March.] THE NURSERY, 285 
more especially, as such has been attempted last year, and with good 
success, by the laudable exertions of Mr. William Young, pro- 
prietor of the Brandywine paper-mills, in the state of Delaware. 
It is extracted from Martyn's edition of Miller's Gardener's Dic- 
tionary, and quoted by him from Kamfer. I am not certain what 
kind of mulberry Mr. Young had used for that purpose, nor whe- 
ther it was the bark of the roots or branches he manufactured, but 
some of the paper I had seen printed on, and it promised well. It 
it is very probable that either species might be manufactured into 
paper, but I am induced to think that the paper-mulberry, from the 
vigorous growth of its young shoots, is more likely to answer the 
end than any other. 
" The young shoots being cut down in autumn after the leaves 
are fallen, and divided into rods of three feet in length, or shorter, 
are gathered into bundles to be boiled. If the shoots are dry, they 
must be softened in water twenty-four hours. The bundles are 
bound very close together, and placed erect in a large copper, pro- 
perly closed: the boiling is continued till the separation of the bark 
displays the naked wood. Then the stalks are loosed out of the 
bundles and allowed to cool; after which, by a longitudinal incision, 
the bark is stripped off, and dried, the wood being rejected. When 
this bark is to be purified, it is put three or four hours in water, 
when being sufficiently softened, the cuticle, which is of a dark co- 
lour, together with the greenish surface of the inner bark, is pared 
off. At the same time the stronger bark is separated from the 
more tender; the former making the whitest and best paper; the 
latter a dark, weak and inferior kind. If any bark appears that is 
old, it is set aside for a thicker paper, of worse quality. Into this 
last class they throw the knotty parts of the bark, and those which 
have any fault or blemish. 
" The bark is now boiled in a lye that is clear and strained; care 
being taken to stir the substance as soon as it begins to boil, with a 
strong reed, and to pour in of the lye gradually as much as is ne- 
cessary for stopping the evaporation, and restoring the liquor that is 
lost. 
" The boiling is to cease when the materials can be split by a 
slight touch of the finger, into fibres and down. 
" Next it is to be washed, which is a thing of some moment; for 
if washed too short a time, the paper will be strong indeed, but too 
rough, and of an inferior quality; if too long, it will be whiter, but 
of a fat consistence, and less fit for writing. Being sufficiently 
washed, the materials are put upon a thick, smooth, wooden table, 
and stoutly beat, by two or three men, with battons of hard wood 
into a pulp; which being put in water, separates like grains of meal. 
Thus prepared, it is put into a narrow vat; an infusion of 
rice, and a mucous water of the infusion of the root of Manihot be- 
ing added to it. These three are to be stirred, with a clean slender 
reed, till reduced into a homogeneous liquor of a due consistence. 
The prepared liquor is now put into a larger vat; from whence the 
sheets are poured out, one by one, and placed in heaps upon a table: 
covered with a double mat; a small thread of reed being placed 
