THE SUPPLEMENT TO THE 



Tropical Agriculturist and Magazine of the C. A. 8. 



Compiled and Edited by A. M. & J. FERGUSON. 

 No. 6.] DECEMBER, 1911. [Vol. IX. 



BAMBOO FOR PAPER MAKING. 



POSSIBILITIES OF ANOTHER EASTERN 

 INDUSTRY. 

 There is not 30 years' supply of wood for 

 papermakers' pulp left in North Europe and 

 America. The price of pulp is jumping. The 

 demand for paper is increasing by leaps and 

 bounds, and a famine in wood pulp from the 

 world's northern forests is inevitable. Whole 

 countries have been placed on the first 

 stage of the dread road that ends in such 

 deserts as those of Central Asia, by the short- 

 sighted greed of the lumber interest. One fear, 

 however, that of a universal famine in paper, is 

 now being dispelled. The news is the more wel- 

 come because it is coupled with the hope that the 

 destruction of our woodlands may also be stayed, 

 and that wisdom may in time lead to reafforest- 

 ing. Bamboo forms an excellent material for 

 the manufacture of paper and this is already 

 being turned to commercial account. Mr. R VV 

 fsindall, a consulting chemist and wood pnlp 

 and paper expert, who, in 1904, made an enquiry 

 into the possibility of making paper-pulp and 

 paper in Burma, proved that from the bamboo 

 an excellent pulp could be made and that it 

 could be expo r ted to England at a price that 

 should prove exceedingly remunerative. A 

 difficulty has been in the bleaching, but this 

 has now been obviated. Treated by the ordinary 

 bi-sulphate process and by a new method simple 

 and inexpensively bleached, it yields, it is 

 stated, an excellent pulp, felting readily, and 

 producing a paper pliant, rosistant, and opaque, 

 of enduring colour, thicker than other paper of 

 the same weight, and forming one of the very 

 finest materials for writing and printing, and of 

 exceptional value for engraving. In order that 

 all these excellent qualities may be preserved 

 in the paper, however, it is essential that no 

 part of the preparatory treatment of the pulp is 

 carried out away from the district where the 

 71 



bamboo grows. Mr. fl Vincent, an American 

 expert, estimates that, under intelligent ad- 

 ministration of cheap tropical labour, the cost 

 of a ton of bleached pulp should not exceed £6, 

 and that it should be worth, at an extremely 

 modest estimate, £10. Mr. Sindall calculated 

 the cost of a ton of unbleached Burma pulp 

 landed in London or Liverpool at £7 10s. 

 Having regard to the quality of the pulp, 

 he thought that a much higher price would 

 be secured for it in the London market, as ordi- 

 nary wood pulp realised from £8 to £9 per ton. 

 Roughly, therefore, it costs as much to put a 

 ton of unbleached Burma pulp on the English 

 market as it would cost by Mr. Vincent's scheme 

 to produce a ton of bleached pulp at the factory 

 in the Panama zone. 



It would seem, then, that the planting of bam- 

 boos for paper-making is an undertaking which 

 might well be started. It is thought that if 

 paper were supplied from the tropics, instead of 

 from the present sources, it will involve a con. 

 siderable readjustment of the pulp industry, and 

 the solving of many questions, among which that 

 of labour will not be the least. This is consi- 

 dered in some quarters to be an objection to the 

 growing of bamboos. It is a mistake, however, 

 so to regard it. If bamboo comes to the rescue, 

 it will go far to save the forests, which, if bam- 

 boo or other material be not used, will become 

 so thinned that there will be no industry to re- 

 adjust. It will also bring down the price of 

 paper. 



It remains to be seen if the industry is one 

 which might be undertaken in Ceylon. It cer- 

 tainly is. Many, all, one may say, of the low- 

 country districts of Ceylon are eminently suit- 

 able for the growth of the bamboo, which 

 can be cultivated like any garden crop. After 

 being cut down, the grasses, or rods, grow up 

 again in about two years. Ceylon has the 

 climate for the growth of the pro.iuct, the 

 labour for its transformation into pulp, and the 



