SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 273 
sugar has iong held a merely nominal place in our list of excise- 
able articles, but in the past year two manufactories of glucose, or starch 
sugar, have been established in Loudon. The quantity brought to charge 
in the financial year 1864-65 was 1,064 cwt. , The materials from which 
this sugar are made is chiefly sago and potato starch. It has but little 
resemblance to cane sugar, and less sweetness than the lowest class of 
colonial sugar. The rate of duty with which it has been charged is 
9s. 4d. per cwt., being that on yellow Muscavado or brown clayed sugar. 
It is stated that it is intended to be used in brewing. The imposition 
of the 9s. 4d. rate on sugar possessing so little saccharine matter gives a 
new instance of the injustice of the scale of duties. 
Itmtfflti Ihlm. 
New Paper Material.-— M. Caminade has taken out a patent in 
France for manufacturing paper from ^he roots of the lucerne.- plant., 
When dried and beaten, these show thousands of very white fibres, 
which form an excellent pulp for paper-makers, and may be substituted 
with great advantage for rags. The three species of lucerne, Medicago. 
media, M. falcata, and M. maculata, produce equally good roots for 
paper-makers' use. M. Kabourdin, an experienced agriculturist, states: 
that the month of December is the best time for taking up the roots of 
the plant. The earth is then moist, and a great part of the root can be 
easily drawn. In the months of January or February following, a har- 
row may be drawn over the land, and the remainder will then come to 
the surface. The roots are then to be well washed and delivered to the 
paper-makers. The pulp produced is said to be equal to that of ordinary 
rag?. The roots are to be first pressed between two rollers to open 
them, and when sufficiently crushed and dried, they are left to soak in 
running water for fifteen days or three weeks. The pulp, besides the 
fibre for paper, produces salt of soda and a colouring matter, called by 
the inventor " luzerine." It is calculated that France produces 
annually seventy-five million kilogrammes of paper, of which one- 
seventh is exported, leaving not more than two kilogrammes for each 
inhabitant. It is consequently inferred that the production of paper 
would increase considerably, were it not for the scarcity of the raw 
material. It requires one pound and a quarter of rags to make one 
pound of paper. Bags are eagerly sought for by every nation where 
paper is manufactured, hence this warm competition makes rags scarce 
and dear. M. Lafon, of Candeval, considers that the Arundo festucoides 
