Norfolk day book. [volume] (Norfolk and Portsmouth Va.) 1868-1880, 1869-09-17
FRIDAY MORNING, Sept. II, 1869
CANE FIBRE.

brings them out to public view. Who
ever thought the vast areas Of canes or
reeds 10 the Southern swamps would
turn out so valuable as recent events
have determined ? It is well for the
people Of Virginia that the new
movement" has settled their political
status and thereby enables them to
turn their attention to their material
prosperity. Politics are now in way
to take care of themselves. By the
new movement we have disarmed
the radical agitators of the means of
expressing us by crying to the Northern
people that we oppressed them i'll our
midst for their political views and
opinions. This excuse can no longer
exist in Virginia, for all political par
ties now stand on level. Then let
us enjoy the beautiful political quiet
that our wise and sagacious action has
secured us, and hencefoith look to build
ing up our waste and desolate places,
rendered waste and desolato by the
war. Let us sell some Of our surplus
lands, take the money and 60 into man
ufacturing and trading enterprises.
By the sale OF lands we introduce more
customers for the enterprises we may
go into, and we make more money, Sc
cure more comforts, more security, more
civilization and more refinement Let
us go to work.
In an article on the cane fibre, the
Baltimore Gazette says: 1t the result
of the late experiments in cane fibre is
what it promises to be, there is evil
IDENTIFY a new source OF wealth in the
Southern States which will aid very
materially in their development. 1t
has recently been discovered that steam
blown cane can be reduced to paper
pulp by merely beating up the blown
fibre in water in an ordinary beating
or rag engine, without boiling or chem
icals. A patent for this invention has
been obtained. AS there are thousands
of acres, and indeed square miles of
swamps in the South, covered with the
cane, known, botanically, as arundinaria
macrosperma, and as the cane, on being
cut, grows again rapidly and natures
in three years, and as the pulp can be
used FOR the manufacture Of paper and
cloth, canvas roofing, sheathiog, belt
ing, pip s. tanks, trunks, tubs, coach
panels, sh"p fronts, portable houses,
and an Initiate v4rie'y OF purposes, as
al know Who have seen the uses to
which PAPER nache is put, there is no
predicting the immense value OF this
invention, if it prove practically as
successful as it appears theoretically to
be plausible.
1t is no new thing to make paper
from cane. Paper can he made from
all vegetable ibrous substances, which
can be broken down and reduced tc
pulp by caustic alkal. AZ early as
1880 an American patent was obtained
tor making paper from cane by treat
ment with sui phurlc acid, followed by
caustic aikali. In 1854 another Ameri
can patent was obtained for making
paper from the cane by another chemi-
cal process differing but little from thai
last named. In 1858, at Wheeling
Va, and since that time at Baltimore
good paper has been made from the
cane by the use of caustlc alkali But
the chemical processes referred to being
expensive, it has been found that wher
rags were cheap, tine balance OF advan
tages was against the use of the cane.
1t is the reduction of fibre TO pull
without the aid of chemical process
which promises to render the cane iield
so valuable. 1t costs five cents pc
pound to reduce WOOD to paper pulp b.
the ordinary chemical processes, an(
four cents per pound by Voelter's me-
chanical process, now used exclusively
in France. BY The process OF dislnte'
grafton by steam, it costs less than one
sixth of one cent per pound to reduce
the cane to fibre ready for the paper
makers beating engine, 1t is in fac
deemed impossible to get any material
capable of being used for similar pur.
poses, anything like as cheap as the
steam blown cane fibre.
Works for the reduction of the CAM
to frbe have already been erected a
Wilmington, aud others are in course O
construction at Norfolk. In the Dis
NAL Swamp and on the shores'of ALDER
marie Sound there are countless acres
from which a supply can be drawn
Near Wilmington, on the Cape Fear and
Black rivers, there are immense tracts
of cane. On the rivers Of South Carolina,
in the low lands near Mobile, along the
shores of Mississippi there are large cane