Fibrest 



12 



[January, 1910. 



the severity of the treatment has de- 

 graded the weaker fibres into insoluble 

 brown compounds which stain the pulp. 

 In the lattbr case, the yield is good, but 

 the product is almost equally difficult 

 to bleach satisfactorily because of the ad- 

 mixture of partially digested outer fibre. 

 The pulp is consequently full of specks 

 and blooches, unfit for anything but 

 the commonest of bleached paper, and 

 that only in conjurction with some 

 better and more uniform material. 



This feature of bagasse explains the 

 wild differences in yield reported by 

 various experimenters. — those using the 

 severe treatment getting as low as 25 %. 

 Our own preference is for the method 

 which gives the largest yield irrespec- 

 tive of bleaching qualities, since by 

 neither process is the bleaching satis- 

 factory either in efficiency or cost. 

 This opinion is reinforced by the fact 

 that the larger yield is obtainable at a 

 lesser cost for soda, and, further, by the 

 technical difficulties and cost of bleach- 

 ing in the tropics with imported chemi- 

 cals. It must, however, be conceded 

 that in no department of chemical 

 technology is progress more hopeful 

 than in this, and it is quite possible that 

 we may see a considerable improvement 

 in bleaching processes during the next 

 few years. 



We do not think, then, that bagasse 

 can be seriously considered as a candi- 

 date for class 2, but there are localities 

 in which it may find a very profitable 

 entrance into class 3. 



Cane sugar factories are usually situ- 

 ated in localties where all manufactured 

 goods have to be imported at a consider- 

 able cost for freight";, and, probably, 

 import duties also. Where such circum- 

 stances exist together with a sufficient 

 local demand for uubleached wrapping 

 and packing papers, or even for the thin 

 unbleached paper so largely used by 

 the natives of India and elsewhere for 

 correspondence and accounts, it is quite 

 possible to show that a paper-mill may 

 prove a very profitable auxiliary to 

 a sugar factory, and that the bagasse 

 may be worth considerably more for 

 this purpose than its present fuel value, 



A paper-mill suitable for this class of 

 paper, to produce 40 to 50 tons per 

 week, would cost roughly £20,000. A 

 conservative estimate of the cost of 

 production, under average conditions, 

 exclusive of the fuel value of the bagasse 

 but including repairs, depreciation and 

 5 % interest on cost of plant, amounts to 

 £10 10s. per ton. Under the conditions 

 above referred to the product should 

 be worth £15, leaving £4 10s, as the paper- 

 making value of the 2£ tons of bagasse 



required to produce it, or say £2- per 

 ton. The cost of steam coal to replace 

 it in the sugar factory furnaces would 

 be at the outside £1 10s. per ton, In 

 calorific effect a ton of good steam coal 

 is usually assumed to be equal to 4 tons 

 of bagasse, so that the full value of the 

 latter cannot exceed seven shillings and 

 six pence per ton. Deducting this, there 

 remains an estimated profit of £1 12s. 6d. 

 per ton of bagasse converted into paper. 



CHANGES IN EGYPTIAN COTTON 

 WHEN GROWN IN THE UNITED 

 STATES. 



(Prom the Agricultural News, Vol. VIII., 

 No. 194, October 2, 1909.) 



In Bulletin No. 156 of the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, the following con- 

 clusions are arrived atin connection with 

 the diversity which arises in Egyptian 

 cotton when it is introduced into that 

 country : — 



The diversity found in the Egyptian 

 cotton in Arizona appears to be of four 

 different kinds, evidently arising from 

 different physiological factors. Precau- 

 tions which may tend to avoid one kind 

 of diversity will not be fully effective 

 unless other factors are taken into 

 account at the same time. Methods of 

 acclimatization, breeding, and culture 

 have all to be adapted to the special 

 needs of the case, if the full possibilities 

 of the new crops are to be definitely 

 ascertained. 



The first and most striking of diversity 

 is due to hybridization. The cross- 

 fertilizing insects are much more abund- 

 ant in the south-western States than in 

 any other cotton-growing region thus far 

 investigated. This will render it im- 

 possible to maintain a culture of pure 

 Egyptian or other high grade cotton, 

 unless all other kinds of cotton are 

 excluded from the localities in which 

 superior stocks are planted. Though the 

 lint of the hybrid plants is often superior 

 to that of the pure Egyptian plants, it 

 is sufficiently different to interfere 

 with the commercial uniformity of the 

 product. 



The second kind of diversity that 

 affects the Egyptian cotton is evidently 

 due to incomplete acclimatization. As 

 with other types of cotton, transfer to 

 new conditions induces great variation, 

 not only in the habits of growth and 

 other vegetative characters of the plants, 

 but also in fertility, and in the abundance 

 and length of the lint. This form of 

 diversity is to be eliminated by the 



