AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 
OF THE 
STRAITS 
AND 
FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 
No. ii.] NOVEMBER, 1907. [Vol. VI. 
LALANG AS A PAPER MATERIAL, 
By H. N. RrDLEY. 
This too abundant grass has on more than one occasion been sug- 
gested as of value as a paper-making material and many years ago a 
patent was taken out for its use in this business. Experiments, on 
the grass and other possible paper-making stuff"’, were made in the 
Botanic Gardens, Singapore, and an account of the results was 
published 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, 
and no progress was made in utilizing this grass. In 1891 a 
concession for paper-making from lalang and banana stems was 
obtained from the Sultan of Johore, and analyses of the fibre made 
by Messrs. CROSS and Bevan, and Mr. C. Beadle, who has kindly 
allowed me the use of a copy of the reports on this subject from., 
which I make the extracts quoted below, and who also showed me 
samples of paper made from the grass. 
In this prospectus for a company to work the grass in Johore it 
was proposed to put a factory about four or five miles west of 
Johore town, and others on the East Coast and in the neighbourhood 
of Muar. “ The cost of cutting and delivering the Lalang at the 
factory was estimated at less than ten shillings a ton, but the 
concessionaire preferred to estimate it at 15 shillings “a ton. Paper 
manufacturers of high standing who have experimented on Lalang 
grass have classified it as being equal to the best qualities of Esparto, 
which yield nearly 50 per cent of fibre.. First-class Esparto 
commands at present (1891) ruling rates £6 to £6 icw. o d. per ton 
at port of delivery in Great Britain. Thus Lalang grass in Johore 
starts at the outset as raw material with the very material advant- 
age of about £4 per ton over Esparto in Britain and with equal 
economical facilities for manufacture. ” 
