AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 



OF THE 



STRAITS 



FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 



NOVEMBER, 1907. 



LALANG AS A PAPER MATERIAL, 



By H. N. Ridley. 



This too abundant grass has on more than one occasion been sug- 

 gested as of value as a paper-inaWng material and many years ago a 

 patent was taken out for its use in this business. Experiments, on 

 ttle grass and other possible paper-making stuffs were made in the 

 Botanic Gardens, Singapore, and an account of the results was 

 Polished in the first series of the Bulletin. 



At that time, however, the abundance of wood pulp and its 

 general use in paper-making militated against the use of Lalang, 

 ™ no progress was made in utilizing this grass. In 1891 a 



"cession for paper-making from lalang and banana stems was 

 warned from the Sultan of^Johore, and analyses of the fibre made 

 )' Messrs. Cross and Bevan, and Mr. C. Beadle, who has kindly 



whiTi me the use of a c °py of the re P orts on this subj ' ect from 



sami make the extr acts quoted below, and who also showed me 



m P'es of paper made from the grass. 

 J" this Prospectus for a company to work the grass in Johore it 

 John Pr ° poSed to P ut a factory about four or five miles west of 

 of T town > and others on the East Coast and in the neighbourhood 

 Muar. «< The CQst Qf cutting and ddivering the La l an g at the 

 mJ7 . Was estimated at less than ten shillings a ton, but the 



-- preferred to estimate it at 15 shillings a ton. Pape 

 gras^K ers of hi g h standing who have experimented on Lalang 

 whirl ■ cla ssified it as being equal to the best qualities of Esparto, 

 CrnV^ nearl y 50 per cent of fibre. First-class Esparto 



at P?«tnf7V present ^ l8 90 rulin s rates ^ 6to £6 los - od - p ?V on 



starts J M f , dellver y in Great Britain. Thus Lalang grass in Johore 

 age of u ° Utset as raw material with the very material advant- 



^omSj 1 ? P er ton over Es P arto in Britain and with eqUal 

 m,c al facilities for manufacture. " 



