stylish and pretty. These are sold in the Florida bazaars. 



Some of the Indian tribes of the West, according to Dr. Fewkes, use the maize 

 husks for plaiting into food trays. The Moqui tribes are expert weavers of these 

 trays or utensils. 



The Kew Mus. maize collections contain a South African door mat made from husks, 

 and a hat from Jamaica from the same material. 



The prepared pith of the stalk of corn is also made into many forms of pottery, 

 which sell for high prices in the Florida bazaars. Some of these, tinted in delicate 

 colors— greens and grays — are exquisite decorative novelties for the drawing room. 



Cellulose. — An interesting use of the cellulose of maize stalks, or corn pith, is 

 recorded in a recent paper by H. W. Cramp, read before the American Society of 

 Naval Architects and Mining Engineers, December 11, 1896. The corn-pith cellulose 

 is employed as a packing material in the cofferdams in connection with the armor 

 plating of United States war vessels. The corn pith is suitably cleaned and pressed 

 into blocks when it is ready to use. " A cellulose belt of 3 feet may be said to be as 

 efficient as 6 inches of best steel." Experiments have shown that there is no danger 

 of the substance being washed out through shot holes by the action of the sea. and it 

 is considered better in many ways than other substances, such as cocoa fiber, which 

 have also been used. Coir fiber, employed as packing, has been ignited, while corn 

 pith has proved incombustible. A special advantage results from its great absorb- 

 tion of water, whereby a shot hole is soon filled up through the swelling of the 

 corn pith packing. 



While this work is going through the press, the following statement regarding 

 the preparation and uses of cellulose has been received from Mr. Henry C. Watts, of 

 the Marsden Company, Philadelphia, accompanied by a series of specimens. These 

 form a part of the exhibit of this Department in the Government Building at the 

 Tennessee Centennial Exposition of 1897. 



The stalk, when taken from the field in October, or later, is delivered to the cen- 

 tral factories, where it is submitted to a continuous process, yielding two distinct 

 products, one of value to the purchaser of live stock, the other indispensable to the 

 applied arts. The first product, "live stock food," is the result of the complete 

 separation of the outside shell or envelope from the inner pithy portion of the plant. 

 This separation is made by a machine that performs its work perfectly, cheaply, and 

 with a yield of about 10 tons per day. The product from this process consists of 

 particles varying in size from one-half to 3 inches in length. This is automatically 



